Today, April 4, at 21:30 local time the great hope of Bulgarian chess Nurgyul Salimova starts her participation in the Candidates Tournament in Toronto in the fight for the world title. The young Bulgarian’s first opponent is Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk, whom Salimova has already faced and defeated in the semi-finals of the Women’s Chess World Cup in Baku 2023.

The official opening of the tournament in the Canadian city, which runs until April 22, took place yesterday at The Great Hall Toronto.

Eight world-renowned female chess players – Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia, rating 2553), Lei Tingjie (China, 2550), Humpy Koneru (India, 2546), Kateryna Lagno (Russia, 2542), Tang Zhongyi (China, 2521), Ana Musichuk (Ukraine, 2520), Vaishali Rameshbabu (India, 2475) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria, 2432) will determine the winner, who will get the right to play a title match with the now three-time world champion – China’s Ju Wenjun.

The top six on the list occupy third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth places respectively in the world rankings published on April 1. The most experienced of all the athletes is 37-year-old Humpy Koneru and the youngest is 20-year-old Nurgyul.

Each of the participants will play 14 games, one with white and one with black against each of their opponents respectively. The draw has been orchestrated as there are three pairs of players from the same country – Russia, India and China.

Nurgul Salimova’s program:

April 4 – Anna Musichuk (Ukraine)

5 April – Lei Tingjie (China)

6 April – Vaishali Rameshbabu (India)

7 April – Humpy Koneru (India)

9 April – Tang Zhongyi (China)

10 April – Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia)

11 April – Kateryna Lagno (Russia)

13 April – Anna Musichuk (Ukraine)

14 April – Lei Tingjie (China)

15 April – Vaishali Rameshbabu (India)

17 April – Humpy Koneru (India)

18 April – Tang Zhongyi (China)

20 April – Kateryna Lagno (Russia)

21 April – Alexandra Goryachkina (Russia).

According to the regulations, players have 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game. From the first move for each subsequent move 30 seconds are added to their time. 1 point is awarded for a win and 0.5 for a draw.

The total prize fund of the tournament is 250 thousand euros. In addition to the right to play in the world title match, the winner receives 24 thousand euros. The second and the third take 18 and 12 thousand respectively.

This is the third time FIDE has organized a tournament specifically for the ladies, a trend that began in 2019. This year, however, for the first time both men and women will hold the tournament at the same venue at the same time. In both the men’s and women’s competitions, there are eight participants and Salimova has the lowest ELO coefficient of 2432.