14 February 2020

FIDE Candidates Tournament: Drawing of Lots Held in Moscow

The ceremony took place in the Russian Ministry of Sport.


The drawing of lots for the FIDE Candidates Tournament took place in the headquarters of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation on February 14.

Oleg Matytsin, Russian Minister of Sport, and Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, and Anastasia Myskina, a famous tennis player, took part in the ceremony. International Arbiter Anatoly Bykhovsky and manager of the Russian national chess teams Artem Pugachev were responsible for the technical part. 

According to the Regulations, players from the same federation play each other in earlier rounds: Ding Liren and Wang Hao will play each other in rounds 1 and 8; Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Kirill Alekseeko – in rounds 1, 2, 3 and 8, 9, 10. 

Participants got the following starting numbers:

1. Teimour Radjabov, 2. Ding Liren, 3. Anish Giri, 4. Alexander Grischuk, 5. Kirill Alekseenko, 6. Ian Nepomniachtchi, 7. Wang Hao, 8. Fabiano Caruana.

Pairings is attached.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich: “We are glad that Russia, a long-time partner of FIDE, is hosting the Candidates Tournament, the key leg of the World Championship cycle. There will be players from Azerbaijan, China, Netherlands, Russia, and the USA, and we welcome all the chess lovers to visit Yekaterinburg or to follow this amazing event online. I thank the Chess Federation of Russia, Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation, and all our partners for supporting this event”.

Russian Minister of Sport Oleg Matytsin: “I am very proud to take part in the drawing of lots for the FIDE Candidates Tournament. Before we started here we discussed with Anastasia Myskina that a lot of great sports are called “chess in motion”, football is “chess in motion”, tennis also, but the great game of chess is always there as the game itself and the best chess players are admired all over the world. Russia is known for its chess traditions, and we are happy to host such a great tournament. We hope that the organizational level will be top-notch as always for the events hosted by Russia”.

The FIDE Candidates Tournament will take place in Yekaterinburg from March 16 until April 4, 2020. The winner gets the right to challenge the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway). 

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili