The Candidates Tournament is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, the international governing body of chess, since 1950. It serves as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates Tournament earns the right to compete in a match for the World Championship against the incumbent World Champion. The tournament has been held in various formats over the years, with the current format being an 8-player, double round-robin event.
The Candidates Tournament is the second most important tournament in the World Championship cycle, with the World Championship match itself being the most significant. FIDE has been organizing the World Championship cycle since 1948, and the Candidates Tournament has been a part of this cycle since 1950. Since 2013, the Candidates Tournament has been held every two years.
The importance of the Candidates Tournament lies in its role in selecting the challenger for the World Championship match. Multiple tournaments are part of the World Championship cycle, but the main purpose of all of them is to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. For example, the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss tournament is a top-level event that awards a spot in the Candidates Tournament.
The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament that took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022. The World Chess Championship 2023 is currently ongoing, with Ding Liren, the runner-up of the Candidates Tournament, replacing the incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen, who refused to defend his title. The participants in the 2022 Candidates Tournament were selected through various qualification methods, including the 2021 World Championship runner-up, the top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2021, and the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021.
