Candidates Tournament Announcement

The FIDE World Chess Candidates Tournament 2016 will take place in Moscow’s digital hub, the DI Telegraph space in the historic Central Telegraph building from March 11 to 29, 2016. Eight of the world’s top grandmasters will compete for a chance to face the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen later this year. The €420,000 prize fund is also at stake. Tashir Group is the general partner of the Tournament. 

The Candidates Tournament, considered one of the most important and grueling in the sport, will be played over 14 rounds and will feature GMs from six countries: Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler (Russia), Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana (the USA), Viswanathan Anand (India), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Levon Aronian (Armenia) and Anish Giri (the Netherlands).

The event is organized by Agon Limited, owner of the WORLD CHESS brand as well as the owner of commercial rights to the FIDE Chess Championship cycle. The tournament’s general partner is Tashir Group, Russia’s largest diversified industrial holding as well as one of the largest developers in the country. The event is also supported by the Russian Chess Federation. 

The choice of the Central Telegraph building, Moscow’s digital hub that is home to many of Russia’s tech start-ups, as the Tournament venue is indicative of the organizers’ ambitions for the World Chess Championship cycle events and plans for taking chess digital, enriching the experience of tens of million of people who follow the game online.

Download the official press release.