The history of the Candidates Tournaments and Candidates Matches dates back to 1950. In its anniversary year, FIDE is looking forward to the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto in April 2024 and provides an overview of the history of these competitions. | Photos: Via FIDE
The following survey lists all chess players who have reached a top five or top ten status at least once in their career, ranked by their highest position, then in chronological order. Of course, the start of the FIDE Elo list and the current date are arbitrary, but the chess world has now had an established rating and ranking publication for more than fifty consecutive years. How many different TOP FIVE players would you expect? Well, there are only 55 luminaries in the last 55 years or so! Check it out. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov | Photo: Grand Chess Tour
Recent News: Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen shocked the chess community by resigning after one move in a game against American grandmaster Hans Niemann at the Julius Baer Generation Cup, a tournament held online. Niemann as white played 1. d4; Carlsen responded with Nf6. Niemann played 2. c4, whereupon Carlsen resigned and turned off his webcam. Carlsen had previously accused Niemann of cheating after losing to him at the Sinquefield Cup tournament in St. Louis.
On 14 February the Yugoslav-Serbian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov died in Belgrade at the age of 88. In 1951 Ivkov was World Junior Champion and in the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the world's best players. He made it to the Candidates in 1965, and who played in the Interzonal Tournaments in 1967, 1970, 1973, and 1979. | Photo: Durch National Archive
Anatoly Karpov is one of the World Champions who is featured in the ChessBase NFT series. The 12th World Champion is a passionate stamp collector and immediately understood the idea. In an interview Karpov talks about NFTs, the story behind his brilliant win against Viktor Kortschnoi in the Candidates Final 1974, the World Championship match Carlsen vs. Nepomniachtchi, and Carlsen's statements about defending the title.