03 February 2021

Expo 2020 Dubai (in 2021)

Dubai emerges as likely host for November world championship (theguardian.com; Leonard Barden) • Breaking news? No, the dateline is February 2020 and the first line warns, 'This article is more than 11 months old'. It starts,
Magnus Carlsen’s next world championship defence is likely to be in Dubai. The global chess body’s president, Arkady Dvorkovich, said in an interview in Gibraltar that Fide is close to signing a contract with Expo Dubai to stage the €2m, 14-game series there in November.

Carlsen’s opponent will be decided by the eight-man candidates’ tournament which starts at Ekaterinburg, Russia, on 15 March, and where the United States world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, who tied the 2018 championship series with Carlsen before losing a speed play-off, is the favourite.

We all know what happened next. First there was the Coronavirus Candidates (March 2020; on my main blog). Then there was 2020 World Championship Postponed (July 2020). Fast forward to a year after the Leonard Barden article and we learn, Expo 2020 Dubai to host FIDE World Chess Championship (fide.com):-

The next FIDE World Chess Championship -- the highlight of the world chess calendar -- will be held at Expo 2020 Dubai, promising an enthralling contest that will delight chess fans and the wider public alike.

Organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the postponed 2020 championship will take place between 24 November and 16 December 2021, and will see the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, defend his title against the winner of the delayed Candidates Tournament, which is due to conclude in Ekaterinburg, Russia, in April. The two players will compete for a prize fund of EUR 2 million (AED 9 million).

I added that FIDE link to my page on the next title match, 2021 Carlsen - ?, then wondered what are the odds that the Candidates tournament and/or the title match will take place. Does anyone know?

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