12 February 2016

Candidates Tournament Pairings Announced

The drawing of lots took place in the FIDE office in Athens.

The key event of the World championship cycle will take place in Moscow, March 10-30. The drawing of lots for the competition took place in the FIDE office in Athens on February 11, by FIDE Arbiters' Commission IA Takis Nikolopoulos and the FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman.

The players were assigned the following starting numbers: 1. Sergey Karjakin (Russia), 2. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 3. Anish Giri (Netherlands), 4. Vishy Anand (India), 5. Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), 6. Levon Aronian (Armenia), 7. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 8. Peter Svidler (Russia).

The first round to be played on March 11:

Karjakin-Svidler, Nakamura-Caruana, Giri-Aronian, Anand-Topalov.