Top seed Ding Liren is out of the Berlin FIDE Grand Prix after failing to get a visa for travel to Berlin, leaving his Candidates Tournament qualification hopes in ruins. He’ll be replaced by Polish star Radoslaw Wojtaszek, while Dmitry Andreikin tested positive and has been replaced by the man who originally just missed out, Andrey Esipenko. Players are still due to arrive in Berlin in the next day or two, so that there are no guarantees those are the final changes.
Levon Aronian is now the top seed for the Berlin Grand Prix after Ding Liren was forced to pull out
The FIDE Grand Prix Series is the last chance for players to qualify for the Candidates Tournament that takes place in Madrid this June, and hence to reach a potential World Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. 24 players are competing for two spots, with 16 players set to play in the first Grand Prix in Berlin, starting Friday.
On Tuesday, however, it already became clear that not everything was going to plan.
Soon the rumours were confirmed, with Ding Liren and Dmitry Andreikin the players to miss out. Ding Liren was attempting to travel at around the Chinese New Year and seems to have been unable to organise a visa, the same reason for which Wei Yi had earlier pulled out and been replaced by Harikrishna.
According to the FIDE Grand Prix series regulations replacements at this late date are at the discretion of the FIDE President.
3. 4. If any replacement is needed for a player qualified by paths described in Articles 3.1.a – 3.1.c, including due to a withdrawal or a refusal of participation 14 days or less prior to the first round of a relative GP tournament, then the FIDE President shall nominate any player of his choice.
Polish no. 2 Radek Wojtaszek replaces Ding Liren, leaving the group with Richard Rapport much less of a “Group of Death”. Andrey Esipenko is much more of a like-for-like replacement for Dmitry Andreikin, with it turning out that Sergey and Galiya Karjakin had complained unnecessarily that Daniil Dubov was selected as a wild card in place of rising star Esipenko. Of course Dubov himself has had issues, but driving from the Netherlands (if needed) should be no issue, and he already had a negative PCR test before the end of Wijk aan Zee.
Esipenko replaces Andreikin while Wojtaszek replaces Ding Liren
What happens now, however, is highly uncertain. The regulations specify, “All replacements are eligible for prize money and GP points as well as for qualification for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2022”, but unless replacements play in two of the three tournaments their chances of qualifying for the Candidates will essentially be zero. The same of course goes for the players originally intended to play if they can only play in the remaining tournament after Berlin.
For now it looks as though the replacement is for one tournament only, but will Andreikin and Ding Liren want to rejoin later with their Candidates chances gone?
World no. 3 Ding Liren being left outside of the World Championship cycle already has some observers wondering about a potential Carlsen-Ding Liren match, or perhaps a rival cycle!
What happens now remains to be seen. Wesley So is one player to have reached the German capital, but will the remaining players make it to Berlin (there was a story of one needing to rebook a flight after getting to the airport with the wrong kind of COVID test)? Will there be pressure to potentially postpone or rearrange the events to give players a second chance at what was already the last chance saloon? It seems we’re not going to lack drama in the short respite following Tata Steel Chess.
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