World Chess Championship 2023

The World Chess Championship 2023 is an upcoming chess match, taking place from 7 April to 1 May 2023 to determine the new world chess champion. It will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2022. Therefore, Nepomniachtchi will play the second-place finisher in the Candidates, Ding Liren, in the World Chess Championship match.

Carlsen declines to defend the title

The incumbent world champion was Magnus Carlsen, who had won the title in 2013. To keep the title, Carlsen was periodically required to defend it in a Chess World Championship match against a challenger, determined by a Candidates Tournament. Carlsen successfully defended the title in the world championship matches of 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. In December 2021, soon after the 2021 championship (against Ian Nepomniachtchi), Carlsen stated that he was lacking motivation and might not defend his title again, unless the challenger were Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja had risen to number two in the world rankings in 2021 at the age of 18. In April 2022, Carlsen again publicly stated that he was unlikely to play in the next world championship, this time without mentioning any potential opponent.

The Candidates Tournament 2022 concluded in early July 2022, with Nepomniachtchi as its winner. FIDE and Carlsen were already in talks regarding the world championship match and its format. On 20 July, Carlsen announced that he would not defend his title. Therefore the 2023 world championship match will be between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, respectively the winner and runner up of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, with Carlsen set to lose the title of world champion when the match concludes. After Carlsen formally confirmed his decision in writing, FIDE officially invited Ding and Nepomniachtchi to participate in the 2023 world championship.

Non-participation by the incumbent champion is a rare situation. From 1993–2005 there were two rival world championships operating simultaneously. Outside that period, the last reigning champion who declined to take part was Bobby Fischer in 1975. In that case, FIDE awarded the title to Fischer's challenger, Anatoly Karpov, without a match being played (Karpov had qualified through a knock-out tournament, defeating Viktor Korchnoi in the final). The last time a world championship was actually played without the defending champion was in 1948, because the incumbent champion Alexander Alekhine had died in 1946.

Format

The match will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 7 April to 1 May 2023. It will be a 14-game match, with players alternating the white and black pieces. If the match is drawn, a series of rapid games will be used as a tie-breaker. The time control will be 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the remainder, plus an increment of 30 seconds per move beginning at move 61. The same format was used for the previous world championship in 2021.

The prize fund will be €2 million, split 60% for the winning player and 40% for the loser.

Candidates Tournament 2022

Main article: Candidates Tournament 2022

The challengers are Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, who qualified as the winner and runner-up, respectively, in the Candidates Tournament 2022, which began on June 16 and ended on July 5, 2022. Nepomniachtchi had previously challenged world champion Carlsen in the previous World Chess Championship 2021.

The participants were:

Qualification method	Player	Age	Rating	World ranking
		(June 2022)
2021 World Championship runner-up	Ian Nepomniachtchi	31	2766	7
Candidate nominated by FIDE	Teimour Radjabov	35	2753	13
The top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2021	Jan-Krzysztof Duda (winner)	24	2750	16
	Sergey Karjakin (runner-up) (Disqualified)	32	2747	17
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021	Alireza Firouzja (winner)	19	2793	3
	Fabiano Caruana (runner-up)	29	2783	4
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022	Hikaru Nakamura (winner)	34	2760	11
	Richárd Rapport (runner-up)	26	2764	8
Highest rating for May 2022	Ding Liren (replacement for Karjakin)	29	2806	2

Results

Candidates Tournament 2022
Venue	Palace of Santoña
Location	Madrid, Spain
Dates	16 June – 7 July 2022
Competitors	8

The 2022 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament, with the winner qualifying for the challenger's spot against Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2023.

The tournament will take place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain from June 16 to July 7, 2022, with the World Championship to follow in early 2023. As with every Candidates tournament since 2013, it will be a double round-robin tournament.

Six out of eight players had qualified by December 2021, with two more qualifying when the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 concludes in April 2022. In March 2022, FIDE disqualified Sergey Karjakin, although the Chess Federation of Russia is appealing against FIDE's decision. If the decision is upheld, the final qualifier will be chosen from the rating list.

Participants

The qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament currently are:

Qualification method	Player
2021 World Championship runner-up	Ian Nepomniachtchi
Candidate nominated by FIDE	Teimour Radjabov
The top two finishers at the Chess World Cup 2021	Jan-Krzysztof Duda (winner)
	Sergey Karjakin (runner-up). Disqualified (Appeal pending).
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021	Alireza Firouzja (winner)
	Fabiano Caruana (runner-up)
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022	TBD (After third tournament of the Grand Prix)
	TBD (After third tournament of the Grand Prix)
Highest rating for May 2022	TBD (Replacement for Karjakin)

Qualification of Radjabov

Radjabov had qualified for the previous Candidates Tournament, but withdrew after his request to postpone the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic was refused. With the postponement of the 2020 Candidates Tournament at the halfway point due to the pandemic until its resumption in 2021, Radjabov called for his reinstatement into that tournament. FIDE decided that it was appropriate to instead give Radjabov a direct entry into the 2022 Candidates.

Pending disqualification of Sergey Karjakin

On March 21, 2022, the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commision ruled that Sergey Karjakin breached Article 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics, after publicly expressing support of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Karjakin was banned from playing in any official FIDE-related tournaments for a period of six months, making him unable to participate in the 2022 Candidates Tournament. Karjakin has 21 days to appeal in which case the decision to ban him will be re-reviewed by FIDE.

Karjakin has indicated that he is unlikely to appeal the decision, as he denounced FIDE for conflating sports with politics in a post to his Telegram channel. He further declared that he considers himself a patriot first and a chess player second, and that he did not regret anything. Andrey Filatov, the Chess Federation of Russia's President, later announced the intention to appeal and file a complaint against FIDE's decision.

In a post to his Telegram channel, Sergey asked for the public opinion about his intention to establish a new international chess organization.

Qualifier by rating

Originally, no player would have automatically qualified through rating. However, due to Karjakin’s pending disqualification, the rules state that the highest rated player in the May 2022 rating list who has also played at least 30 games rated in the rating lists from June 2021 to May 2022, will be invited as a replacement. The May rating list is due to be released on May 1, 2022.

As of March 2022, the leading contenders are Ding Liren with a rating of 2799 and Levon Aronian with a rating of 2785. However, Ding Liren has not yet played the required number of games in rating lists from June 2021.

Organization

The tournament is an eight player, double round-robin tournament, meaning there are 14 rounds with each player facing each other twice: once with the black pieces and once with the white pieces. The tournament winner qualified to play Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship in 2023. If Carlsen decides not to play, and if the match has the same conditions as the 2021 match, then the top two finishers in the 2022 Candidates will play a match for the World Championship.

Regulations

The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game; plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 1.

If there is a tie for first place, tie-breaks take the following format:

• Players play two rapid chess games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. In the case of a three-way to a six-way tie, a single round-robin is played. If seven or eight players are tied, a single round-robin is played with a time limit of 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move.
• If any players are still tied for first after the rapid chess games, they play two blitz chess games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. In the case of more than two players tied, a single round-robin is played.
• If any players are still tied for first after those blitz chess games, the remaining players play a knock-out blitz tournament at the same time control. In each mini-match of the knock-out tournament, the first player to win a game, wins the mini-match.

This is a change from previous Candidates tournaments from 2013 to 2021, which used tie-breaks based on players' results in the tournament (such as results of head-to-head games between tied players, and number of wins).

Ties for places other than first are broken by, in order: (1) Sonneborn–Berger score; (2) total number of wins; (3) head-to-head score among tied players; (4) drawing of lots.

The prize money is: €48,000 for first place, €36,000 for second place, €24,000 for third place (with players on the same number of points sharing prize money, irrespective of tie-breaks); plus €7,000 per point for every player; giving a total prize pool of €500,000.

Schedule

The schedule has the final round on 4 July and the closing ceremony on 5 July 2022.

Players from the same country must play each other in the earlier rounds: rounds 1 and 8 (if only two) and in rounds 1 to 3 and 8 to 10, if there are up to three players from the same federation.

Date	Day	Event
16 June 2022	Thursday	Opening ceremony
17 June 2022	Friday	Round 1
18 June 2022	Saturday	Round 2
19 June 2022	Sunday	Round 3
20 June 2022	Monday	Rest day
21 June 2022	Tuesday	Round 4
22 June 2022	Wednesday	Round 5
23 June 2022	Thursday	Round 6
24 June 2022	Friday	Rest day
25 June 2022	Saturday	Round 7
26 June 2022	Sunday	Round 8
27 June 2022	Monday	Round 9
28 June 2022	Tuesday	Rest day
29 June 2022	Wednesday	Round 10
30 June 2022	Thursday	Round 11
1 July 2022	Friday	Round 12
2 July 2022	Saturday	Rest day
3 July 2022	Sunday	Round 13
4 July 2022	Monday	Round 14
5 July 2022	Tuesday	Tie breaks (if required) Closing ceremony

See also

• Women's Candidates Tournament 2022