FIDE Candidates Tournament resumes on Monday and will be played from 19th to 28th of April in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The winner will challenge World Champion Magnus Carlsen in Dubai at the end of November 2021.
Press conference on the FIDE Candidates Tournament was held, on April 13, in Moscow, at the Rossiyskaya Gazeta Media Center, with FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov, the Winner of 2016 FIDE Candidates Tournament, Sergey Karjakin, and the director of the Candidates Tournament Albert Stepanyan.
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich thanked to chess fans and media for waiting for the resumption of the tournament. He explained under which medical protocols the event will be continued, and emphasized that even spectators would be admitted to the tournament with some of the measures, such as wearing face masks and social distancing. Spectators must have either a vaccine, or antibodies, or a negative test for coronavirus infection.
The Director of the Candidates Tournament Albert Stepanyan emphasized that organisers took all the measures to make the event safe for players and visitors. He explained that in the organisation of the event are included also medical authorities and other bodies that have a clear vision of what to do to conduct the event on a high level.
Former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov explained that the organisation of the event needed to wait for borders to get opened and that the whole world is excited to know who will play against Magnus Carlsen in a World Chess Champion Match.
World Chess Champion Challenger in 2016, Sergey Karjakin, emphasized that he is eager to see that the event goes on, and that he thinks that everything will run smoothly. Karjakin also gave advice to participants to be focused on play, not only on the fact that only 7 rounds left to be played, and concluded that everything will depend on who has better nerves to handle a stressful situation.
Half-way, after 7 played rounds, the Candidates Tournament has stopped last year in March, due to enhanced prevention measures against covid19 pandemic.
The event continues this week and the results of the first 7 rounds are valid.
Official Website of the event – Live Games
photos: @fide.com