Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Here is a list of the 16 qualifiers for the Candidates Matches, together with their exact ratings as calculated for the January 2006 list.
| No. | Name | Title | Country | Rating |
| 01 | Levon Aronian | GM | ARM |
2751.70 |
| 02 | Peter Leko | GM | HUN |
2740.40 |
| 03 | Ruslan Ponomariov | GM | UKR |
2723.10 |
| 04 | Boris Gelfand | GM | ISR |
2722.80 |
| 05 | Etienne Bacrot | GM | FRA |
2716.80 |
| 06 | Alexander Grischuk | GM | RUS |
2716.50 |
| 07 | Judith Polgar | GM | HUN |
2710.60 |
| 08 | Alexei Shirov | GM | ESP |
2709.40 |
| 09 | Michael Adams | GM | ENG |
2707.40 |
| 10 | Evgeny Bareev | GM | RUS |
2698.40 |
| 11 | Vladimir Malakhov | GM | RUS |
2694.20 |
| 12 | Gata Kamsky | GM | USA |
2686.00 |
| 13 | Rustam Kasimjanov | GM | UZB |
2670.00 |
| 14 | Sergei Rublevsky | GM | RUS |
2664.90 |
| 15 | Mikhail Gurevich | GM | TUR |
2632.60 |
| 16 | Magnus Carlsen | GM | NOR |
2624.90 |
Note that Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik would have been eligible but, we assume, informed FIDE that they would not participate – Kasparov has retired from competitive chess, Kramnik has his classical chess world championship title and expects to play a reunification match against the winner of the FIDE event at some stage. For these two players Shirov and Bacrot jumped in. Ivanchuk, who is currently number eight in the world, missed out narrowly (he is first reserve). If you are interested: in a recent article Jeff Sonas described the qualification process in detail.
The above 16 players will be fighting for four spots in a final San Luis style double round-robin tournament. The other four will be Topalov, Anand, Svidler and Morozevich.
The pairings for the first round are according to the rating on the January 2006 list. This is what we will get to see:
| No. | Pairings |
|
| 1 | Levon Aronian | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2 | Peter Leko | Mikhail Gurevich |
| 3 | Ruslan Ponomariov | Sergei Rublevsky |
| 4 | Boris Gelfand | Rustam Kasimjanov |
| 5 | Etienne Bacrot | Gata Kamsky |
| 6 | Alexander Grischuk | Vladimir Malakhov |
| 7 | Judith Polgar | Evgeny Bareev |
| 8 | Alexei Shirov | Michael Adams |
According to the FIDE regulations the Candidates Matches for the 2007 World Chess Championship will be organised in 2006/07, and will represent an integral part of the World Chess Championship regulations for the cycle 2005-2007. The first round of matches will consist of six games, with the eight winners qualifying for the second round. This will start two days after the the end of the first round, with the winner of the first match playing the winner of the eighth match, the winner of the second against the winner of the seventh, etc. Once again there will be six games in each match, with a rest day after game three. The four winners will qualify for the World Chess Championship Tournament 2007. FIDE reserves the right to hold the Candidates Matches either together or in different dates and separate locations.
Full regulations for the Candidates Matches can be found at the FIDE web site.
