World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen will be defending his title in November. One of these eight challengers will go head-to-head with the Norwegian. They first have to win the Candidates Tournament in Berlin.
Image: David Llada
World Chess Champion: Magnus Carlsen
Wunderkind, chess genius, football fan and model for ad campaigns: 27-year-old Magnus Carlsen is breathing new life into the international chess scene. The Norwegian first won the title of World Chess Champion in 2013 in a match against Viswanathan Anand of India. Carlsen is defending his title for the third time in London from November 9-28, 2018, in a 12-match series.
Image: David Llada
Levon Aronian
The Armenian chess Grandmaster had an especially successful year in 2017. Aronian won the Grenke Chess Classics in April, beating out Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. He lived in Germany for several years and played for the German Chess Organization. Although Aronian has already held the title in the area of Blitz Chess, the official World Chess Champion title is not yet one he holds.
Image: David Llada
Fabiano Caruana
At the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship in 2016, Caruana, born in 1992, was at the head of the pack, second behind Sergej Karjakin. He likewise came in second at the Grenke Chess Classics 2017, ahead of Magnus Carlsen. Directly following the Candidates Tournament in 2018, he goes head-to-head with reigning champion Carlsen at the Grenke Chess Classics.
Image: David Llada
Alexander Grischuk
Blitz Chess is a style of game during which each player has just 15 minutes to consider their moves. Grischuk, born in 1983 in Moscow, has won the championship twice. Considered an expert poker player as well, Grischuk is married to chess Grandmaster Natalia Zhukova, one of the few women to have won the title from the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
Image: David Llada
Sergei Karjakin
The winner of the 2016 Candidates Tournament, the Russian played against Magnus Carlsen at the World Chess Championship in New York. The duo delivered a long, exciting tournament, as Carlsen was surprisingly unable to take the lead quickly. A showdown in the last round was what decided the outcome — delivering Carlsen a win on his 26th birthday.
Image: David Llada
Vladimir Kramnik
He was only eight when he first won at an adult tournament. Taught at a chess school run by Garry Kasparov, Kramnik defeated the former World Chess Champion in 2000 in a legendary World Chess Championship. In 2006, however, the Russian genius was delivered a spectacular loss against the "Deep Blue" computer. He has met Carlsen at numerous tournaments since — and usually goes home with a loss.
Image: David Llada
Ding Liren
Ding Liren is the first Chinese person to have qualified for the Candidates Tournament. In September 2017, he won in the semi-finals of the Chess World Cup against Wesley So, though he went on to be defeated by Levon Aronian. Liren has already met Carlsen for the Tata Steel Masters in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee.
Image: David Llada
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
The Azerbaijani Mamadeyarov comes from a family of chess talents. Born in 1985, the Grandmaster has two sisters who have both won the title of Woman Grandmaster. His native Azerbaijan has a long chess tradition and supports up-and-coming talents, something they are clearly quite successful at. The most famous of these talents is Garry Kasparov.
Image: David Llada
Wesley So
At 24, the Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So is the youngest player at the 2018 Candidates Tournament. Although representing the US Chess Federation, So does not need to hold citizenship to represent the country. Among other awards, So took first at the Tata Steel Masters in 2017 with just a one-point lead over World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Image: David Llada
Emanuel Lasker
Lasker became World Chess Champion in 1894 and retained the title 27 years — longer than anyone else to date. The mathematician and philosopher is also the only German among the world champions. To commemorate him on the year of his 150th birthday, coming up on December 24, the German Chess Federation and the Emanuel Lasker Association call for a Lasker Year in 2018.
Eight world class chess players compete from March 10 to March 28, 2018. The winner of this tournament will challenge current World Chess Champion, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, in November at the chess world championships in London. Our gallery shows portraits of chess players from David Llada's 2017 book "The Thinkers."
Unlike other sports, the chess championship is not split into men's and women's events, but men clearly dominate the field — or rather the board. The World Chess Federation, FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs), also stages a women-only championship. Hungarian chess pro Judit Polgar has headed the women's global chess ranking for years, without ever competing for a title in the women's world championship.
