FIDE has reformed the chess championship cycle again

For the second year in a row, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) has made quite significant changes to the format of the chess championship cycle. The main one this time is the deprivation of the participant of the previous match for the title of the automatic right to compete in the next Candidate Tournament, which determines the new contender. Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi has already received such a ticket twice.

International Chess Federation published changes in the format of the championship cycle, that is, the system of competitions in which a contender for the main title is identified. Since the spring of this year, it has belonged to the Chinese Ding Liren. The reform did not affect the competition that crowns the cycle. This remains the Candidates’ Tournament with the participation of eight grandmasters. The next one will take place in April in Toronto. But adjustments have been made to the block that is qualifying for it.

This cycle reform is the second in a row carried out by FIDE. True, it is still not as radical as the one that took place a year ago. Then the federation excluded from the cycle almost its “root” competition – the Grand Prix series. Its place was actually taken by a new project – FIDE Circuit. Its essence lies in the fact that throughout the entire calendar year, the points scored by grandmasters in various FIDE-recognized tournaments with both classical and more stringent time control are calculated. The grandmaster who obtained the largest number of them, Indian Gukesh Dommaraju, advanced to the Candidate Tournament.

This time no new events were added to the cycle. They remained, along with the FIDE Circuit, the World Cup and the Grand Swiss. These tournaments are held according to formulas that ensure a large number of participants and a high probability of unexpected results (we are talking about a knockout system with elimination and the so-called Swiss system, when pairs in each round are formed based on the position in the standings and the leaders are matched with other leaders), and are considered extremely spectacular. But two changes that FIDE says should “increase the competitiveness of the competition landscape” appear to be very noticeable.

First of all, this refers to the fastest way to qualify for the Candidate Tournament.

Previously, a chess player who lost in the previous championship match was automatically included there. Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi has already used this right twice.

In 2021, he lost the title match to the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, but a few months later he won the Candidates’ Tournament in Madrid. In 2023, Nepomniachtchi was defeated in the championship match for the vacant title (Carlsen voluntarily abandoned it) by Ding Liren. However, Nepomniachtchi again, without selection, found himself on the list of those who will fight for candidate status in Toronto, along with Gukesh Domraju, his compatriots Rameshbabu Pragnanandha and Vidit Gujrati, the Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, the Frenchman Alireza Firouzja and the Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov.

Now the applicant has been deprived of this right. The step is like a small revolution. The fact is that in chess, a conservative sport based largely on traditions, their list throughout almost the entire modern history of the sport included privileges for the challenger. Now they have been sacrificed for the sake of increasing the importance of the FIDE Circuit: it is he who will get a contender’s ticket in the next cycle. In terms of “specific weight”, it no longer lags behind Grand Swiss, which also has two slots in the Candidate Tournament at stake. “Heavier” – three slots – only the World Cup.

At the same time, performance in the championship match will not be absolutely useless for the loser from the point of view of the prospects of fighting for the title. It will count towards the FIDE Circuit.

The second change relates to the voucher that is awarded based on rating. In the current cycle, this was a ticket to the chess player who had the highest rating as of January 2024. FIDE was clearly prompted to adjust the clause by deciding that the one with the highest average score over the previous six months will receive a ticket.

According to the rating, Alireza Firouzja broke through to the Candidate Tournament in Toronto. Moreover, the breakthrough was very strange. In the December rating list, Firouzja was behind his only competitor, Wesley So. And in order to score points, he refused a trip to the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Samarkand, preferring tournaments of the most modest rank with classical control in Chartres, as if specially invented on an emergency basis by the French Chess Federation.

In them, Alireza Firouzja won all but one of the games against weak opponents, gaining the required points. And the experts who decided to watch these games were struck, among other things, by the readiness of Firouzja’s opponents to give up at any moment, even if the situation on the board did not seem to scream of imminent loss.

Alexey Dospehov