The candidates' tournament is considered one of the most raised on the planet. And for good reason, eight players will face it, and the winner will challenge the current world champion for the title, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who reigns over his discipline since 2013, the year during which he delighted the throne To the Indian player, Viswanathan Anand. The best players in the globe have followed one another for Magnus for 8 years, but not a single one has seemed to dominate it, each match for the title playing in 12 games, the two alternating players between the whites and the blacks . If at the end of these 12 games, the two players are tied, they must then compete during departments played in rapid cadence. This was the case in particular two years ago, when the candidate then, Fabiano Caruana, held Carlsen in compliance and obtained 12 draws on all parties. Unfortunately for him, the rapid pace suits him much less than in Carlsen, and he therefore logically bowed after the departments.
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Special conditions, and some controversy
This candidate tournament will have a special flavor for spectators, because although a match for the title is planned annually, 2020 and its procession of bad news was right for the organization of the candidates tournament, and in the aftermath of the match for the title. Although he started in very specific conditions (no audience, a limited number of seconds per player), he was interrupted for obvious health reasons six months ago. This situation could have been predictable, according to Teimour Radjabov, the Azéri player, invited to participate, but who preferred to decline by invoking a disproportionate risk taken by the Fide (the International Echecs Federation). Never mind, the candidates' tournament will resume this Monday, April 19, at the very place where it was interrupted, that is to say in Ekaterinburg, Russia, this time with reinforced health measures, and more precautions. The president of the Fide, Arkady Dvorkovich, has already announced that each of the players could, if he requests it, be administered the Russian vaccine on site.
The format and the classification
Eight players will therefore compete, in this second part of the candidates tournament, and each of them only participates for one thing, and there it is not just a gaming, but of the final victory, and the right to look Carlsen in the eyes to delight his title of world champion. These eight players are:
- Fabiano Caruana, the American player was the candidate in 2019.
- Ding Liren, Chinese is currently ranked third best world player.
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the American number one, which replaces Teïmour Radjabov following its package.
- Alexander Grischuk, the Russian player is the dean of this edition.
- Ian Nepomiatchi, virtuoso and compatriot of Grischuk.
- Anish Giri, the very solid Dutch.
- Wang Hao, the other Chinese player, no less dangerous.
- Kiril Alekseenko, the young Russian is the youngest edition, he was invited by Wild Card.
We will later analyze the profile of these players in future articles. As explained previously, these eight players will compete in the second part of the same interrupted tournament in 2020, and their ranking has been kept (see table).
Each victory gives a point, each zero part, half a point, and each defeat, zero point. Players must all compete in round-trip rounds. The first seven games having been played last year, the same seven confrontations will take place, the only difference being the fact that the player who played with the whites against a given opponent will play this time with blacks and vice versa. The first two with equal are Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Neopmiatchi with four and a half points out of seven. They both have a comfortable advance in front of the peloton including Caruana, Giri, Wang Hao and Grischuk. The last two, Ding Liren and Le Petit Poucet Alekseenko will leave with a certain handicap, namely two points behind the leaders. Although the advance of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomiatchi seems to indicate that they would be the favorites to become the candidate of 2021, many things left possible, as this edition is special, and his playing conditions, unpublished. Very big surprises are not to be excluded.
The preparation of the players
There is no doubt that the players will be prepared, both physically and mentally, and in terms of their openings. The 2020/2021 Covid version calendar has been very lightened, most very high level competitions having 
was played online, which has left all the players a lot of time in order to prepare this great meeting. They will be rested and resourced, but also for some, ready to experiment with some new features! The teams of secondary participants will also have had time to analyze the openings of each of the other players in depth, and could reserve us some detonating surprises, heterodox blows early in the game, aimed at getting the opponent of its usual repertoire and its comfort zone. For some players, they may even have planned to completely reshape their repertoire using their team, in order to make the task more difficult for the seconds of other players. One thing is certain, each of the players will have the obligation to have transformed to have a chance to be the winner, and the games promise to be exciting. There is no doubt that connoisseurs will want to bet on their favorite.
