FIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Cycle 2025-2026
FIDE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
2026 DATES AND HOST CITY TO BE ANNOUNCED
The World Championship Match consists of 14 games. The player who scores 7.5 points or more wins the Match, and no further games are played. If the score after 14 games is equal, the winner is decided on a tiebreak.
World Champion
Winner of the World Championship Match 2024
Challenger
Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2025
FIDE CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT
2026 DATES AND HOST CITY TO BE ANNOUNCED
The winner of this 8-player double round-robin (all play all twice) becomes the Challenger for the chess crown. In case of a tie for first place after 14 rounds, the playoff determines the winner.
Fabiano Caruana
FIDE Circuit 2024
2025 World Cup 1st
2025 World Cup 2nd
2025 World Cup 3rd
2025 Grand Swiss 1st
2025 Grand Swiss 2nd
2025 FIDE Circuit
By Rating
Qualifiers
FIDE CIRCUIT 2024
One player who achieves the highest results during 2024 in eligible tournaments. The final score is calculated as the sum of the player’s five highest scores.
Eligible tournaments are FIDE-rated individual tournaments which meet the following criteria:
– Finish between 1st January, 2024 and 15th December, 2024
– At least 8 players
– At least 7 rounds (at least 4 rounds for knockout events).
– The 8 highest-rated players have an average standard rating on the day of the first round (TAR)
– The Chief Arbiter is an International Arbiter
– Recommended Fair Play procedures are applied
– The FIDE World Championship Match 2024 is also recognised as an eligible tournament
– Players represent at least 3 different federations
– Not more than 50% of either the 20 highest-rated players, or not more than 50% of all players if there are fewer than 20 players, shall represent one federation
– For National Championships, the last two criteria are waived.
The following non-standard play tournaments are included:
FIDE-rated individual over-the-board standard-play tournaments
(hereinafter referred to as “Standard tournaments”)
* World Rapid Championship 2024
* World Blitz Championship 2024
* Continental Rapid and Blitz Championships 2024
* Other Rapid & Blitz tournaments 2024 that meet the above criteria and have an average standard rating of top 8 players 2700 or higher
Basic Points are awarded to players in (or in a tie for) one of the first 8 places in a
tournament, provided that the player is in (or in a tie for) the top half of the final
tournament ranking (for round-robin tournaments - one of the top 3 places or in
tie, for knockout tournaments - the player reaches at least the third round).
1st place 11 points for an outright winner with no tie-break criteria applied
10 points otherwise
2nd place 8 points
3rd place 7 points
4th place 6 points
5th place 5 points
6th place 4 points
7th place 3 points
8th place 2 points
A player will only count for any calculation in of these rules if they played, or won
by forfeit, in at least 50% of the total number of games in the tournament. If a
player withdrew from a tournament without a valid reason, GSC may decide not
to consider this tournament for this player.
3.3 The number of basic points that tied players score shall be calculated as 50% of
basic points for their final ranking determined by the tournament’s tie-break rules,
plus 50% of the sum of basic points assigned for the tied places divided by the
number of tied players. If no tie-break system is applied, the basic points shall be
shared equally among all players in the tie.
3.4 The event score for each player is determined by the number of basic points (see
Articles 3.1 and 3.3) multiplied by a tournament strength factor calculated as
follows: k=(TAR-2500)/100
Top-3 finishers:
- Fabiano Caruana - 130.42 points
- Arjun Erigaisi - 124.40 points
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov - 108.49 points
Fabiano Caruana
Winner
✅ qualified
FIDE WORLD CUP
Date and place TBD
206 players. Knockout.
System of play: Each match consists of two classical games (one game per day) with the time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1. If tied, a tiebreak follows on the third day: two 25m+10s rapid games, if still tied, then two 10m+10s games, if still tied, then two 5m+3s games, if still tied, an Armageddon game.
Standings will be updated during the tournament.
Website: worldcup.fide.com
Winner
Runner-up
Third place
FIDE GRAND SWISS
Date and place TBD
114 players. Swiss system, 11 rounds.
The time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
Standings will be updated during the tournament
Website: grandswiss.fide.com
Winner
Runner-up
FIDE CIRCUIT 2025
One player who would achieve the highest results during 2025 in eligible tournaments. The final score is calculated as the sum of the player’s five highest scores.
Eligible tournaments are:
- FIDE-rated individual over-the-board standard-play tournaments
- FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2025
- Continental over-the-board Rapid and Blitz Championships 2025
- Other over-the-board FIDE-rated Rapid & Blitz tournaments
- The eligible tournaments must meet the following criteria:
- Finish between 16th December, 2024 and 15th December, 2025
- At least 8 players
- At least 7 rounds (at least 4 rounds for knockout events).
- The 8 highest-rated players have an average standard rating (TAR), as per the standard FIDE-rating list which is current on the day of the first round, of either
1) 2550, for tournaments in categories 2.1.1 to 2.1.3
2) 2700, for tournaments in category 2.1.4
- The Chief Arbiter is an International Arbiter
- Fair Play procedures recommended by FIDE FPL Commission are applied
- Players represent at least 3 different Member Federations or Affiliated
Members
- Not more than 50% of either the 20 highest-rated players, or not more than 50% of all players if there are fewer than 20 players, shall represent one federation
- The FIDE World Championship Match 2024 is also recognised as an eligible
tournament.
Points are awarded to players in (or in a tie for) one of the first 8 places in a tournament, provided that the player is in (or in a tie for) the top half of the final
tournament ranking (for round-robin tournaments - one of the top 3 places or in
tie, for knockout tournaments - the player reaches at least the third round).
1st place 11 points for an outright winner with no tie-break criteria applied
10 points otherwise
2nd place 8 points
3rd place 7 points
4th place 6 points
5th place 5 points
6th place 4 points
7th place 3 points
8th place 2 points
A player will only count for any calculation in these rules if they played, or won by forfeit, in at least 50% of the total number of games in the tournament. If a player
withdrew from a tournament without a valid reason, GSC may decide not to consider this tournament for this player.
The number of basic points that tied players score shall be calculated as 50% of basic points for their final ranking determined by the tournament’s tie-break rules, plus 50% of the sum of basic points assigned for the tied places divided by the
number of tied players. If no tie-break system is applied, the basic points shall be
shared equally among all players in the tie.
The event score for each player is determined by the number of basic points multiplied by a tournament strength factor calculated as
follows: k=(TAR-2500)/100
Top scorer
FIDE RATING
the highest-rated player according to the 6-month average rating based on FIDE Standard Rating Lists from August 1st 2025 till January 1st 2026 provided the respective player has played at least 40 games calculated for FIDE Standard Rating Lists from February 1st 2025 till January 1st 2026 (including at least 15 games in any of the 6 consecutive rating lists).
If this player is the FIDE World Champion as of January 1st, 2025 or has already qualified for the FIDE
Candidates Tournament 2026, the qualification spot shall be awarded to the player who is next yet
unqualified in the FIDE Circuit 2025 ranking list (but not below the 3rd place, in which case the spot
goes to the player with the lowest sum of places in 2024 and 2025 ranking lists).
If the player withdraws, the qualification spot shall be awarded to the second-highest rated players
according to the same criteria, unless the later is the FIDE World Champion as of January 1st, 2025 or
has already qualified for the FIDE Candidates 2026, in which case the qualification spot shall be
awarded to the player who is next yet unqualified in the FIDE Circuit 2025 ranking list (but not below
the 3rd place, in which case the spot goes to the player with the lowest sum of places in 2024 and
2025 ranking lists).
Current top-100 in FIDE Ratings: ratings.fide.com