FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 - Community Recap

[Salim Belcadi]

The FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 was held for the first time in North America, in Toronto. It was a tremendous success. Tens of millions of chess fans actively followed the event.

Over 3 million people worldwide followed the final round alone on the direct live feeds across multiple platforms (source: iMotion, the official broadcaster). For context, that is more viewers than the final of the last Stanley Cup (2.5 million viewers). I can now boldly claim that chess is factually bigger than hockey – although it feels like writing in a forum in Morocco that rice is better than couscous :)

We should collectively thank the Scheinberg family for bringing the tournament to Toronto.

Heartfelt thanks to Anna Burtasova and Aris Marghetis. The last 6 months working alongside you to plan and organize the event were incredible and an unforgettable experience.

More importantly, an event of this scale cannot happen without the hard work and dedication of an army of enthusiasts.

First of all, thanks to the spectators who came en masse to watch the games. The event was sold out with over 3,000 spectators. The fan zone was bouncing by the end of the tournament and visibly brimming with excitement.

Our chess community owes a big round of applause to the following people:

- Vladimir Drkulec, President of the CFC, who opened and closed the tournament and was a great help facilitating visas to be delivered on time for the key participants who needed one
- Mike Blair who was in charge of coordinating and managing the army of volunteers. He was the personification of the god Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders
- Heidi Gay who was in charge of ticketing and worked insane hours to, among other duties, accommodate people’s preferences, revise their slots and rectify mistakes
- Keith Denning who was in charge of the logistics and ensuring that the equipment, furniture and material for the tournament were ready at the right time, in the right place for the event to run smoothly
- Samantha San Antonio who was in charge of transportation for over 70 people between the airport, the venue, the hotels, the rentals, the side events and much more
- The Chessbrah (Eric Hansen, Aman Hambleton, Jeff Faraji) & Aryan Tari who animated the fan Zone
- Hari Raghavan who sponsored the Blitz and the Rapid and organized the Rapid event with Ajax Chess Club and its executives
- Michael Hyatt and Stephen Hewko who organized the side event with Vishy Anand and Alexandra Kosteniuk, plus Michael Sousa and Nemo Zhou for running the event
- Omar Shah, Alex Ferreira and their team of arbiters for running the giant Candidates Blitz at Annex Chess Club
- Uttam Dhungel, Riley Khan and their team of arbiters for running the Candidates Rapid organized by Ajax Chess Club
- Vinod Pury and Jason Slenys for coordinating and staffing paramedics during the event and dealing with medical emergencies and queries

Also big thanks to all the major chess clubs and chess institutions in the GTA for running side events during the Tournament and/or providing a large number of volunteers: Ajax Chess Club, Annex Chess Club, Chess Institute of Canada, Chess in the Park, Excelsior Chess Club, Heart House Chess Club, the Greater Toronto Chess League, Maverick Chess Club, Mississauga Chess Club, Pub Chess, Seneca Hill Chess Club, Scarborough Chess Club, and Willowdale Chess Club

This event truly showed the diversity, solidarity and enthusiasm of the GTA’s chess family and beyond. We also had volunteers from other cities in Ontario and other provinces, as well as visitors from all corners the world, as far as New Zealand.

Close to 150 volunteers ran the event across all shifts and all rounds. Sincere gratitude for investing your time and energy in this journey and making our chess community shine around the globe.

Below is a tentative list of all the people who contributed to the Tournament. I hope I haven’t missed anyone or misspelled any names (please let me know in private and I will edit the list):

Abdul Rahman
Abdullah Caglayan
Alex Ferreira
Alex Martens
Alex Moisseev
Alex Norris
Alexander Chavez
Amirmahdi Hosselnzadeh
Aman Hambleton
Aniruddh Aragola
Anjani Duddukuru
Anna Gavrileva
Anson de Peiza
April Zhong
Arash Shahi
Arsenio Gacad
Artashes Kashishian
Arya Shah
Aryan Tari
Asher Segal-Braves
Avery Li
Bator Sambuev
Binh Son Nguyen
Bogdan Leonidovic
Boomba Nishikawa
Buyi Zhu
Caitlin Denning
Carina D'Souza
Carlos Ribeiro
Catherine Semianiuk
Cathy Luo
Chloe Thibault
Christopher Li
Daniel Marchildon
Daniel Rokhvarger
Daniel Sirkovich
David Filipovich
Derek Jouppi
Derek Lei
Dhruv Murali
Drew Williamson
Dylan Shan
Edgar Zapata
Elliot Tseng
Eric Lam
Eric Hansen
Erik Malmsten
Ethan Welch
Ethan Yichen Li
Faina Poberezhnuk
Florante Alcaide
Frank Cheng
Francis Rodrigues
Gagandeep Deol
Gordon Wong
Grace Miao
Grace Taylor
Hancy Jiang
Haneul Park
Hans Jung
Hari Raghavan
Heidi Gay
Hugh Siddeley
Ines Fathallah
Jaco Uwland
Jason Slenys
Jeff Faraji
Jeffrey Qiu
Jeffrey Wang
Jeong Hwang
Jiwon Chang
Jonathan Yu
John Upper
Justin Li
Kaiy Cao
Karina Correia
Keith Denning
Kendra Forrest
Koosha Jaferian
Kousuke Nguyen-Kawamura
Kristopher Calanza
Larry Yang
Lefan Yang
Leon Noel Merse
Leonardo Spallino
Liam Pham
Liza Agustin
Luc Leclair
Lucas Jacobs
Lucy Gao
Lucy Yang
Luis Lamprea
Lukianos Chrysochou
Mahip Singh
Maksym Sakundiak
Marco Chirigoni
Mark Bluvshtein
Mark Stevenson
Matthew Monaco
Max Chen
Max Manglal-Lan
Mehar Bala
Melanie Directo Belcadi
Mervyn Sit Yee
Michael Barron
Michael Stepner
Michael Streegan
Michael Blair
Michael Hyatt
Michael Sousa
Ming Chan
Mykhailo Soroka
Neerav Mullur
Neil Goel
Nemo Zhou
Nixon Jean Louis
Oljeg Pajkic
Olga Mushtaler
Olya Kaye
Omar Shah
Pablo Denegri
Patricia Gamliel
Pete Lambert
Peter Grucza
Petr Golubka
Punnawit Payapvattanavong
Rashid Mughal
Raymond Gao
Richard Chen
Richard Fung
Richard Lam
Riley Khan
Ross Djeddi
Rymn Wadhwa
Samantha San Antonio
Samuel Zheng
Sarveshwar Senthil Kumar
Sasha Mitic
Shankar Balakrishnan
Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux
Stephen Hewko
Stephen Boyd
Sue Foster
Tanishq Kumar Dhingra
Thomas Roussel-Roozmon
Terry Gammon
Tony Lu
Uttam Dhungel
Victor Rong
Victor Zheng
Vinod Pury
Vladimir Drkulec
Wesley Russell
Yangqi Zhu
Yiguo Gao
Yilin Li
Youhe Huang

[Erik Malmsten]

I would include the 8 security guards who were active in controlling the flow of people to the various areas. They were a great help.

The chessbase India reporter Sagar Shah did a great job of promoting Toronto and hosted two events in Trinty-Bellwoods Park.

[Aris Marghetis]

What a WONDERFUL post Salim!

I especially like how you listed all the volunteers, without whom this would not have been possible!

Toronto, you should feel very proud!

[Vlad Drkulec]

You did miss Patricia Gamliel without whom there might not have been visas issued and we might be reading about what happened in Spain. Also Gary Gladstone who primed the pump and created a favourable impression among the government people that ultimately helped us get the visas.

[Salim Belcadi]

I would include the 8 security guards who were active in controlling the flow of people to the various areas. They were a great help.

That's very true, thanks Erik. They were also very nice and professional. I will try to find their names.

[Aris Marghetis]

That's very true, thanks Erik. They were also very nice and professional. I will try to find their names.

Yes indeed, the hired security was better than regular expectations, their social skills were quite elevated!

Related to security, volunteer Edgar Zapata deserves extra credit for how he managed a security incident!

[Hans Jung]

Erik Malmsten, Toronto's chess historian, compiled six 2 by 3 foot posters of chess history in Canada as background reading for the event. Topics ranged from The Steinitz - Lasker World Championship Match of which part of the match was held in Montreal, the 1957 World Junior held in Toronto, Fischer-Taimanov world championship quarter final match held in Vancouver, Nava Starr and Top Canadian Women, Tournament of Stars 1979 Montreal, Kevin Spraggett's quarter final and semi-final matches for the World Championship and St. John, 1988, Evgeny Bareev, Canadian Juniors in the news, Canadian Internationals, and Candidates who have visited Toronto.

Its my belief that Annex Chess Club now has them if anyone wants to see them. Nice to see Canada's important chess history displayed.