The Candidates Tournament will pit eight Grandmasters for a battle against the reigning world champion.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament looms ahead as the world's best chess players prepare to take on the reigning world champion, Ding Liren. This year's Candidates will be an interesting spectacle with many storylines and angles to anticipate. Read more about the upcoming Candidates Tournament below!
What is the date of the 2024 Candidates Tournament
The 2024 Candidates Tournament kickstarts on April 4, 2024.
Here is the complete schedule for the Candidates Tournament this year:
- April 3: Opening Ceremony and Media Day
- April 4: Round 1
- April 5: Round 2
- April 6: Round 3
- April 7: Round 4
- April 8: Rest Day
- April 9: Round 5
- April 10: Round 6
- April 11: Round 7
- April 12: Rest Day
- April 13: Round 8
- April 14: Round 9
- April 15: Round 10
- April 16: Rest Day
- April 17: Round 11
- April 18: Round 12
- April 19: Rest Day
- April 20: Round 13
- April 21: Round 14
- April 22: Tie Breaks and Closing Ceremony
All participants in the 2024 Candidates Tournament
The Candidates will pit eight Grandmasters against each other. Magnus Carlsen was supposed to be in the lineup as he was the winner of the Chess World Cup in 2023. However, he had long decided to not participate in the World Chess Championship. His slot is given to the fourth ranked player in the Chess World Cup, Nijat Abasov.
Here are all the participants of the 2024 Candidates Tournament:
- Ian Nepomniachtchi
- Nijat Abasov
- R Praggnanandhaa
- Fabiano Caruana
- Vidit Gujrathi
- Hikaru Nakamura
- Gukesh D
- Alireza Firouzja
Click below for a more detailed qualification metric and a breakdown of the "Race to Candidates" by Alireza Firouzja.
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Where to watch Candidates Tournament
As per usual, the Candidates Tournament will be livestreamed on Chess.com's official website. You can also watch the live games from Chess24's Twitch and YouTube channels. We have embedded the Twitch channel below for your convenience!
Prize money and its distribution
The Candidates Tournament will offer a 500,000 euros ($541,000 USD) total prize pool. FIDE will distribute this massive reward to the top players of the tournament. The champion will bring home 48,000 euros ($51,937 USD). The runner-up gets 36,000 euros ($38,953 USD) and the second runner-up gets 24,000 euros ($25,969 USD). A total of 3,500 euros ($3,787 USD) will be given to a player with each half-point they score.
Where is the Candidates Tournament venue
The 2024 Candidates will take place live at The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada. You can take a look at how the venue looks like from the inside. This is the Main Hall of the venue:
It is also worth noting that this Candidates Tournament will be a historical feat. For the first time in chess history, both the Candidates Tournament for men and women will occur simultaneously in the same venue.
Format
Here is a breakdown of the Candidates 2024 format:
- Players compete in a double round-robin.
- The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game. There's a 30-second increment starting on move 41.
- Players can't draw by agreement before move 41.
- The player with the highest score at the end of the tournament wins.
And that is all that we know about the 2024 Candidates Tournament so far! Fans of chess can lay back and relax until April which is when the action begins. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more chess coverage!
