UPDATE 1-Olympics-Four cities chosen as 2016 Games candidates

(Updates with details, quotes, background)

By Karolos Grohmann

ATHENS, June 4 (Reuters) - Chicago, Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro were named on Wednesday as candidate cities to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said.

Qatar's Doha, which was rated by the IOC's working group as the third best overall bid, Azerbaijan's Baku and the Czech capital Prague fell at the first hurdle.

The shortlist was announced by the IOC's Communications Director Giselle Davies during an IOC Executive Board meeting.

"It was an impressive list to choose from," Davies said.

The candidate cities must now compile an in-depth file of their Olympic project and submit themselves to a visit by the IOC's Evaluation Commission. The election of the host city will take place on Oct. 2 2009 at the IOC Session in Copenhagen.

"We greatly admire the Olympic movement's values and see the 2016 Games as a golden opportunity to support a modern Madrid that is successful, dynamic and an inclusive place to live, work and play," said Mercedes Coghen, the Madrid 2016 bid leader, immediately after the announcement.

Tokyo topped the IOC working group's overall technical evaluation with Madrid second. Chicago and Doha tied for third with Rio in fourth place, the report said.

IOC executive board members, who picked the candidate cities, had been divided over whether Doha should have been included in the shortlist with many arguing the city of about 500,000 was too small to deal with an event of such magnitude despite staging successful Asian Games in 2006 and putting in a solid tehnical bid. (Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by John Mehaffey)