China's Ding Liren will miss the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin, which is set to start tomorrow ©Getty Images

Germany's capital Berlin is set to stage the first leg of this year's International Chess Federation Grand Prix, with top seed Ding Liren of China one of two players forced to withdraw shortly before the tournament starts because of "visa and health issues".

Ding and Russia's Dmitry Andreikin have been replaced by the latter's compatriot Andrey Esipenko and Poland's Radosław Wojtaszek.

The Grand Prix is set to be held from tomorrow until February 17.

World number six Levon Aronian of the United States is now the top seed at World Chess Club Berlin, where he is set to play India's Vidit Gujrathi, Daniil Dubov of Russia and home favourite Vincent Keymer.

Fellow top-10 player and American Wesley So is in Pool D alongside his compatriot Leinier Dominguez, India's Pentala Harikrishna and Spaniard Alexei Shirov.

Wojtaszek has taken Ding's place in Pool B, which is completed by Hungary's Richard Rapport and Russian pair Vladimir Fedoseev and Grigoriy Oparin.

Esipenko has doubled the Russian players' presence in Pool A with Alexander Grischuk.

The US' Hikaru Nakamura and Etienne Bacrot of France also feature.

There are three Grand Prix events scheduled on this year's circuit, with Serbia's capital Belgrade set to host the second leg from February 28 until March 14 before a return to Berlin for the third from March 21 to April 4.

Twenty-four players are set to feature at two events each.

Each Grand Prix is to follow the format of a group stage consisting of four double round-robin tournaments, followed by a semi-final for the top player in each pool and then a final.

The semi-finals and final will feature two regular time-limit games and tiebreaks if needed.

Two winners of the series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament in Madrid in June, where the victory will earn the right to face Norway's Magnus Carlsen in the 2023 World Chess Championship.