The second part of the FIDE Candidates Tournament is held on April 18-28, 2021, in Yekaterinburg, Russia. One of the most important chess events of the year, it will bring together eight top world players competing to become the challenger to Magnus Carlsen (Norway) at the FIDE World Chess Championship Match at the end of this year.

Participants: Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2842), Ding Liren (China, 2805), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2777), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia, 2774), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2767), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2763), Wang Hao (China, 2762), and Kirill Alekseenko (Russia, 2698). 

The match days: The match days: April 19-21, 23-24, and 26-27. Rest days are April 22 and 25. The tie-break, if necessary, will be played on April 28. The rounds start at 2 PM Moscow time.

The venue is Hyatt Regency Ekaterinburg. The prize fund is 500,000 Euros.

The time control for each game is: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

If two or more players score the same number of points, the tie is decided by the following criteria, in order of priority: a) The results of the games between the players involved in the tie, b) Each tied player’s total number of wins in the tournament, c) Sonneborn-Berger System. If there are two players in tie for the first place after applying the procedure, a tie-break play-off is held between these players to determine the winner and the runner-up.

The organizers of the FIDE Candidates Tournament are the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) as well as the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region and the Chess Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region.

Partners supporting the FIDE Candidates Tournament are:

Sima-land, as the General Partner

Algorand, as the Official Blockchain Partner

Kaspersky, as the Official Cybersecurity Partner

PhosAgro, General Partner of Chess Federation of Russia

Chessable, as Event Partner

Pine Creek Golf Resort, as event Partner

Mercedes Benz Russia, the Official Auto Partner

Official website