Thanks for choosing Yekaterinburg as a host city for the 2020 Candidates Tournament. We have everything to make it a great event and will try our best to deliver.

We are happy to continue our cooperation with the Chess Federation of Russia and are thankful to them and the Sverdlovsk Region Chess Federation for their bid. Today on behalf of the FIDE Presidential Board, I'm glad to sign an official agreement to host this key event in Yekaterinburg. This tournament will decide who will face the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship match that will take place in November 2020.

We are grateful to the Sverdlovsk Region Chess Federation for their interest and constant support of chess in Russia. It's a pleasure that we have trust from FIDE to organize such an important event. The decision to host this event in Russia guarantees that there will be a Russian player participating. We're still considering different options how we'll choose a Russian wild-card but it will probably be a match or match-tournament with Kirill Alekseenko, 3rd place finisher in Grand Swiss, taking part in it.

I'm regularly visiting Yekaterinburg and admire how the city has recently flourished. Yekaterinburg has all needed infrastructure to organize the best Candidates Tournament in the history of chess. As a member of the Organizing Committee, I'll be there myself taking part in the event's cultural programme.