Candidates Tournament
The process for selecting the challenger has undergone a number of changes. A major change was announced on 25 November 2008, when it was announced that a two-player Challenger Match would be replaced with an eight-player Candidates Tournament. The change was criticised by a number of players and commentators, as well as by the Association of Chess Professionals. In June 2009, FIDE indicated that the format would be in the form of matches.
Originally, the intended venue for the candidate matches was Baku, but Levon Aronian announced that he would not play in Azerbaijan and matches involving him were to be held in a different country. The venue was changed to Kazan, Russia in July 2010, but the Azerbaijan nominee Shakhriyar Mamedyarov still remained in the tournament despite the tournament not being held in Azerbaijan.
In November 2010, then world No. 2 Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the Candidates' Tournament citing the selection process as not sufficiently modern and fair. He was replaced by Alexander Grischuk.
| Seed | Place | Qualifier | Jan 2010 Rating | Jan 2010 World Rank | May 2011 World Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Loser of the World Chess Championship 2010 match | Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) | 2805 | 2 | 7 |
| n/a | The next highest rated player in the world |
Magnus Carlsen (Norway) (withdrew) | 2810 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | The second-next highest rated player in the world |
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) | 2788 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | Winner of the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 | Levon Aronian (Armenia) | 2781 | 5 | 3 |
| 4 | Winner of the Chess World Cup 2009 | Boris Gelfand (Israel) | 2761 | 6 | 16 |
| 5 | Tournament organisers' nominee | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) | 2741 | 11 | 9 |
| 6 | Third place at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 | Alexander Grischuk (Russia) (replacement for Carlsen) | 2736 | 15 | 12 |
| 7 | Runner-up at the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 | Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) | 2733 | 16 | 13 |
| 8 | Loser of the 2009 Challenger Match | Gata Kamsky (United States) | 2693 | 40 | 18 |
Read more about this topic: World Chess Championship 2012
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