Candidates Tournament
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The Candidates Tournament was a triannual chess tournament organized by the world chess federation FIDE as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earnt the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent World Champion.
The numbers in the tournament varied over the years, between eight and fifteen players. Most of these qualified from Interzonal tournaments, though some gained direct entry without having to play the Interzonal.
Before 1965, the tournament was organized in a round-robin format. From 1965 on, the tournament was played as knockout matches, often spread over several months. In 1995-6, the defending champion also entered the Candidates, so the winner was the FIDE world champion.
FIDE discontinued the Candidates tournaments after 1996.
During its 1993-2006 split from FIDE, the "Classical" World Championship also held three candidates tournaments, under a different sponsor each time. In one of these cases (Alexei Shirov in 1998), no title match eventuated, due to a lack of sponsorhip.
[edit] Results of Interzonal and Candidates Tournaments, 1948-2006
The table below shows the qualifiers and results for all Candidates tournaments. Players shown in bracketed in italics (like this) qualified for the Candidates, but did not play. Players shown bracketed in italics with an asterisk (like this*) were excluded from the Candidates by a rule limiting the number of players from one country. Players listed after bracketed players only qualified due to the non-participation of the bracketed players.
| Year | Interzonal Format | Interzonal Qualifiers | Seeded into Candidates | Candidates Format | Candidates Winner | Incumbent Champion | Championship Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948-51 | 20 players, Single Round Robin, 8 qualified | Bronstein, Szabo, Boleslavsky, Kotov, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Stahlberg, Flohr, (Bondarevsky) | Smyslov, Keres (Euwe, Reshevsky, Fine) | 10 players, Double round robin | Bronstein (after playoff match against Boleslavsky) | Botvinnik | Drawn 12-12, Botvinnik retained title |
| 1951-54 | 21 players, Single Round Robin, 8 qualified | Kotov, Taimonov, Petrosian, Geller, Averbakh, Stahlberg, Szabo, Gligoric | Bronstein, Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Keres, Najdorf (from previous Candidates), Reshevsky, Euwe (from 1948 Championship) | 15 players, Double round robin | Smyslov | Botvinnik | Drawn 12-12, Botvinnik retained title |
| 1954-57 | 21 players, Single Round Robin, 9 qualified | Bronstein, Keres, Panno, Petrosian, Geller, Szabo, Filip, Pilnik, Spassky | Smyslov | 10 players, Double round robin | Smyslov | Botvinnik | Smyslov won 12.5-9.5 |
| 1958 | rematch | Botvinnik | Smyslov | Botvinnik won 12.5-10.5 | |||
| 1958-60 | 21 players, Single Round Robin, 6 qualified | Tal, Gligoric, Petrosian, Benko, Olafsson, Fischer | Smyslov, Keres | 8 players, Quadruple round robin | Tal | Botvinnik | Tal won 12.5-8.5 |
| 1961 | rematch | Botvinnik | Tal | Botvinnik won 13-8 | |||
| 1961-63 | 23 players, Single Round Robin, 6 qualified | Fischer, Geller, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Filip, (Stein*), Benko | Tal, Keres | 8 players, Quadruple round robin | Petrosian | Botvinnik | Petrosian won 12.5-9.5 |
| 1964-66 | 24 players, Single Round Robin, 6 qualified | Smyslov, Larsen, Spassky, Tal, (Stein*), (Bronstein*), Ivkov, Portisch | Keres, Geller | 8 players, matches | Spassky | Petrosian | Petrosian won 12.5-11.5 |
| 1967-69 | 23 players, Single Round Robin, 6 qualified | Larsen, Korchnoi, Geller, Gligoric, Portisch, Reshevsky | Spassky, Tal | 8 players, matches | Spassky | Petrosian | Spassky won 12.5-10.5 |
| 1970-72 | 24 players, Single Round Robin, 6 qualified | Fischer, Larsen, Geller, Hubner, Taimanov, Uhlmann | Petrosian, Korchnoi | 8 players, matches | Fischer | Spassky | Fischer won 12.5-8.5 |
| 1973-75 | Two 18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each | Korchnoi, Karpov, Byrne; Mecking, Portisch, Polugaevsky | Spassky, Petrosian | 8 players, matches | Karpov | Fischer | Karpov won on forfeit |
| 1976-78 | Two 20 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each | Larsen, Petrosian, Portisch; Mecking, Polugaevsky, Hort | Korchnoi, (Fischer), Spassky | 8 players, matches | Korchnoi | Karpov | Karpov won 6-5 (draws not counting) |
| 1979-81 | Two 18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each | Tal, Polugaevsky, Adorjan; Portisch, Petrosian, Hubner | Korchnoi, Spassky | 8 players, matches | Korchnoi | Karpov | Karpov won 6-2 (draws not counting) |
| 1982-85 | Three 14 player, single round robin Interzonals; 2 qualified from each | Ribli, Smyslov; Kasparov, Beliavsky; Portisch, Torre | Korchnoi, Hubner | 8 players, matches | Kasparov | Karpov | Unlimited match abandoned after 48 games with Karpov leading 5-3; Kasparov won replay 13-11 |
| 1986 | rematch | Karpov | Kasparov | Kasparov won 12.5-11.5 | |||
| 1985-87 | Three 16-18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 4 qualified from each | Vaganian, Seirawan, Sokolov, Short; Timman, Nogueiras, Tal, Spraggett; Yusupov, Beliavsky, Portisch, Chernin | Karpov, Korchnoi, Ribli, Smyslov, Spassky | 16 player tournament; top 4 played matches; matches winner (Sokolov) played Karpov | Karpov | Kasparov | Drawn 12-12, Kasparov retained title |
| 1988-90 | Three 17-18 player, single round robin Interzonals; 3 qualified from each | Sax, Short, Speelman; Salov, Hjartason, Portisch; Korchnoi, Seirawan, Ehlvest | Karpov, Sokolov, Timman, Vaganian, Yusupov, Spraggett | 15 players, matches, (Karpov seeded into second round) | Karpov | Kasparov | Kasparov won 12.5-11.5 |
| 1991-93 | 64 player swiss, 11 players qualified | Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Anand, Sax, Short, Korchnoi, Hubner, Nikolic, Yudasin, Dolmatov, Dreev | Karpov, Timman, Yusupov, Speelman | 15 players, matches, (Karpov seeded into second round) | Short, ahead of Timman, Karpov and Yusupov | Kasparov | Kasparov defeated Short 13-8 under the auspices of the PCA; Karpov defeated Timman 12.5-8.5 under the auspices of FIDE |
| 1993-95 (PCA) | 54 player swiss, 7 players qualified | Adams, Anand, Kamsky, Kramnik, Tiviakov, Gulko, Romanishin | Short | 8 players, matches | Anand | Kasparov | Kasparov won 10.5-7.5 |
| 1993-96 (FIDE) | 73 player swiss, 10 players qualified | Gelfand, Van der Sterren, Kamsky, Khalifman, Adams, Yudasin, Salov, Lautier, Kramnik, Anand | Timman, Yusupov | 12 players played two rounds of matches; then Karpov joined the final 3 (Gelfand, Kamsky, Salov) for matches | Karpov, Kamsky (finalists) | Karpov won 10.5-7.5 | |
| 1997-98 (FIDE) | 7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament | Anand | Karpov | Drawn 3-3; Karpov won rapid playoff 2-0 | |||
| 1998 (Classical) | None | Kramnik, Shirov | match | Shirov | Kasparov | match never took place | |
| 1999 (FIDE) | 7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament | Khalifman, Akopian (finalists) | Khalifman won 3.5-2.5 | ||||
| 2000 (Classical) | None | Kramnik | None | Kasparov | Kramnik won 8.5-6.5 | ||
| 2000 (FIDE) | 7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament | Anand, Shirov (finalists) | Anand won 3.5-0.5 | ||||
| 2001-2002 (FIDE) | 7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament | Ponomariov, Ivanchuk (finalists) | Ponomariov won 4.5-2.5 | ||||
| 2002-2004 (Classical) | None | Bareev, Adams, Leko, Morozevich, Topalov, Shirov, Gelfand, Lutz | Two 4 player double-round robins; top 2 from each formed a final 4, who played 2 rounds of mini-matches | Leko | Kramnik | drawn 7-7, Kramnik retained title | |
| 2004 (FIDE) | 7 round, mini-match, knockout tournament | Adams, Kasimdzhanov (finalists) | drawn 3-3; Kasimdzhanov won rapid playoff 1.5-0.5 | ||||
| 2005 (FIDE) | None | Adams, Kasimdzhanov (as FIDE 2004 finalists); Leko, (Kramnik) (as Classical 2004 finalists); Anand, Topalov, Morozevich, (Kasparov), Svidler, Polgar (on rating) | 8 player, double round robin | Topalov | |||
| 2006 | Reunification match between FIDE champion (Topalov) and Classical Champion (Kramnik) | drawn 6-6, Kramnik won rapid playoff 2.5-1.5 | |||||
[edit] External links
Mark Weeks' pages FIDE World Championship events 1948-1990 and World Championship events 1991-present are the main sources for this article.
