Chess: Carlsen’s rivals prepare for Candidates as No 1 wins after hiccup

The field is almost complete for the eight-player 2022 Candidates at Madrid in June, which will decide Magnus Carlsen’s next world title challenger. It promises to be a vintage occasion.

The event which remains in the memory among recent Candidates is London 2013, when Carlsen and Vlad Kramnik battled to become Vishy Anand’s challenger. Both made a hash of the final round before the Norwegian won through. Now, in 2022, there are at least four players who can be argued as favourites.

China’s world No 2, Ding Liren, looks poised to qualify for the final spot in Madrid. Ding had seemed out of contention due to visa issues, but Sergey Karjakin’s ban created a vacancy if Ding could complete a 30 games requirement by the end of April.

This week Ding is at Hangzhou for a four-GM event where he will play 12 games, followed by a six-game match against China’s No 2, Wei Yi, and then a 10-game training tournament. Some days will have two rounds, and Ding’s hectic marathon will be complete by 24 April, before the cut-off date for Fide’s May rating list.

Ding’s 6.5/7 start in Hangzhou has regained his world No 2 spot from the prodigy Alireza Firouzja, who has been inactive recently but is probably at work on preparing opening bombs ready for the Candidates.

A few months ago Hikaru Nakamura seemed to have abandoned classical chess completely in favour of his booming career as a streamer with more than a million followers. Then Fide made its inspired decision to give Nakamura a wildcard for the Berlin leg, and the five-time US champion responded by winning the first Grand Prix leg, before recovering from a poor start in the final leg to score three wins in a row. The Berlin leg will be decided in Sunday’s final, but it is already