The Candidates Tourna-ment has been organised by FIDE, chess’s international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Championship. In some instances there were Candidates’ matches, preceded by the zonals and interzonals, instead of tournaments. Let us say there were ten zones for chess playing countries worldwide, only two competitors would be chosen to represent each zone. For example, North America would be one zone, and South America, which included powerhouses such as Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Chile etc would be another. These were the zonals. The final tally from these competitions would be the figure 20; they would compete in the interzonals. Next, eight players would be selected to compete in the Candidates matches from the interzonals. The one player who wins the rigorous Candidates cycle, is the rightful challenger for the World Championship title.
