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November 2019 - GCT and Grand Prix

In October, the chess scene has been dominated by the finals of the colossal knockout event in Khanty-Mansiysk, the FIDE World Cup,  and the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament at the Isle of Man.
Teimour Radjabov won the World Cup, defeating the super-strong Chinese GM Ding Liren. Wang Hao, the Chinese you don't expect to be there on top, won the IoM Grand Swiss.


Radjabov's interview right after his brilliant feat at the World Cup

With the victory, along with great prize money, Wang conquered the coveted place into the Candidates', which will then see two Chinese GMs fighting to challenge the World Champion in 2020.
The Candidates' line-up is filling while we sail toward the end of this year.
Qualified so far are Caruana (WCC 2018 runnerup), Radjabov and Ding (winner and runnerup of the World Cup), Wang Hao (top finisher in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019).
Two other players will enter the Candidates' as the twp top finishers of the FIDE Grand Prix, which is still in progress. The two leaders at the moment are Mamedyarov and Grischuk.
Giri seems to be unreachable rating-wise, and he will be playing the Candidates'. When ding - whose average rating was the best - qualified through the World Cup, Giri renounced to participate in the IoM Swiss, wanting to preserve his chance to be eligible for the Candidates by rating.
The last spot will be - as usual, a wild card. Candidate #1 is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

November will be dominated by two major events, which, quite unfortunately, overlap. From November the 6th we'll see all the top players in action:
The  Rapid "Chess Bet" GCT in Romania, with Caruana, Mamedyarov, So, Korobov, Artemiev, Giri, Karjakin, Le Quang Liem, Anand, Aronian;



The 3rd Grand Prix Series KnockOut in Germany, with Vachier-Lagrave, Grischuk, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi, Yu Yangyi, Svidler, Radjabov, Topalov, Jakovenko, Navara, Wojtaszek, Wei Yi, Duda, Harikrishna, Vitiugov, Dubov.


 


The last days of October and the first days of November will see an interesting event in Oslo, where semi-finalists Caruana, Nepomniachtchi and Welsey So meet Magnus Carlsen to play the semis and finals of the Fischer Random World Championship. ICC will have the games!

Don't forget that our GM Alex Yermolinsky recaps the events LIVE on ICCTV.

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