Candidates Tournament 2022

Radjabov had qualified for the previous Candidates Tournament, but withdrew after his request to postpone the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic was refused.[8] With the postponement of the 2020 Candidates Tournament at the halfway point due to the pandemic until its resumption in 2021, Radjabov called for his reinstatement into that tournament.[9] FIDE decided that it was appropriate to instead give Radjabov a direct entry into the 2022 Candidates.[10]

On March 21, 2022, the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission ruled that Sergey Karjakin breached Article 2.2.10 of the FIDE Code of Ethics, after publicly expressing support for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, Karjakin was banned from playing in any official FIDE-related tournaments for a period of six months,[11] making him unable to participate in the 2022 Candidates Tournament.[12]

Karjakin had 21 days to appeal.[11] Although he said he did not see any point in making an appeal,[13] the Chess Federation of Russia almost immediately announced that it was filing an appeal on his behalf.[14] The appeal means that the decision to ban him will be reviewed by FIDE.[11][15]

Originally, no player would have qualified by rating.[16] However, the rules state that should Karjakin's disqualification be upheld, the highest rated player in the May 2022 rating list who has also played at least 30 games rated in the rating lists from June 2021 to May 2022 will be invited as a replacement.[4]

In the April 2022 rating list,[17] the leading player (who was not world champion or already qualified) was Ding Liren with a rating of 2799, but he had only played 4 games rated in the rating lists from June 2021 to April 2022,[13] due to difficulties in travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] He therefore needed to play at least 26 games in March and April for the May 2022 rating list in order to be eligible. The Chinese Chess Association organized three different events for Ding to play,[19] allowing Ding to meet the minimum games requirement, and he also moved up to #2 in the rating list.[20] Thus, if Karjakin's appeal is unsuccessful, Ding Liren will qualify for the Candidates Tournament.[21]

May 2022 FIDE Rating List (Top 10 Players)
World Rank	Player	FIDE Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen[22]	2864
2	Ding Liren[23]	2806
3	Alireza Firouzja[24]	2804
4	Fabiano Caruana[25]	2786
5	Richárd Rapport[26]	2776
6	Ian Nepomniachtchi[27]	2773
7	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov[28]	2770
8	Wesley So[29]	2766
9	Levon Aronian[30]	2765
10	Anish Giri[31]	2761

The time control is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move 1.

If there is a tie for first place, tie-breaks take the following format:[4]

• Players play two rapid chess games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. In the case of a three-way to six-way tie, a single round-robin is played. If seven or eight players are tied, a single round-robin is played with a time limit of 10 minutes plus 5 seconds per move.
• If any players are still tied for first after the rapid chess games, they play two blitz chess games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. In the case of more than two players tied, a single round-robin is played.
• If any players are still tied for first after those blitz chess games, the remaining players play a knock-out blitz tournament at the same time control. In each mini-match of the knock-out tournament, the first player to win a game wins the mini-match.

This is a change from previous candidates tournaments from 2013 to 2021, which used tie-breaks based on players' results in the tournament (such as results of head-to-head games between tied players, and number of wins).

Ties for places other than first are broken by, in order: (1) Sonneborn–Berger score; (2) total number of wins; (3) head-to-head score among tied players; (4) drawing of lots.

The prize money is €48,000 for first place, €36,000 for second place, and €24,000 for third place (with players on the same number of points sharing prize money, irrespective of tie-breaks), plus €7,000 per point for every player, a total prize pool of €500,000.[4]

Players from the same country must play each other in the earlier rounds: rounds 1 and 8 (if only two) and in rounds 1 to 3 and 8 to 10, if there are up to three players from the same federation.[4]

First named player is white. 1–0 indicates a white win, 0–1 indicates a black win, and ½–½ indicates a draw. Numbers in parentheses show players' scores prior to the round. In April 2022, FIDE announced pairings for the tournament[34]