Candidates Tournament
Candidates tournaments in chess serve the purpose to determine the challenger to the world chess champion.
Participants of the candidates tournaments are the "World Champion candidates" who have reached the final round and apply to be allowed to challenge the world champion. ( Chance, the term was also used for other qualifying tournaments in chess, see Deutsches Candidates Tournament. )
In the history of chess, there were up to the Second World War several tournaments, which in fact approached the importance of a candidate tournament. Among the precursors in particular are the unofficial New York Candidates Tournament in 1927 and the AVRO tournament which was held in the Netherlands in 1938, counted.
The regular candidates tournaments for which the participants had to qualify through a zone and inter-zone tournament itself, the World Chess Federation ( FIDE ) introduced in 1950. This approach was based on the decision to determine the challenger ( winners selected by FIDE ) World Champion in a three-year cycle. By 1962, the candidates tournament was a round robin tournament, which provided a certain number of participants who had each play multiple games against each other.
The American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer complained after his participation in 1962, a number of suspected manipulations of the Soviet participants who had allegedly agreed against each game results. After that, the FIDE had since 1965 the candidates tournament play in contest shape. This tradition of candidates competitions was interrupted in 1995. Against the background of the title split the company Brain Games held in 2002, again a Candidates Tournament to determine the challenger of the "classical world champion " Vladimir Kramnik, which took place in the Dortmund Chess Days and was won by Péter Lékó. The FIDE abolished later her controversial knockout world championships again and started (since 2006) to the classical form of the candidates tournaments return.
Candidates Tournaments 1950-1962
Candidates competitions 1965-1993
After the reform of 1962, the candidates wore competitions from knock-out system. Until the cycle in 1984 there were 8 candidates, then the number was increased to 16. Courts were the loser of the previous World Cup campaign and the losing finalist of the previous candidate competition; the cycle in 1987 and the semi-finalists. In cycle 1987 and 1990 nominee by the organizer participants was added. The other participants qualified in Interzone tournaments. A special case was the cycle in 1987: Here are the 16 participants initially carried out a round-robin tournament, then came the top four in the knock-out system against each other. The final winners ( Andrei Sokolov ) competed in a " super final " against Anatoly Karpov, who was with the recognized outside the 3 -year cycle 1986 World Cup inferior.
Candidate races during the division of the world title 1994-2002
The Professional newly established as a rival organization to FIDE Chess Association ( PCA), led by Garry Kasparov, the FIDE eluded the world title at the green table, picked up the tradition of the candidates fighting for and organized for the determination of Kasparov's next challenger in the World Chess Championship 1995 match tournament after the old model. At the Chess World Cup 2000, the PCA, there were no regular qualification; World Champion Kasparov chose his opponent Vladimir Kramnik from itself. At the World Chess Championship in 2004, the last World Cup of the PCA, the sponsor Brain Games determined the challenger again in the knockout system.
The FIDE World Chess Championship had a separate 1993 organized by Kasparov's disqualification, in which the losers of the candidates tournament Karpov and Timman competed against each other. Karpov won this duel and was declared the FIDE World Champion. At the FIDE World Cup 1996, the regulations were changed: Reigning champions Karpov had even participate in the Candidates Tournament. However, he was put directly into the semi-finals. What was the final candidates earlier, was now considered a world championship match. In the following FIDE World Chess Championship, there were no more candidates tournaments. It tournaments were conducted in knockout system.
Candidates tournaments of the combined world title (since 2006)
With the World Chess Championship 2006, the division of the world champion title was ended. Since then, the FIDE went gradually over to again align the recognized candidate fighting.
For the World Chess Championship 2007, which was a round-robin tournament, four of the eight participants were determined by candidates competitions. These four participants were identified in the knockout system from the 16 top finishers in the World Chess Cup 2005.
In the World Chess Championship 2010, the challenger was determined in a so-called challenger Match ( Challenger Match), which corresponded to a final candidate. Qualifies were Vesselin Topalov, which was compensated for it, that he could not as originally intended to participate in the World Cup 2007, and Gata Kamsky, the winner of the World Chess Cup 2007. Topalov prevailed.
With the World Chess Championship 2012 FIDE returned completely to the earlier tradition of the candidate contests Back in knockout mode. In the first two rounds were four games, played six games in the finals. Criticized the very high draw ratio of the candidates tournament: from 30 games with normal cooling-off period ended 27 draws, in part, after a few moves. Most competitions have therefore decided in the tie-break with a shorter time limit. Silvio Danailov, manager of the retired in the first round Vesselin Topalov, then demanded that in future also in the Candidates tournament should apply the Sofia rule. He was pointed out that the goal of the players was to qualify for the World Cup and any mistake could mean the end in a contest over a few games. Each player should have the right to choose the competition strategy of which he promised to the most success.
The Candidates Tournament 2013 took place in London and was discharged as a double round-robin tournament. It won Magnus Carlsen, the direct comparison with a balanced (two drawn games ) finished tied with Vladimir Kramnik by a higher number of victories achieved the first place.
The Candidates Tournament Khanty-Mansiysk 2014 will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk from 12 to 30 March 2014. The winner gets to challenge world champion Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2014.