If you're anything like me, you don't really get chess. Sure, you might pick up a chessboard - or, let's be honest, the chess app - once in a while, but understanding the game on a high level is completely beyond you. I've played chess for almost two years, and I really enjoy the game and all its moving parts.

But my current Elo (the system in chess, and in other similar games, that measures how good you are in comparison to other players) is 1200, that of an amateur, hardly a number that reflects the experience I have or the enjoyment I derive from chess. I know a few openings, I can play an endgame, and I know how the knight moves, but I can't calculate more than four moves into the future, nor can I seem to avoid creating an absolutely dreadful pawn structure.

But the world's top chess players aren't like me or you. When they see a chessboard, it's like they gain the power of prophecy, able to foretell their pieces' fates and convert even the tiniest of perceived advantages using only their brain and dominant hand. Behind this power are years of sacrifice, decades of sweat and tears poured onto that board from a very young age, a life dedicated to unlocking the secrets that lie behind those 64 squares.

The battles that these players can wage on a chessboard are not border skirmishes, but wars, a barrage of opening preparation, middlegame positioning, and endgame tactics that originate from the depths of their mind and - if they're lucky - end in victory. I don't understand chess, but I understand why these top players play it, and it's an incredible feeling to watch them unleash the fury and passion that they've learned to save only for the board.

The Importance of the Candidates Tournament

Last month, the biggest tournament in chess happened, a tournament that dates back in some form to 1948, known simply as the Candidates. The (at least in my opinion) ominous title reflects the gravity of this tournament: each of the eight players is a candidate to play the World Championship match, against the current world champion.

Simply qualifying as a Candidate is considered a huge honor in the world of chess, but one that comes at a cost, as the tournament is also known as one of the most grueling experiences in not just chess, but all of sport. On a side note, the question of whether or not chess is a sport is not a question for me to tackle, but just know that many top players burn thousands of calories in a typical game, and have advocated that it be labeled as such!

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So what makes the Candidates so difficult? Well, the tournament is a double round-robin, meaning that each player plays the other seven… twice, once with the white pieces and once with the black ones. This format would already make for a grueling set of games, set over the course of three weeks, weeks spent thinking about nothing but chess.

But as spectators, we cannot forget that these are not normal games for the players. Each game is against a fellow super-grandmaster, another member of the chess elite, and in most cases, another member of the top 20 chess players in the world. This makes every single game pivotal, as a single loss could demoralize a player enough to catalyze a disastrous tournament. And finally, unlike a normal tournament, there is absolutely no consolation prize. Under usual circumstances, the only trophy that matters is the golden one. Anything else, and you're going home.

2021-2023: A Wild Time for Chess

Now, eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I threw in the qualifier of “usual” circumstances. Why is that? Well, to explain, it might be better to rewind, and go back to the 2021 World Chess Championship, where reigning champion Magnus Carlsen has just finished annihilating 2020 Candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi.

And by annihilating, I mean that they had to end the tournament early since Magnus had won so many times that further play was unnecessary. As fate would have it, this would be the last world championship that Magnus, widely considered the best player of all time (though it's a LeBron vs MJ type comparison between him and Garry Kasparov), would opt to play. “I feel I don't have a lot to gain… I don't have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match," Carlsen said on a podcast in July of 2022.

The reason I specify July is, Carlsen's news did not exactly come at an opportune time for the players. In fact, it came in the final rounds of the Candidates, after Ian Nepomniachtchi had gone on an absolute rampage, beating nearly every player in the tournament and avoiding even a single loss. As I mentioned, in the Candidates, the only place that really matters is first, so as soon as Nepo (his common moniker) started gapping the field by such a wide margin, motivation decreased for the other seven players.

That is until Carlsen began to mention that he wouldn't play, in a variety of settings, with decreasing ambivalence about this controversial decision. This meant that not one, but two Candidates would have to be selected to play in the 2023 World Championship.

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Only two players were in genuine contention for second place by the time it was announced that, for the first time in history, the Candidates runner-up would be playing for the title. To the dismay of Fabiano Caruana, the top player in the United States and the loser of the 2018 Championship (albeit a much closer match against Carlsen than in 2021), he was just out of reach, which only left his countryman Hikaru Nakamura and Chinese player Ding Liren. Ding's presence was especially notable, as he had only qualified for the Candidates by a technicality - after Russian player Serjey Karjakin was disqualified for supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he was the highest-rated replacement and qualified automatically.

As luck would have it, the final round of the 2022 Candidates? Hikaru vs Ding.

Just to conclude my contextual rant, Ding won the game. After a series of mistakes with an ambiguous bishop (this is my way of saying I have no idea what that bishop was doing, and neither did Hikaru), Ding pressed his advantage to a convincing win. The World Championship that followed deserves its own article, but in summation, both Ding and Nepo played at a level that was widely criticized by top players as unbecoming of a World Championship match.

Despite both players' pedigree, each suffered extreme psychological distress during the match. Ding prevailed but didn't seem too happy about it, accepting the title halfheartedly and returning to China to take a break from chess which is still somewhat ongoing.

The Players of the 2024 Candidates

This brings me to the 2024 Candidates, which just concluded, and in my totally unbiased opinion was the most exciting chess tournament of all time. In the absence of Magnus, who dominated over every other player for so long, it felt like the 2023 Championship was our chance to crown his successor. And yet, the tournament was so lackluster, and Ding's presence has been so inconspicuous since, that it feels as if a power vacuum has opened up, in which a dozen equally strong players have equal chances to cement themselves as the new champion.

Each of these players, some more than others, feel uniquely talented and capable of claiming the next era in chess history. On top of that, their equivalent strength made for a truly wild ride the entire tournament.

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It feels only appropriate to introduce the eponymous Candidates that encountered each other in 2024, and how they each got there. As a two-time runner-up, Ian Nepomniachtchi claimed the first spot. The next three were determined by the first three places at the World Cup, a knockout tournament that derives its prestige almost entirely from how important it is for Candidates' qualification.

Magnus Carlsen, surprising nobody, won the World Cup and took the first spot, but immediately clarified that he was turning it down. The tournament's second place was Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (always referred to as Pragg), an 18-year-old Indian chess superstar who skyrocketed to fame after this admirable result, defeating Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, and Fabiano Caruana along the way - all of whom are in the world's top ten rated players.

Speaking of Fabiano Caruana, he took third place at the World Cup and qualified accordingly, though the world #2 - the only player to be rated 2800 as of before the Candidates, other than Magnus - ended up qualifying in several ways, but as this was the first way in which he did so, the other pathways were left open to other Candidates. Fourth place at the World Cup was Nijat Abasov, an Azerbaijani player who did not (and still does not) rank among the top fifty players in the world, but had a spectacular tournament for his rating, defeating enormously successful players such as Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi.

Carlsen's spot was given to Abasov, and he was off to the races, becoming the lowest-rated player ever to qualify for the Candidates. Many criticized this decision, but Nijat's impressive showing in the World Cup cannot be denied, even if he was clearly the weakest on the field.

The other tournament that determined the 2024 Candidates was the Grand Swiss, another decently prestigious tournament made much more so by the honor of qualifying for the Candidates. Vidit Gujrathi, another Indian player who hit his stride in 2023, won the tournament with a score of 8.5/11, while Hikaru Nakamura was 2nd with 8/11. A word on Nakamura for the sake of entertainment, though I already introduced him - during the pandemic, he claims to have converted to a professional Twitch streamer and content creator rather than a professional chess player. Despite being #3 in the world, Nakamura says he only plays tournaments for the content, and values his online career far more than his over-the-board results, going so far as to criticize other players for not playing “interesting chess.”

The 7th slot was decided by the FIDE Circuit, a new qualification measure implemented by the game's governing body, which is too complicated to really explain but basically was a reflection of how well a player performed in numerous tournaments over the course of 2023, a not-so-sneaky way for FIDE to add to the Candidates qualification cycle without spending money on adding new tournaments. Since Fabiano had already made it, it was a race for 2nd on the Circuit, and Dutch veteran Anish Giri seemed like a sure favorite until a new event appeared suddenly on the horizon - the Chennai Masters, which 17-year-old Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju won in style, snatching the spot from Giri in a somewhat controversial manner.

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However, far more controversial was the race for the tournament's 8th slot, which was widely assumed by December to go to World #6 Wesley So. It probably shouldn't have surprised anybody that a few challengers showed up, among them Giri, but none as serious as French player Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja organized his own tournament, called the “Race to the Candidates,” in which he played three grandmasters far weaker than himself.

However, with a score of 5.5/6, Firouzja was still short of what he needed to surpass, so he opted to participate in the obscure Rouen Open, where he won all 7 games and just barely made it to the Candidates only a few days before year's end. Wesley has made no public comments about Alireza's unorthodox behavior.

The Candidates Tournament: Rounds 1-7

Going into the 2024 Candidates Tournament, Fabiano Caruana was circled as the clear favorite by every major pundit and mathematical model, with Magnus even saying “If Caruana becomes world champion… it would probably feel the most normal,” as the soft-spoken American player has long been regarded as the top classical player in a world without Magnus. As the winner of the last two Candidates tournaments, Nepomniachtchi also seemed a favorite, but supporters of Caruana worried that he was not in the same form as in 2021 and 2022.

The three Indian players in the tournament were also subjects of anticipation, with India being regarded as the fastest-growing country for Chess, and fans had hoped for each one - especially Pragg, frankly. Opinions on Hikaru and Alireza's future performance were mixed, while Abasov's supposed fate was not - “[he's] in for a rough time,” said Carlsen.

The tournament didn't truly start until round 2, since the first round consisted of four draws. But the players didn't seem satisfied with the quiet start, going for broke and achieving four decisive results in the second round. Nepo and Fabi both took wins with the white pieces, beating Alireza and Abasov respectively.

Alireza showed signs of consistent weakness against Nepomniachtchi, while Abasov simply made a mistake in an endgame. Vidit Gujrathi took the win against Hikaru convincingly, causing many to ask if Hikaru was in typical form for the Candidates, or if he had neglected to bring his full preparation to the tournament in the wake of his recent streaming success. Finally, the Indian “youngsters” Gukesh and Pragg showed off, and Pragg came to fight, sacrificing three pawns in the middlegame, but ultimately failing to beat Gukesh's solid play. Gukesh showed he was in excellent form, winning with ease.

In Round 3, Hikaru failed to gain any momentum, falling victim to a draw trap in the Slav system against Abasov. Fabi and Alireza made a draw after some thought, while Nepo and Gukesh avoided conflict, quickly trading their pieces and drawing as well. The one decisive game saw Pragg take down his countryman Vidit, once again playing some bold pawn sacrifices, which seemed to pay off more this time around.

Stopped dead in his tracks, Vidit fell victim to another strong line in Round 4, when he made a blunder in time trouble, allowing Nepo to run his pawn towards the edge of the board (where it would transform into the queen) before resigning. With the other games being drawn, Nepomniachtchi was leading the Candidates Tournament for the third time in a row.

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As the players spent their first rest day watching the solar eclipse and sleeping, it occurred to the world that Ian Nepomniachtchi had not been in the lead to win a Candidates Tournament. In every round of his last two victories, he stayed in first place the entire tournament, and the same had been true in Rounds 1-4. To many, Ian's evaluation as the third or fourth strongest player in the field by Elo felt like a severe underestimation - how can you say that about someone who's never been in second place at the Candidates?

For that reason, in Round 5, all eyes were on the game between Nepo and Pragg, in which Pragg sacrificed a pawn (shocker) in such a bizarre faction that Nepo thought for forty minutes before blundering. However, Pragg failed to convert his significant advantage, as the computer's preferred response was simply too hard to find for a human, and in a stroke of luck for Ian, the game ended in a draw.

But Round 5's excitement didn't end there, as what appeared to be a quiet draw between the two players who appeared to be having a tough go of things at the candidates - Hikaru Nakamura and Alireza Firouzja - turned into a time scramble for Firouzja. Nakamura, sensing weakness, made his moves quickly and forced Firouzja to make a blunder with just one second left on his clock (the players get additional time each time they make a move), easily converting the lost position.

In a game between Vidit and Fabiano, Vidit gained a substantial advantage against Fabi but had used so much time in doing so that he couldn't capitalize on it, finishing in a draw. Most exciting was the game between Gukesh and Nijat Abasov, where Gukesh came out on top after an intense endgame, catching up to Nepo in the process.

In Round 6, Nijat Abasov and Alireza Firouzja - already in last place - both lost, to Pragg and Vidit respectively, their gap with the rest of the field growing further. At this point, mathematical models gave them less of a 0.1% chance of winning the tournament. And then, in Round 7, Ian Nepomniachtchi reclaimed the sole lead once more - but not by winning.

His games in both Round 6 and 7 against Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru were peaceful draws, clearly sensing that it was not the time to press his opponents; better to let others falter. And falter they did: in a tragic turn of events, after an excellent game, under severe time pressure, an innocuous king move by Gukesh led to an unstoppable checkmate by Alireza. With the Candidates halfway over, Nepo was still winning, and his competitors had no choice but to step it up a notch.

The Candidates Tournament: Rounds 8-12

Unfazed by a truly saddening loss, Gukesh came out of his rest day ready to reclaim his lead, lining his important pieces up on the first rank (the left side of the board) and storming into Vidit's position. Hikaru Nakamura brought a fight to his opponent Fabiano, reclaiming a positive score by capitalizing on his opponent's low time with a series of confusing moves that proved difficult to accurately respond to. The most exciting game of the day, however, was between Nijat Abasov and Nepomniachtchi.

Abasov, who had yet to not lose a game with the black pieces, held a spectacularly complicated Petrov's endgame with ease against the world's greatest expert in that particular pattern. Though the game ended in a draw, it felt like an undeniable victory for Abasov, who had just allowed Gukesh to tie Ian once more, fending off a confident Nepo after seven hours of play.

Alireza Firouzja came ready to fight in the tournament's second half, after an extremely unfortunate start to his tournament that ended with a horrific loss against Vidit (he blundered by taking a pawn with his queen deep into enemy territory, a move commentators labeled bluntly as suicidal) and a lucky win in a time scramble against Gukesh. Pragg immediately neutralized his attack, trading his pieces and drawing the game.

In Round 9, he drew against Nepo, but only after a tremendous offensive met with scant tenacity by his opponent. He took the draw offer despite having a computer-described advantage of +1, which is small, but almost always converted into a win by top GMs.

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However, Round 9 did not end there for Alireza, who soon filed a complaint against an arbiter (like a chess referee, for those who don't know) whom he claimed had distracted his line of play. The arbiter soon responded, explaining that Alireza had been loudly stomping around the playing hall during the game, which had provoked a complaint from Abasov. Watching the live stream of Round 9, you can indeed hear Alireza's footsteps despite the poor audio quality.

And as if that drama wasn't sufficient for the Candidates, Alireza's father stayed in the hall for Round 10 against FIDE's rules, threatening to call the police if he could not ensure his son's focus. Upon leaving, Mr. Firouzja told reporters that Alireza was considering quitting chess if incompetence like this continued. Unsurprisingly, Alireza lost his Round 10 game to Caruana.

The controversy surrounding Alireza is of course not unheard of, given his questionable qualification as well as a similar complaint he made about an arbiter at this year's Tata Steel (sometimes described as the ‘Wimbledon of chess’) tournament. But it still distracted from Rounds 9 and 10, which were entertaining in their own right. In Round 9, Fabi took a somewhat disappointing draw with Abasov and Gukesh did the same with Pragg.

The fireworks were in Vidit-Nakamura, where Vidit continued to prove a nuisance to Hikaru, winning the game somewhat easily. The dominance Vidit had shown over Hikaru in both of their games baffled many, especially Hikaru, given Vidit's otherwise poor Candidates performance.

That confusion proved even more pervasive after Hikaru beat Abasov, clearing the way for his pawn's promotion with very little that Nijat's bishop pair could do against it. Though they had had their ups and downs, Hikaru and Fabi were now both within striking distance of the leaders Gukesh and Nepo, who made a draw, unwilling to sacrifice their lead to the other just yet.

But yet again, Vidit stood in Hikaru's way: even though Hikaru's brilliant fight with Praggnanandhaa made headlines with its ingenuity, Vidit allowed Nepomniachtchi to win. “Allow” is an appropriate verb, seeing as Vidit had the clear win numerous times throughout the game, but made several blunders that left everybody in shock - but no one more than Hikaru. This meant Nepo was in the sole lead once more, as Gukesh had been held to a draw with masterful defense from Fabiano.

Round 12 of 14 was the last chance for Nepo's challengers to stay meaningfully in the Candidates conversation, and not simply let him run away with the tournament like he already had two times in a row. Luckily for Hikaru, Gukesh, and Fabiano, they all faced weak opponents that they were able to defeat. After stabilizing Hikaru's attack, Alireza made a blunder by pushing his pawn two squares, which allowed Hikaru to centralize and create another, stronger checkmate threat. (Alireza had beat Abasov the day prior, but neither stood a mathematical chance to win the tournament regardless).

Gukesh's game was praised by grandmasters as astoundingly mature, letting Nijat self-destruct as he calmly strengthened his own position. Fabiano's win, on the other hand, resulted in a series of mistakes from Vidit Gujrathi. And lucky for the trio, Nepo made a lengthy draw with Pragg, meaning a three-way tie with just two rounds to go.

The Candidates Tournament: Rounds 13-14

The matchups in Rounds 13 and 14 almost seemed to have been created by a team of scriptwriters. Hikaru would play Nepo, and then Gukesh. Nepo would play Hikaru, and then Fabiano.

All four players would have the chance to control their own destiny. Nepo-Nakamura started with a series of moves that looked normal to anyone without a master title, but that were met with confusion by commentators and pundits. GMs Daniel Naroditsky, Robert Hess, and super-GM Anish Giri all declared that Hikaru must have mixed up his opening preparation, since his backwards queen move had never been played before, and Nepo had an advantage to prove its dubious nature. Nepo, however, brought his knight and bishop back, an equally unorthodox response, and the game ended in a draw.

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With that game ending in a draw, Fabiano had the motivation to tame Pragg in a masterfully handled closed position in which Fabi slowly removed any mobility whatsoever that Pragg's pieces had. Though the young Indian's play was characteristically creative for such a desperate position, it surprised nobody that Fabi placed himself solidly in contention for the Candidates title going into the final round.

More surprising was an inaccuracy from Alireza in his game against Gukesh, which Gukesh noticed immediately, making the best move over a dozen moves in a row and ending Round 13 in style against the player he had formerly suffered defeat to. With that, Gukesh was in lone first place going into the final round, the first round in any Candidates tournament that Nepomniachtchi had not been leading.

Usually, a draw in chess is considered a boring result, but the draws that occurred in the final round of the Candidates were anything but boring. Gukesh faced Hikaru Nakamura, a terrifyingly creative and aggressive opponent to face when a draw is all you need. If Gukesh drew Hikaru, either he would face Nepo or Fabi in a tiebreak under a faster time control - an undesirable result, as Gukesh is known to be a very slow player - or he would become the challenger to the world champion.

Though drawing with black against Hikaru cannot possibly be construed as easy, Gukesh actually held the advantage at some points in the game and made a draw with astounding ease. His maturity and wisdom were once again praised by the commentators, who noted his ability to exploit his positional and tactical advantages in service of peace as well as conflict on the board.

A decidedly less peaceful game occurred between Ian and Fabiano, two players who had known each other for decades at the very top of competitive chess. Both needed to beat the other in this final round, in order to save one of their last chances to become world champions before the younger generation claimed the throne forever. A slightly advantageous position for Caruana slowly evolved into a winning one, the excitement mounting as a tiebreak grew more and more likely, with that winning position becoming something truly crushing.

Not even Ian could save the game now… but Caruana could ruin it. With plenty of time left on the clock, but the pressure mounting, he made a peaceful king move that looked innocuous to me - twiddle your thumbs, keep your advantage - but apparently drew the game.

It was over for Caruana. He had drawn the game, and he needed to win. But wait!

Nepo threw the game right back, fumbling his draw opportunity and clearing the way for promotion. Fabi seized the day, capitalizing on his position for a few moves before blundering right back, accidentally forcing a trade that put him in an endgame with two pawns and a queen versus one pawn and a queen. At my level, the extra pawn would mean victory, but any grandmaster knows how to prevent promotion in their sleep. Looking almost sorrowful, Nepo forced the draw that Fabi had blundered three different times, ending one of the lowest-accuracy games in the entire Candidates. As the players reset their pieces, Ian told his friend “I'm very sorry,” to which Fabi smiled and said “My fault,” walking away in shame.

The playing hall was sad for a few minutes. These veterans of the game both deserved the World Championship title. Now, their chances of ever getting it had substantially shrunk.

Nepo leaned back in his chair, covering his eyes and shaking his head in disbelief. Fabi left the building. But the moment was not sad for long, because Gukesh Dommaraju was about to enter the building. The perpetually straight-faced, mild-mannered 17-year-old showed his age at last, hugging almost everyone in the building as he accepted his trophy and became the youngest Candidates winner of all time by almost three years (Garry Kasparov was 20 when he first won it). Gukesh had defied all expectations, and he was the new king of the chess world.

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The Candidates Tournament is always incredibly brutal. But this year, it was uniquely exciting for all involved. It was the first time that I got to follow this particular tournament, and the storylines afloat throughout were truly invigorating to participate in.

From the astoundingly mature and groundbreaking play from Gukesh Dommaraju, to the tragically close-tied second place of Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, to the unfortunate tournament for Alireza Firouzja, it was a unique Candidates in just how cinematic and exciting a chess tournament can be. It may seem that the new world order is set in stone after the 2024 Candidates, but now Gukesh has to defeat the once mighty Ding Liren. The chess world will continue to evolve because nothing can ever remain still on those wonderful 64 squares.