History of the Candidates Tournament
The FIDE Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg will be the eleventh tournament of its type.
The first of such tournaments took place in Budapest, Hungary, in 1950. It was won by grandmaster David Bronstein. Before 1991, there were six Candidates Tournaments and they were all won by Soviet chess players.
David Bronstein
The first Candidates Tournament took place between 9th and 20th May 1950 in Budapest. It was attended by 10 participants, seven of which came from the USSR, including a player from Sverdlovsk, Isaac Boleslavsky. Boleslavsky took 12 points and split 1st place with David Bronstein. Alas, Boleslavsky lost the right to play the world champion to Bronstein, who won the tiebreak 7.5-6.5.
The second Candidates Tournament took place in Neuhausen and Zurich, from 28th August to 24th October 1953. Fifteen players competed in a double round-robin event. The winner was Vasily Smyslov from the Soviet Union.
This tournament is well-known due to a book written by David Bronstein (who split 2nd-4th places with Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky), titled Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953. The work has been re-published several times and remains one of the finest chess books ever written.
The third tournament took place in Amsterdam from 27th March to 1st May 1956, with 10 competitors, who played a double round-robin event. Smyslov won the Tournament for a second time, before defeating world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and taking his title.
This tournament is well-known due to a book written by David Bronstein (who split 2nd-4th places with Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky), titled Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953. The work has been re-published several times and remains one of the finest chess books ever written.
The third tournament took place in Amsterdam from 27th March to 1st May 1956, with 10 competitors, who played a double round-robin event. Smyslov won the Tournament for a second time, before defeating world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and taking his title.
Mikhail Tal
Candidates Tournament 1959
The next tournament went on from 6th September to 31st October 1959 in three Yugoslav cities- Bled for rounds 1-14, Zagreb for rounds 15-21, and Belgrade for rounds 22-28. Eight competitors were playing in a quadruple round-robin event. The tournament was won by Mikhail Tal, who would go on to defeat Botvinnik a year later and win the world champion's title.
The Candidates Tournament in 1962 took place from 2nd May to 26th June in Willemstad on the Curacao Island. The tournament included six winners from the Stockholm inter-zonal tournament, after which the additional match-tournament for the sixth place was won by Leonid Stein. But it was Pal Benko who was invited to the Candidates Tournament, since the rules surrounding inter-zonal tournaments didn't allow for more than three chess players from a single country to play in any Candidates Tournament.
After the third round, Mikhail Tal dropped out due to ill-health. After the tournament, Robert Fischer accused several Soviet players of collusion to ensure the victory of a Soviet candidate.
The tournament was won by Tigran Petrosian.
After the third round, Mikhail Tal dropped out due to ill-health. After the tournament, Robert Fischer accused several Soviet players of collusion to ensure the victory of a Soviet candidate.
The tournament was won by Tigran Petrosian.
Tigran Petrosian
The next Candidates Tournament took place only 23 years later. It was hosted in Montpellier from 12th October to 3rd November 1985. Four winners advanced to the next round of the Candidates Matches, and the winner was to play the loser of the revenge-match of 1986 in the Superfinal.
The first three places were split by Artur Jussupow, Rafael Vaganian and Andrei Sokolov. Fourth place was taken by Jan Timman, whose match with Mikhail Tal ended in a draw before Timman progressed due to additional indications of performance.
The seventh Candidates Tournament took place at the end of March 2013 in London. It brought success to Norway's Magnus Carlsen, who then went on to become the world champion. Carlsen celebrated victory in a difficult contest. He was leading after the first part of the event, but Vladimir Kramnik took 4,5 points out of 5 at the finish and surged into the first place.
However, Magnus beat Teimour Radjabov and after he won the final round and Kramnik lost, he won the right to play against the world champion thanks to his superior tiebreak (number of wins).
Candidates Tournament 2014. Closing ceremony
Anand Viswanathan
Candidates Tournament 2014
The Candidates Tournament of 2014 was hosted by Khanty-Mansiysk from 12th to 30th March and was won by India's Viswanathan Anand.
The majority of journalists predicted that the 44-year old former world champion wouldn't be able to compete for the crown, and he himself admitted that he considered dropping out of the tournament. However, on the advice of his friend and competitor Vladimir Kramnik, he decided to fight, didn't lose a single game and won the right to play a revenge-match against Carlsen.
The majority of journalists predicted that the 44-year old former world champion wouldn't be able to compete for the crown, and he himself admitted that he considered dropping out of the tournament. However, on the advice of his friend and competitor Vladimir Kramnik, he decided to fight, didn't lose a single game and won the right to play a revenge-match against Carlsen.
In 2016, the tournament took place in Moscow, and that March became the lucky month for Sergey Karjakin, who won the tournament and went on to play Magnus Carlsen in the world championship match.
The tournament turned out to be an intense contest between Karjakin and Caruana. Towards the decisive 14th round in which they played each other, Karjakin gained a small advantage due to superior tiebreak and he would have settled for a draw while playing White. Caruana fought for victory, but at the key moment, Karjakin successfully sacrificed his rook, which brought him victory and first place.
The tenth Candidates Tournament was played between 10th and 27th March 2018 in Berlin. The winner was American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana.
Ilya Merenzon (World Chess), Fabiano Luigi Caruana и Damal Sundar (FIDE)
Candidates Tournament 2018
Candidates Tournament 2018
"Comeback kid" Karjakin was the first to beat Caruana in this tournament.
Candidates Tournament 2018
Caruana was leading the entire tournament, but in the second half, Sergey Karjakin scored 5 points out of 6 and defeated Caruana in their encounter, thus catching up with him. However, Fabiano took charge, beat Aronian and Grischuk in the final two rounds and came first by a single point.
We would like to note that only four winners of the Candidates Tournaments went on to win their matches for the world championship- they were Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian and Magnus Carlsen.