Chess World Championship 2024: Location, players and more

The annual FIDE Candidates Chess World Championship 2024 is here and will see 16 chess players from around the world compete for the world title.

The Chess World Championship is an annual tournament where top players from around the world challenge each other in a tournament to compete for the title of world champion.

The winner of the tournament gets the chance to challenge the current world champion, who currently is GM Ding Liren. Whoever wins that match will be named the current chess champion of the world.

For the first time ever, this year’s tournament will see the FIDE Candidates and FIDE Women’s Candidates were organized together under one roof on the same dates.

Contents

• Where is the Chess World Championship 2024?
• Who will compete in the 2024 Chess World Championship?
• Why isn’t Magnus Carlsen playing?
• What does the Chess world champion winner get?

Where is the Chess World Championship taking place?

The 2024 Chess Championship is taking place at The Great Hall, Toronto, Canada between April 3 – April 23.

The opening ceremony will take place on the evening of April 3. Both tournaments will be set in motion on April 4 at 14:30 local time with the first round.

The 2024 championship is one for the history books, as for the first time ever, the tournament is taking place in North America.

Who will compete in the 2024 Chess World Championship?

16 players in total will compete in the tournament. These consist of eight male players and eight female players who will play against each other in separate tournaments.

The men will compete in the candidate’s tournament, whereas the women will play in the women’s tournament.

The candidate contestants are:

• Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2758)
• Praggnanandhaa R (India, 2747)
• Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2804)
• Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan, 2632)
• Vidit Gujrathi (India, 2747)
• Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2789)
• Alireza Firouzja (France, 2760)
• Gukesh D (India, 2747) 

The female contestants for the Chess World championship are:

• Lei Tingjie (China, 2550)
• Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2542)
• Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2553)
• Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria, 2426)
• Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine, 2520)
• Vaishali R (India, 2481)
• Tan Zhongyi (China, 2521)
• Humpy Koneru (India, 2546)

Why isn’t Magnus Carlsen playing?

The five-time Chess world champion, Magnus Carlsen, qualified for the Candidates chess tournament courtesy of winning the FIDE World Cup. However, he declined to play at the Candidates because he is unhappy with the format of the FIDE World Championship and its time control, as he prefers shorter time controls.

Because of this, Carlsen chose to forgo the chance to play at the Candidates to qualify for the World Championships.

What does the Chess world champion winner get?

On top of getting the chance to take on GM Ding Liren, where the winner will be named the current world champion of chess.

In addition to the coveted first place, the contestants also compete for a share of the prize funds of €500,000 in the Candidates Tournament and €250,000 in the Women’s Candidates Tournament.