I don’t own the rights to cover photo. It was filmed by Lenart Ootes. I took it from chess.com article titled Candidates Tournament Opened in the Absence of Participants.

I have recently stumbled on Quora question titled: “What are your thoughts on the chess Candidates tournament? Should FIDE give Radjabov a spot?”

While answering it, I included my own thoughts on everything related to the Candidates tournament. I was very satisfied with the final result and figured I might as well publish that answer on my blog.

So there you go. Hope you will enjoy my analysis of the controversial events surrounding the Candidates Tournament 2020.

For those who maybe weren’t following the situation with the Candidates tournament or are not that familiar with the chess world, let’s provide some background:

• Candidates Tournament is a tournament held every 2 years where 8 players compete for an opportunity to challenge the reigning World Champion in a World Chess Championship Match.
• Candidates Tournament is held every two years. The 2020 edition was initially supposed to be played from 16^th March to 5^th of April, 2020.
• After this whole “corona” thing started escalating at the end of February and beginning of the may and all sorts of (sports) events started to get cancelled, the fate of the Candidates Tournament was uncertain. FIDE – Official Chess Federation – decided to go with the decision to stage the tournament nevertheless, stating that low number of players doesn’t constitute such a big risk.
• On 6^th of March, it was announced that one of the participants, Azeri Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov, withdrew from the tournament and that best French player, Maxime Vachier Lagrave, will replace him. Even though FIDE initially claimed that he quoted “personal reasons” Radjabov later announced he was exchanged several letter with the FIDE administration in days prior to the announcement, expressing his concerns about the safety of the participants and suggesting that probably it would be best to postpone the tournament to a later date. ¹
• The tournament, therefore started as planned on 16^th of March. However, on 26^th March, after 7 rounds (out of 14) it was announced that tournament will be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic after Russia announced it would be interrupting air traffic with other countries starting on 27^th March – apparently, there was a possibility that some of the participants (and members of their delegations) would get stranded in Russia with no way to return home.  ²
• According to all the information issued by FIDE officials, the plan is to wait for the coronavirus outbreak to end and then to continue the tournament from the current standpoint, keeping the result of the rounds played so far.

Okay, after this brief overview of how we got to this point, I can get try to answer your question and share some of my own thoughts about the Candidates tournament and Radjabov’s case:

• First of all, I think it was a horrible mistake to insist on holding the Candidates tournament. I get it that there are sponsors, interests, cycles and everything involved, but considering the situation in the world it was the logical thing to do. Besides, it is much easier to cancel an event with 8 players than European Football Championship or the Olympic Games. 
• Secondly, even if we completely disregard the direct danger from Covid-19 to the players, it was extremely difficult for them to focus on chess with the “world in flames”. It was clear that some player’s play was way below their level. Fabiano Caruana, in particular, played far from his best, while the other pre-tournament favorite Ding Liren (who had to spend 14 days in quarantine in Moscow before the tournament) has had his worst tournament in many years (losing 3 games out of 7).
• It is no wonder that several players (Grischuk, Wang Hao) stated in their interviews that the atmosphere is hostile (with everyone wearing masks) and that they basically don’t want to be there. This was echoed by Kramnik (who actually withdrew from commentating on the event just before it started as a sign of protest)  in the post Candidates interview with chess.com (available in the aforementioned article):

“ In such a situation, you want to stay with your family, you want to stay home, with your relatives, your beloved ones. It just feels wrong that you’re playing chess when basically you must support your family. To let them play under such pressure which simply makes them nervous, negative, depressed, it just feels wrong somehow. Besides, to care of their health, you must give them the right conditions to show their mastery.”

• Now, some people have a contrary, “brutal” opinion that the players are professionals and that if you went to play chess that then you should play chess. Magnus Carlsen was very vocal in expressing this opinion during the chess24 stream. Later he even got into a Twitter “duel” with Radjabov, essentially claiming that if he wanted to play, he would have played.
• Now, as much as I love Magnus and his opinions, I disagree with him here. I don’t buy all that “Once you sit to play chess, you play chess” rhetoric. The players are not robots or gladiators, but human beings. I think it is crucial to secure the best possible conditions so they are able to display their best chess.
• Now, as for Radjabov… After it turned out he was right to insist on the postponement on the tournament, a heated debate revolving whether he should be given opportunity to play in the next Candidates arose. He himself said he was very motivated for the Candidates (claiming he even prepared with Sergey Karjakin) and that he thinks the tournament should start anew, with him included (he even said he will contact his lawyer). He even got support from the Azerbaijan national team, who wrote an open letter to FIDE asking for Radjabov to be included.
• Other people advocated a different solution – granting him the wildcard spot for the next Candidates 2022. I think Kramnik was also in favor of this, while Magnus said it would be ridiculous (as you may have figured, Magnus thinks Radjabov had an opportunity to play which he missed and that it wouldn’t be fair to grant him another chance).
• On the other hand, it is clear that starting the new tournament would be unfair – especially to players leading the event (Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Nepomniachtchi). In the most recent chess.com article, several participants of the Candidates tournament (Giri, Alekseenko and Maxime himself) stated they are against starting the tournament anew. ³
• Therefore, it is obvious that there is no solution that will keep everyone happy. I can also understand the viewpoint that it is Radjabov’s own fault (if 8 other players could agree to play, so could have he). I am not even sure whether he has any legal basis to claim to be included.
• However, I think it would be very nice to step away from papers and formal documents and be human beings. Radjabov is definitely the moral winner here and it is very hard not to be sympathetic with his side of the story (even though he did make some borderline “racist” remarks when he said that he is worried about another Chinese participant Wang Hao not being in quarantine. I personally think this “anti-Chinese” panic at the beginning of the virus outbreak was not justified).
• Moreover, many have pointed out that cutting the tournament in half and postponing it to a later day breaks the natural flow of the competition. We now basically have two tournaments where results will be added. When you also take my previous argument that several players played below their level, a chess fan inside of me has a lot of trouble accepting the validity and legitimacy of the tournament results.
• I think that the right Solomon solution would be to take the path of least evil. Therefore, my personal proposal to resolve the current situation would be – start the tournament anew and include Radjabov. Maxime and Nepo are granted wildcards for the 2022 Candidates tournament if they meet certain conditions at that time (say, if their rating doesn’t fall below 2700 or something like that).
• I think this would make some sense. Maxime and Nepo are leading by one point ahead of the group of 4 players, so the tournament is far from being decided. I think it wouldn’t be the same as the controversial termination of the Kasparov-Karpov 1984 match with the score standing 5-3 in Karpov’s favour (although even today it is not clear who benefited from that termination – but that is a topic for another day).
• Moreover, Nepo and Maxime are younger than Radjabov so granting the wild card for Candidates 2022 to them makes more sense – this could be Radjabov’s last real opportunity to fight for the title. God knows if he will belong to the world elite in two years.

So yeah, I’d like to see Radja there.

However, it is not an easy decision to make and I am not 100% sure it would be the correct one.

I can understand the logic behind not doing it as well. So who knows what will happen.

The only thing that is certain is – the Candidates tournament 2020 should have never started in the first place.

P.S. I have just read an excellent article titled by Macedonian GM Alex Čolović titled Now What? about the current situation. Highly recommended!

1. Source: Radjabov Withdraws From Candidates
2. Source: Candidates Tournament Postponed
3. Source: Candidates Tournament – Opinions