Saturday
Feb112012
Candidates News: The Field and Location Are Set
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 12:28AM
Practically, anyway. Continuing what's starting to look like a trend, the organizer's spot was again given to an Azeri player: Teimour Radjabov. It's objectionable that there should be an "organizer's spot" for an event like the Candidates, but as Radjabov (#5 in the world) was the highest-rated player not to qualify by other means it's at least as unobjectionable as such a decision could be.
Anyway, here's the field and how they qualified:
- Peter Svidler: 2011 World Cup Winner
- Alexander Grischuk: 2011 World Cup Runner-Up
- Vassily Ivanchuk: 2011 World Cup Third-Place Finisher
- Magnus Carlsen: Qualified by rating (#1)
- Levon Aronian: Qualified by rating (#2)
- Vladimir Kramnik: Qualified by rating (#3)
- Teimour Radjabov: Organizer's pick
- The Loser of the Viswanathan Anand-Boris Gelfand match
The site has been set: It will take place in London this fall from October 23 to November 13. (More on this, and a bit of editorializing besides, over at TWIC.)
tagged Candidates 2012
Reader Comments (2)
No Topalov ?! Surely he should have been the organizer's pick.
[DM: I'll assume you're joking and move on.]
Disappointed that the candidates is now a mere tournament. no different than Bilbao or Tal Memorial. Was this done to placate Carlsen?