The Zurich 1953 Candidates tournament is known to every serious chess player, partly because of the famous book written about it by David Bronstein. It makes the list of best books of all time of virtually every top player. Another reason is the field. It was won convincingly by Smyslov two points ahead of  Bronstein, Keres, Reshevsky etc.

The last Candidates tournament to select the challenger to the world champion was held in Curacao in 1962. After that the format changed to knock out matches. Bobby Fischer considered the tournament format unfair as it allowed collusion between players from the Soviet Union.

Now in a hilarious twist of fate the format has been changed back because the current world number one, Magnus Carlsen, has expressed a preference for a tournament. He is the only player not from a former Soviet Union country 

Now we have an opportunity to watch this historic event live with expert commentary. There will be many places to watch, like the Internet chess club  {ICC},  probably chessdom, and of course the official site  http://london2013.fide.com/

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch the games.