9 Interzonal qualifiers were joined by Karpov (seeded into the 2nd round), Sokolov, Timman, Vaganian and Jussupov from the last Candidates. Spraggett was chosen by the Canadian chess federation which hosted the first round of Candidates.
1st and 2nd round matches were 'best of 6 games', semi-finals were 'best of 8 games', the final was 'best of 12 games'.
In case of a tie, a short 2-game mini match was played (at regular time controls). If still tied two 60 min/game games were played (whoever scored the first win would win the match). If still tied, short 2-game mini matches with 15 min/game were played until the decision.
