Challenger Fabiano Caruana has been tipped by many, including World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen, to win the 2020 Candidates and earn a rematch that, virus-permitting, would take place in Dubai in December this year. What’s clear is that his closest rival on paper is Ding Liren, with our experts Laurent Fressinet, Jan Gustafsson and Peter Heine Nielsen scoring the two players exactly the same.

In chess terms Fabiano Caruana had the easiest path to the Candidates Tournament, qualifying automatically after losing the 2018 match in London. That means he’s had a year and a half to process the rapid chess loss to Magnus, which he confessed had left him “burnt out”

Caruana beat MVL twice in 2019, in Croatia and Norway, but he didn’t beat another player in the Candidates in the same year in classical chess, while he lost to Ding Liren twice (in Norway and the Sinquefield Cup) and Nepomniachtchi (in Croatia). By comparison, as we saw, Ding Liren won classical games against Fabi, Giri, Nepo, MVL and Grischuk. That all suggests it may be too close to call in Yekaterinburg!

The countdown to the 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament is well and truly on, with Vladimir Kramnik, Jan Gustafsson and Laurent Trent all set to commentate on Tuesday’s Round 1:

See also:

• Official Candidates website
• 2020 Candidates Tournament games on chess24 with computer analysis and live commentary
• Kramnik and Short to commentate on the Candidates
• Play FantasyChess and earn prizes during the Candidates
• The 2020 Candidates: Kirill Alekseenko
• The 2020 Candidates: Wang Hao
• The 2020 Candidates: Anish Giri
• The 2020 Candidates: Ian Nepomniachtchi
• The 2020 Candidates: Alexander Grischuk
• The 2020 Candidates: Ding Liren
• Fabiano Caruana’s chess24 profile 

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