page_title: Candidates Tournament 2018
section_title: Qualifiers
hierarchical_section_title: Candidates Tournament 2018 / Qualifiers
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Zuschauerperspektive Kandidatenturnier Berlin 2018, 6. Runde: links Məmmədyarov und Kramnik; rechts Caruana
context_page_description: The Candidates Tournament 2018 was an eight-player double round-robin chess tournament, which was held in Berlin, Germany, between 10–28 March 2018. The winner, Fabiano Caruana, earned the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the World Chess Championship 2018 match.
  FIDE's commercial partner Agon was the official organizer.
context_section_description: There were five different qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament. In order of priority, these are: loser of the World Chess Championship 2016 match, the top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2017, the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2017, next two highest rated players (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from January to December 2017, with at least 30 games played) who played in Chess World Cup 2017 or FIDE Grand Prix 2017, and one player nominated by the organizers (Agon).
  Two players qualified by average rating of 2017. By September 2017, it was clear that this was a three-man race between Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Vladimir Kramnik. By mid-October 2017, Caruana and So had a near-decisive lead, but this was resolved on October 30 when Kramnik was named as the wild card candidate, assuring Caruana and So of qualifying by rating. According to the regulations, the first reserve player was the next highest placed player in the Grand Prix, Teimour Radjabov, and further reserves were the next highest players by their average of the 2017 ratings lists, starting with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
caption: View of round 6 from the audience: left Mamedyarov (seated) and Kramnik; right Caruana.
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