Eight to play to win the right to challenge Carlsen

23 February 2014, Kuala Lumpur - The Fantastic Eight have qualified through the 2012-2013 FIDE Championship Cycle. Let's see how:

Vishy Anand is the loser of the 2013 Championship Match;
Vladimir Kramnik and Dmitry Andreikin are the top two finishers in the World Cup 2013;
Veselin Topalov and  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13;
Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin are the next two highest rated players who played in the Chess World Cup 2013 or the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13;
Peter Svidler has got the Organizing committee's wild card (FIDE rating in July 2013 at least 2725).        

You can find the FIDE regulation for the Candidates Tournament here.
It is a 14-round double round robin tournament, which takes place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from March the 13th to March the 31st.

Play starts - most probably - at 4:00am EST - 10:00am CET.

Here are some predictions by GM Alex Yermolinsky. The first one represents his chances of winning the Candidates, and the second one rates his chances to beat Magnus.

Kramnik               20%       5%

Topalov               5%          5%

Svidler                  5%          5%

Anand                  0%          n/a

Aronian               40%       30%

Mamedyarov    5%          5%

Karjakin               15%       15%

Andreikin            10%       30%

To read more, please visit the link here: http://www20.chessclub.com/article/fide-candidates-2014