The winner of the FIDE Candidates Tournament will have the honour of challenging the World Chess Champion. It brings together the Grand Masters of chess in a cycle that varies between two and three years.

A total of eight players will compete in the Candidates Tournament, which is played in a double-round league tournament. Make your sports bets on each match with options on the number of moves played, double chance odds and three-way results.

Betting on the Candidates Tournament

Eight players have qualified, most of whom are well known to chess bettors: American Fabiano Caruana, World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda from Poland, French international chess grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, current runner-up Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia, and Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan, who was directly invited by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

After Karjakin's 6-month chess ban left a space open for the candidate tournament, Chinese GM Ding Liren launched a successful marathon of ranked games in order to be eligible.

Richard Rapport and Hikaru Nakamura will be participating in the Candidates tournament after Hikaru's victory over Andrey Esipenko ensured that both would finish 1st and 2nd in the FIDE Grand Prix.

Betting on chess

The aim of the Candidates' Tournament is used to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. Magnus Carlsen was the number one ranked player in 2011 and has dominated chess betting since then. As of February 2020, Carlsen was on a streak of 120 games unbeaten in standard time controls - another record for the world champion.

Even though it is not represented in the Olympics, Chess is recognised as a sport internationally and by the International Olympic Committee. Chess requires physical effort due to the stress the mental effort imposes on players' bodies

The highest title awarded in chess (apart from the title of World Champion) is the title of Grandmaster. In order to obtain this title, a player must achieve an established FIDE classical or standard rating of 2500 and win three grandmaster standards in international competition. Once achieved, this title is retained for life.

Recommended bets on the candidate tournament

A recommended bet might be that Caruana is the most likely challenger to face Magnus Carlsen at the upcoming FIDE World Championship. Caruana has scored an impressive 7.7 average with a most common score of 8 out of 14 points. He has won 197 events in the classic and another 62 in the tie-breaker for a total of 259 tournament wins. We also recommend placing live bets.