It was widely expected all along, but it has now become official — Magnus Carlsen will not play the Candidates tournament in April. The event that will determine who takes on the World chess champion Ding Liren is not going to feature the World No. 1 and five-time World champion from Norway.
Carlsen has officially withdrawn from the tournament to be held in Toronto through a letter to the world chess governing body FIDE. His place — which he earned by winning the World Cup — has gone to Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan. The top three from the World Cup, which was held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, would have qualified, and Abasov had finished fourth, behind Carlsen, India’s R. Praggnanandhaa and American Fabiano Caruana. India will be represented by two more players — Vidit Gujrathi (the winner of the Grand Swiss tournament) and D. Gukesh (the FIDE Circuit winner). That makes India the country with the highest number of participants in the eight-player round-robin event. And India has had none since 2016.
Until Praggnanandhaa clinched the qualification spot with his superb performance at the World Cup in Baku, Viswanathan Anand — a five-time World champion — had been the only Indian to play in this prestigious event. , the World championship’s semifinal for all practical purposes.
