Candidates Tournament 2016

The 2016 Candidates Tournament in Moscow has come to a close. This event determined the challenger for the World Chess Championship against Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen—a match to be held in New York this November.

After 13 rounds, the Candidates Tournament in Moscow, an epic event that has seen its ample share of head-spinning twists and turns, will come down to the dramatic last day. Both leaders, Fabiano Caruana of the USA and Sergey Karjakin of Russia, failed to make any headway in their respective bids to become the next challenger to World Champion Magnus Carlsen.

Another big round at the 2016 Candidates Tournament took place on Friday, March 25. With the passing of every round, you can see nerves play a bigger and bigger role in the games. It only helps build our enthusiasm during the Today In Chess show!

Days like today stopped being special for me about the time I turned 21 years old. In those times, birthdays were important and now they feel like just any other day. On my mind as I woke up was not the e-mail well wishes sure to be tumbling into my virtual mailbox, rather they were about the happenings in Moscow and round eleven of the Candidates Tournament.

The world of chess clearly has its eyes fixed on the events in Moscow. The Candidates Tournament is second in important to only the World Championship Match, and there are four players that are still fighing for the first place in this winner-takes-all double round robin.