The Candidates Tourna-ment has been organised by FIDE, chess’s international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Championship. In some instances there were Candidates’ matches, preceded by the zonals and interzonals, instead of tournaments. Let us say there were ten zones for chess playing countries worldwide, only two competitors would be chosen to represent each zone. For example, North America would be one zone, and South America, which included powerhouses such as Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile etc would be another. These were the zonals. The final tally from these competitions would be the figure 20; they would compete in the interzonals. Next, eight players would be selected to compete in the Candidates matches from the interzonals. The one player who wins the rigorous Candidates cycle, is the rightful challenger for the World Championship title.
I mentioned the Can-didates cycle in brief to demonstrate how difficult it is to climb the highest mountain in chess. To this day, eight players are still hand-picked to compete in the Candidates Tourna-ment. They must prove their indomitability through winning one or more of the major tournaments. The eight qualifiers for the 2022 Candidates were Nepomniachtchi, Duda, Caruana, Firouzja, Nakamura, Rapport, Rad-jabov and Liren. Sergey Karjakin was originally a qualifier, but was disqualified for breaching the FIDE Code of Ethics. He was replaced by Liren, the highest rated player who had not yet qualified. Nepomniachtchi won the tournament undefeated with a round to spare. Liren placed second having pulled off a last-round victory against Nakamura who failed to hold the game to a draw that would have seen him finish in second place instead.
Nepomniachtchi qualified to oppose Magnus Carlsen in a 14-game match for the World Chess Championship title. But Carlsen said he had no interest in playing Nepomniachtchi for a second time. Carlsen had defeated him in the previous World Championship. This turn of events left the way open for Liren to be Nepomniachtchi’s opponent. Thirteen of the 14 World Championship classical games have been completed and the position is even. Whoever wins today’s final game, wins the World Championship. If game 14 ends in a draw, the rapid segment would begin to certify a winner.
Chess game
White: Ding Liren
Black: Ian Nepomniachtchi
Event: 2023 World Championship Match, Astana, Kazakhstan, April 16
Type of Game: Queen’s Pawn Game: London System
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Nbd2 cxd4 6. exd4 Bf5 7. c3 e6 8. Bb5 Bd6 9. Bxd6 Qxd6 10. O-O O-O 11. Re1 h6 12. Ne5 Ne7 13. a4 a6 14. Bf1 Nd7 15. Nxd7 Qxd7 16. a5 Qc7 17. Qf3 Rfc8 18. Ra3 Bg6 19. Nb3 Nc6 20. Qg3 Qe7 21. h4 Re8 22. Nc5 e5 23. Rb3 Nxa5
24. Rxe5 Qf6 25. Ra3 Nc4 26. Bxc4 dxc4 27. h5 Bc2 28. Nxb7 Qb6 29. Nd6 Rxe5 30. Qxe5 Qxb2 31. Ra5 Kh7 32. Rc5 Qc1+ 33. Kh2 f6 34. Qg3 a5 35. Nxc4 a4
36. Ne3 Bb1 37. Rc7 Rg8 38. Nd5 Kh8 39. Ra7 a3 40. Ne7 Rf8 41. d5 a2 42. Qc7 Kh7 43. Ng6 Rg8 44. Qf7. 1-0. Black resigns.
