TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2020 (Postponed)
FIDE halts the Candidates tournament at the half way stage
Mark Crowther - Thursday 26th March 2020
The FIDE Candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg has been suspended after 7 of the 14 rounds. The decision was made overnight by the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich in response to the deteriorating Coronavirus situation in Russia. Vladimir Putin announced a series of emergency measures in response the ongoing Coronavirus crisis asking all but essential workers to stay home next week. FIDE's message at that point was that the event would continue but later a suspension of international flights from Friday 17th March was announced and this proved to be the final straw. It had previously been announced that if the Candidates had to be halted, it would resume at a later date from the point that it stopped.
The players were mostly on flights to Moscow and out of the country this morning. More news on the fallout from this decision and especially the argument that the event should not have started in the first place will no doubt follow.
Already the discussion has started as to whether Teimour Radjabov's exclusion over not wanting to play under these circumstances should be reviewed as to an extent he was proved right. Rajdabov has asked to be reinstated as a ninth player in the event.
At the moment FIDE's hope is that the Candidates tournament will be completed in Yekaterinburg in the next few months and the World Championship Match between the winner and Magnus Carlsen will take place at the end of the year as scheduled. It will of course be highly reliant on the Coronavirus crisis being brought under control and no-one can know what's going to happen yet.
Links to further news stories:
FIDE stops the Candidates Tournament [FIDE]
Arkady Dvorkovich: "We are ensuring the safe return of players to their homes" [FIDE]
FIDE Candidates Tournament stopped at halfway [Chess24]
FIDE Candidates Tournament Postponed [chess.com Peter Doggers]
Teimour Radjabov Reacts to Candidates Tournament Postponement [YouTube]
