Talk:Candidates Tournament

Women's Candidates

We need at least a brief discussion of Women's Candidates here. I don't have the necessary information at hand, but Mark Weeks offers quite a bit of help at http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/wcc-womn.htm. Quale 05:25, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it should be a separate article, just like Women's World Chess Championship is a separate article. Of course this article can include a link to it. Peter Ballard 05:49, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

That makes sense, and is probably preferable for reasons of article length, utility in wikilinking, and because the women's WC has been organized very differently than the men's WC. Quale 07:09, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Changes in format of tournament

Shouldn't this article discuss the reasons for the changes in format? E.g. Curacao 1962 was the last multi-round round-robin Candidates' tournament because afterwards Fischer claimed there was a Soviet conspiracy (AFAIK statistical analysis supported this; Soviet players agreed noticeably shorter draws with each other than with non-Soviet players). Philcha (talk) 02:41, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

• It would be reasonable to explain the history of the Candidates tournaments in this article. There is some discussion of Curaçao and its aftermath at World Chess Championship 1963 which is in pretty good shape, but could still be improved. We have a lot of work to do to get more complete coverage in Category:Chess world championships. Some industrious editors have started work on the early championship matches. Quale (talk) 07:25, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Table format

It would be good if we can think of way to display the same information arranged in a better way. Currently the table is very wide. Maybe we trade off more rows for fewer columns. I tried this on the first two cycles and despite the extra rows, the increase in table height/length doesn't seem as great as I thought it might be:

Year	Event	Format	Seeded In	Qualifiers/Result
1948–50	Interzonal Saltsjöbaden 1948	20-player single round-robin top 8 qualify	none	Bronstein, Szabo, Boleslavsky, Kotov, Lilienthal, Najdorf, Ståhlberg, Flohr, (Bondarevsky)
	Candidates Budapest 1950	10-player double round-robin winner challenges	Smyslov, Keres (Euwe, Reshevsky, Fine)	Bronstein (after playoff match against Boleslavsky)
	Championship Moscow 1950	best of 24 match Bronstein v. Botvinnik	Botvinnik (1948 champion)	Drawn 12-12, Botvinnik retained title
1951–54	Interzonal Stockholm 1952	21-player single round-robin top 8 qualify	none	Kotov, Taimanov, Petrosian, Geller, Averbakh, Ståhlberg, Szabo, Gligoric
	Candidates Zurich 1953	15-player double round-robin winner challenges	Bronstein, Boleslavsky, Smyslov, Keres, Reshevsky, Najdorf, Euwe	Smyslov
	Championship Moscow 1954	best of 24 match Smyslov v. Botvinnik	Botvinnik (1951 champion)	Drawn 12–12, Botvinnik retained title

The shading of the championship match row could be omitted if we decide it doesn't look good. Any thoughts? 165.189.101.177 (talk) 21:09, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I think that is better. The current format is running off the right side of my screen. Of course I can scroll, but that is bad. Bubba73 (talk), 21:45, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Now that we have an article on every championship, perhaps most of the information can be moved to the individual championships' pages. I think the table as it stands is too big to be useful. (And don't worry about destroying other peoples' work, it was mostly done by me). Peter Ballard (talk) 22:52, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the table is useful because it gives an overview of all the contests in one place. It's easier to see how the format of the championship has changed over time if you can see it displayed together rather than having to look at 25 or more separate articles. That said, the table needs some verification and fact checking. I think the Bronstein-Botvinnik match was in 1951, not 1950 as we have. There may also be some problems with the years in the cycles too, so those have to be checked. The cycles were supposed to be three years, but problems caused some delays, even early on. 165.189.101.177 (talk) 22:05, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the table is incredibly useful to get an overview of how the championship system has changed over time. However, for that very reason and because it includes not just Candidates Tournaments, but Interzonals, Championship matches etc. as well, maybe it would be better placed under Development of the World Chess Championship and this article devoted solely to the actual Candidates Tournaments? dllu (talk) 14:37, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

References

Needs clarification about scheduling

The article currently states: "In the early history, it was contested as a triennial tournament, but after the split of the World Championship in the early 1990s, followed with the changes in the determination of the World Champion Challenger, the tournament is held only periodically."

This makes no sense. Under the old system the tournament was held periodically, namely once every three years. Isn't it still periodic? The other possibility would be that it's held sporadically, as dictated by FIDE's whims or the availability of sponsorship money or whatever. JamesMLane t c 04:54, 15 April 2011 (UTC)

I think this article at least needs to provide a citation for the "variable scheduling" statement. Cecoppola (talk) 01:00, 21 September 2018 (UTC)