Candidates Tournament 2015

has there been any spots sealed? do they decide the top two highest rated players a year in advance? how about the london classic?

The next Candidates are supposed to be held in March 2016, but there's nothing said about the regulations of the cycle on the FIDE site, apart from that the World Cup 2015 is supposed to give the top two spots in the Candidates. For the 2014 Candidates I think the rating spots were picked from lists between August 2012 and July 2013. The Grand Prix series were suppose to start in May, but that event has been cancelled without ever getting a host, without any message from FIDE, so maybe the whole GP series is at risk.

I'm going to try to play in the next candidates tournament.

How?

I will probably start with 1. d4

I would love to see Carlsen v Caruana however it seems the earliest this can take place is 2016.

Prediction for 2016 Candidates:

Anand

Caruana

Grischuk

Topalov

Aronian

Nakamura

Kramnik

Andreikin

How would Nakamura get in?

He's currently second in the Grand Prix standings, and 4th on ratings (Anand/Carlsen/Caruana) will qualify in other ways, and Topalov, Grischuk and Aronian might qualify via World Cup, as might Nakamura. 

Anand is already qualified for the 2016 candidates tournament, ref 2.1 in regulations:

http://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/regscandidates2016.pdf

Yes, I wrote this prior to the outcome of the World Championship match, thus Anand/Carlsen. Caruana is almost assured of qualification via ratings. 

The selcetion process candidates is as follows: based on that the players selected. 1. Runners up of last WC match

2. Two candidates from Grand Prix series.  3 to be held out which 2 has been held at Baku and Tashkent.

3. 5 as per FIDE ranking

4. One candidate as per FIDE choice it can be anybody usually its a Russian. Last candidates it was Peter Svidler.

Now make your list.

Will Wesley So or Hikaru Nakamura make it?

That's not correct. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2016

• The runner-up of the 2014 World Championship match (Anand)
• Two qualifiers from the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15
• Two qualifiers from the Chess World Cup 2015
• Two qualifiers by rating
• An Organizer's Nominee

Also the Grand Prix has 4 stages. Each player only plays in 3 events, sitting out 1 event.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_Grand_Prix_2014%E2%80%9315

Nakamura is currently in 2nd in the Grand Prix standings, so he has a good chance to qualify through the Grand Prix or by rating. Wesley So is not participating in the Grand Prix, and the World Cup is a crap shoot, so he would most likely have to quailfy by rating, which will be less likely.

anand

We will have a Carlsen/Anand Part 3?

therd times the charm yes?

Based on the GRENKE tournament it appears Anand is in bad shape, but as the candidates is a year away his form at present is practically meaningless. People wrote him off after his 2013 loss to Carlsen and he came right back and qualified again. This time there is a year long gap, so who knows how he will perform. It's all down to that one event next March. 

why is Carlsen in the World Cup? Isn't he the champion already?