# N.R. Anil Kumar (Chess Olympian)
04 April 2024, 07:53 AM IST • Russian Grandmaster Katharine Lagano, Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova, competing in the Women’s category
The stage is set, let the maneuvers begin. Candidates chess matches to find the challenger to face the world champion started on Thursday. The tournament opens in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday. The match will start at 12 pm Indian time on Thursday. It is a double round robin format. All eight players will play each other twice. One game is played with white pieces and the other with black pieces. The score is one point for a win and half a point for a draw. Whoever gets the most points in 14 matches will be the challenger to face the world champion. If the two finish with equal points, the winner will be decided by a tie breaker.
Timeline
The games are in classical style. The first 40 moves each get 120 minutes. If the game is not completed in 40 moves then a total of 30 minutes for all moves. Each move from 41 gets 30 seconds of bonus time.
Women get 90 minutes each for the first 40 moves. If this is not done then you get 30 minutes for all the moves. Then each move has a 30 second bonus time.
prize money
Candidates winner will get a prize of Rs 48 lakhs. The second runner-up will get Rs 28.6 lakh and the third runner-up will get Rs 21.5 lakh. 3.13 lakhs for every half point earned by each player. The women’s winner will get Rs 21.52 lakh and the runner-up will get Rs 16.14 lakh.
Indians head on
The same nationalities will face each other in the first round to avoid the same nationalities facing each other in the final rounds. Indian stars Gukesh and Vidit Gujarati will clash in the first round of the open category while Koneru Hampi and Vaishali will compete in the women’s category.
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N.R. Anil Kumar (Chess Olympian)
2024-04-04 02:23:43
#Candidates #Chess #Tournament #begins #Thursday
