The FIDE Candidates tournament will take place in Kazan 3rd-27th May 2011. 8 players compete to produce one world championship candidate.

The first and second round matches are four games plus rapid and blitz playoffs if required. The final is of six games. The qualifiers are GMs Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) and Gata Kamsky (USA).

In case of replacements, the 3 first reserves from the FIDE Grand-Prix 2008-2009 are respectively GMs Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia) and Wang Yue (China). FIDE have announced that contracts have to be signed by December 22nd 2010. ChessDom states that the final pairings will be produced on February 4th 2011. Magnus Carlsen has already made it clear he won't be playing due to the format but officially there is still time for him to change his mind.

FIDE have released a statement by FIDE Deputy President Georgios Makropoulos on 10th November 2011 responding to Carlsen's withdrawal from the candidates. It states that it can't change the regulations half way through the cycle (something it has done in the past, but as a matter of principal I agree with this) but says it is open to suggestions in the future. It also confirms that Alexander Grischuk will be his replacement if he does pull out of the event. It is not clear if the draw will be remade however, chess.co.uk reported.

In the first round of FIDE Candidates tournament, Levon Aronian will rival Boris Gelfand.