GM Leinier Dominguez made a sudden entry into the Candidates race. Now FIDE has responded to the criticism after their clarification of the rules drew reactions from the chess community.

With less than a month left in 2023, the race to the Candidates is heating up. Six players already sealed their places, but the two remaining spots are still on the table: The FIDE Circuit spot and the rating spot.

The most exciting race is for the FIDE Circuit spot, which is determined by the best results in eligble tournaments of a certain standard throughout the year. GM Fabiano Caruana has already won the Circuit, but as he is already qualified through the World Cup, it’s all about the players behind him.

Four grandmasters have emerged as contenders for the Circuit spot: GMs Anish Giri, Wesley So, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Arjun Erigaisi.

While Giri remains in pole position despite his disappointing performance in the Sinquefield Cup, the Dutch number-one is now dangerously close to being caught by Gukesh. The Indian 17-year-old is currently playing in the London Chess Classic.

Chess statistician Tai Pruce-Zimmerman calls the race messy. “Giri still leads the FIDE Circuit, but if Gukesh wins in London outright he would pass him,” he says.

Gukesh’s loss in the 4th round proved costly to his chances though, as Pruce-Zimmerman noted on X/Twitter:

Mathematically, a three-way tie for second place isn’t a great spot when you NEED to win clear first, and a tie isn’t enough. Here are Gukesh’s odds of clear first in London, per my model, based on live ratings (left) or if you think his “true strength” is “actually” 2750 (right) pic.twitter.com/8Q4oCKq8mO

— Chess by the Numbers (@ChessNumbers) December 4, 2023

The World Rapid Championship, which takes place in Uzbekistan from December 26th, is the last event of the year and can become decisive for the FIDE Circuit race. The field has not yet been announced, but So is likely to skip that event. This means that either Gukesh or Giri could clinch the spot with a good result.

The Champions Chess Tour Finals, which starts December 9 in Toronto, is also eligible for circuit points, but will only matter for So or GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov. However, even if So wins the event, he won’t earn enough points to close the gap up to Giri.

Meanwhile, there are rumors of a major event in India later in December that could also give Gukesh or Erigaisi chances to take the Circuit lead, Pruce-Zimmerman says.

“Of course those chances for Gukesh or Erigaisi could shrink if Giri is able to improve his own score by winning an event like the European Rapid Championship or Sunway Sitges, so we have to keep an eye on whether or not he registers for those.”

While So can miss out on the FIDE Circuit, he still has a decent chance to qualify as the highest-rated player on the January list. The 30-year-old currently leads that race, 1.2 points ahead of Dominguez, who had an excellent performance in the Sinquefield Cup that saw him gain 11 points and climb to world number-seven.

That came as a shock, even for Dominguez himself: “It was a bit surprising! I was aware vaguely of the idea, but I didn’t expect it to be so close,” he told WIM Anastasia Karlovich on the broadcast of Sinquefield Cup.

His entry into the race led FIDE to publish a clarification of the regulations which stated that a player cannot take part in more than two events in the same country to be eligible.

A player shall participate in at least four FIDE Circuit tournaments with a standard time control. These tournaments shall meet all the requirements of the FIDE Circuit Regulations, particularly both general (1.1) and country restrictions (3.2). clauses. Thus, out of the four above-mentioned tournaments, not more than two (one of which is a national championship) can be played in the same country. If this rule is not respected, the player is not eligible for qualification.

The clarification sparked reactions on social media asking FIDE for clarity.

So @FIDE_chess at the last minute have added that to be eligible for the rating spot for the Candidates events must now meet FIDE Circuit reg 3.2? How can the goalposts be changed this late in the day??? 😱https://t.co/qbfsjWxy4F

— Chris Bird (@ChrisBirdIA) November 30, 2023

https://t.co/tSvklbcXmi

Per FIDE, if Dominguez wants to be eligible by rating he must play outside the US. The thing is, per their actual regulations this is not a rule that exists. It’s just a thing they’re saying now. “If this rule is not respected” has big Cartman energy. pic.twitter.com/ajJ5vcGrRh

— Chess by the Numbers (@ChessNumbers) November 30, 2023

“If that’s the case, it’s not great from FIDE,” Dominguez said.

Regardless, the 42-year-old says he is ready to play a tournament outside of the U.S in order to qualify.

“It’s a nice chance. It’s not every day you get a chance to fight for the Candidates. I will do it.”

On Monday, an open letter addressed to FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich was also published by US Chess, stating it’s “absolutely critical” that procedures “must be completely transparent and extremely clear to all parties” in order to avoid confusion:

For this current cycle, there was a bit of confusion regarding the procedures whereby the player qualifies by rating. The rules to qualify from the FIDE Circuit specify that in order to be on the FIDE Circuit ranking list a player can only have a maximum of one event per country, with the exclusion of FIDE competitions and national championships (3.2). The rules to qualify by rating make no mention of this requirement, only referring to the need for events to be eligible for the FIDE Circuit (1.1). Even today, there is no mention of this requirement in the FIDE Handbook although we do understand that within the last week, FIDE announced that the same requirements used for FIDE Circuit qualification would be used for the highest rating qualification.

We support this rule applying to the qualification by rating. However, many players were unaware of this requirement. We do understand there was an intent to make this the requirement, but in our opinion, it was not clearly communicated and has still not been published in the FIDE Handbook. 

FIDE’s Legal Advisor Aleksandr Martynov denies in a statement to Chess.com that any rules have been changed.

“We absolutely agree that changing the rules at such a late stage would be absolutely wrong. That is why it is important to stress: FIDE did not change any rules, but only clarified them in connection with the situation that arose.”

Martynov says the requirement came as a result of GM Ding Liren qualifying for the Candidates in 2022 by playing more than 25 games a month in a tournament in China.

“A letter was even sent to FIDE regarding this situation, signed by all the leading U.S grandmasters, including GM Dominguez himself. Taking this into account, new rules were developed, including FIDE Circuit Regulations.”

Martynov added:

“We would like to note separately that FIDE does not and cannot have any purpose to offend the rights of GM Dominguez – this is just an explanation that would be valid regardless of whom it concerns.”