The FIDE Council approved yesterday a major reform of the qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament – the event that decides the challenger for the World Championship match. According to the new system, 1 player will qualify from the FIDE World Championship Match 2023 (runner-up), 3 players will qualify from the FIDE World Cup, 2 players will qualify from the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023, 1 player will qualify from FIDE Circuit events, and 1 player will qualify according to FIDE rating.
Only eight months ago, the FIDE Council approved a cooperation agreement with the Grand Chess Tour which states that the two top finishers of the 2023 and 2025 Series will qualify for the Candidates Chess 2024 and 2026 respectively. Being asked to explain why the announced qualification paths don’t include Grand Chess Tour, the FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky shortly answered: “It was a tentative agreement, but things did not work“.
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