Khanty-Mansiysk Candidates - Kickoff

The Candidates Tournament starts this week, so let's have some links:-

• Candidates Tournament 2014; Official site
• Current local time in Russia – Khanty-Mansiysk
• 2014 Candidates Event; My site

Here's a table with links to Chessgames.com showing how the eight participants have scored in play against each other and against World Champion Carlsen:-

	Ana	And	Aro	Kar	Kra	Mam	Svi	Top	:	Car
Anand	xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Andreikin		xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Aronian			xx	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Karjakin				xx	*	*	*	*	:	*
Kramnik					xx	*	*	*	:	*
Mamedyarov						xx	*	*	:	*
Svidler							xx	*	:	*
Topalov								xx	:	*
Carlsen									:	xx

If you are wondering why this tournament is taking place only one year after last year's Candidates Tournament (see London Candidates - Wrapup for the coverage on my blogs), you aren't alone. Here's a snippet from the index page of my site showing all World Championship events since the unification match in 2006.

The World Cups have been held every two years since 2005. The title matches for those cycles have been held *after* the World Cup for the following cycle. This cycle will be the first in the unified series where the title match takes place *before* the World Cup of the following cycle. This makes the cycles easier to follow and to understand and is a good move on FIDE's part. The chess world now has a *non-overlapping* two-year championship cycle.