The challengers tournament for the championship chess crown will be held in June 2022 in Madrid, reports Haqqin.az with reference to the website of the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
As you know, Azerbaijani grandmaster Teymur Rajabov will play in the competition. It is admitted to the tournament without selection at the special invitation of FIDE. Recall that Rajabov’s contender tournament was displayed thanks to the victory at the World Cup 2019. However, due to the announced Pandemic, Teymur refused to participate in the competition, which should have started in Yekaterinburg on March 17, and urged FIDE to postpone the tournament. Azerbaijan grandmaster turned out to be the only one who did not want to play. FIDE for the transfer did not go. As a result, Rajabov replaced the French chess player Maxim Your Lagrav. The tournament started, but it was not possible to do it in 2020. 7 rounds were played, that is, the first half of the competition, after which it was suspended, since the Government of Russia closed the international air communication and there were concerns that the chess players simply could not fly to their countries.
Rajabov was right, offering to spend the competition later. Given this, President FIDE Arkady Dvorkovich made an initiative to provide Teemura the so-called “Wild Card” – a special invitation.
At the moment, six players qualified in the tournament of 2022. In addition to Teymura, it is also Fabiano Karuana (USA), Jan-Kshtof Duda (Poland), Aliska Phurju (France), Sergey Karyakin (Russia) and Yang Nepomnyakha (Russia). The last two players will be discarded through the FIDE Grand Prix, whose tournaments will be held in February-April of next year.
Candidates tournament will be held from June 16 to July 7, 2022 in Madrid. It is already known that the opening and closure ceremonies will be held at the Luxury Four Seasons Hotel.
The current world champion, as you know, is Norwegian Magnus Karlsen, who since 2013 does not give anyone a chess crown. Recently, Karlsen easily beat Russian Yana Nepomnye, to win the championship match for the fifth time. After that victory, the Norwegian grandmaster made an unexpected statement. He said that he wanted to defend his title only if his opponent would be the 18-year-old Aliska of Phurju, who recently rose to the 2nd place in the FIDE rating, giving way there only to Karlsen. Phurja became the youngest chess player overcoming the rating mark of 2800.