Bet on the Candidates Tournament 2020: Who Will Meet the World Chess Champion?

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In the world of chess, the world champion title is decided between the reigning champion and his challenger, the winner of the Candidate Tournament. Eight players will take part in it to have the chance to become world champion. Bet on the Candidates Tournament 2020 now, we will show you the biggest favorites. 

The Candidates Tournament will be held in Yekaterinburg, Russia between the 15th of March and the 5th of April. The winner of the tournament will have the chance to meet the reigning champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. And he can try to defeat him in the world championship match. Carlsen holds the title since 2013, after defeating Viswanathan Anand. So whoever is facing him, won’t have an easy job for sure. 

Bet on the Candidates Tournament 2020 with two major favorites

Online sportsbooks in Russia are mentioning American Fabiano Caruana as the biggest favorite to win the tournament with the odds of 2.25. He was the opponent of Carlsen in the last world title game in 2018. There he only lost against him in the rapid tiebreaks after a 6-6 draw in the classical game.

Caruana is only 27, he became a grandmaster at the age of only 14. He played for both the US and Italy. (His parents are Italian as you can guess from his name). After winning several cups and championships, he was the third-highest-rated player in history. In 2016 he was the runner-up in this tournament, but in 2018 he managed to win it. He was the first American challenger since Bobby Fisher. Caruana has also started the year well, with winning the 2020 Tata Masters ahead of Carlsen, which should give him a lot of confidence in case he is facing him again. 

Biggest favorite, American Fabiano Caruana
[/Vladimir Barskij [CC BY-SA]

His biggest rival is a Chinese grandmaster, Ding Liren, who has the odds of 3.24 at 1xBet. Liren is the highest rated Chinese chess player in history, and twice he was the runner-up in the Chess World Cup, where 128 players are competing for the title. Last year he took part in the Grand Chess Tour, which includes 8 tournaments. He hasn’t only participated though as he got to the semi-final in London, and defeated an Armenian and French opponent to become the winner. 

Russian favorites

Online gambling sites in Russia are also mentioning two local players in the favorites. One of them is Alexander Grischuk, who was the winner of last year’s FIDE Grand Prix. This is another chess tournament, which also gives an opportunity for qualifying for the Candidates Tournament, where Grischuk has a lot of experience. As this will be his fifth time to take part in it, so far his best result was reaching the final in 2011. 

If you want to bet on the Candidates Tournament 2020, you have to consider another Russian, Ian Nepomniachtchi as a possible winner. He has the odds of 8.50 at 1xBet. Nepomniachtchi finished second behind Grischuk in the Grand Prix 2019, and he was also competing alongside him in the 2013 World Team Chess Championship where the Russian team took the gold. 

Both Russians are good at blitz chess, Grischuk is actually a three-time world blitz chess champion. In this type of chess, players have less time than the normal 60 minutes based on a 60-move game. The time is usually 10 minutes or less for each player, but in the world championship, it is only 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. But the Norwegian world champion is also good at it, as he is the current world blitz champion as well.