The 2023 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2023, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2024. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their five best results of the year. The winner of the Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, the winner of which qualified for the World Chess Championship 2024.
Since the winner of the Circuit (Fabiano Caruana) had already qualified to the 2024 Candidates Tournament via the Chess World Cup 2023, the second-place finisher in the Circuit, Gukesh Dommaraju, qualified to the 2024 Candidates.
Tournament eligibility A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament was eligible for the Circuit if it met the following criteria:Regulations for FIDE Circuit 2023 Finished in the 2023 calendar year. Had at least 8 players. Had at least 7 rounds (3 rounds for knockout events). The 8 highest-rated players had an average standard rating of at least 2550 at the start of tournament. This average is referred to as TAR (tournament average rating). Players represented at least 3 national federations. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represented one federation.
The Circuit also included the following tournaments: National Championships that met points 1 to 4 in the above criteria. World Rapid Championship. World Blitz Championship. Continental Rapid Championships. Continental Blitz Championships. Other Rapid and Blitz tournaments that meet the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700.
Points system Event points Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament were calculated as follows:
where: - Points obtained by player from the tournament - Basic points - Tournament strength factor, calculated as - Tournament weighting 1.0 - Standard classical tournaments 0.8 - World Rapid Championships 0.6 - World Blitz Championships and other Rapid tournaments 0.5 - Mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments 0.4 - Blitz tournaments
Basic points Basic points for a tournament were awarded if the players placed in (or tied for) the top 8, provided that the placing was within the top half of the tournament, or at least the third round for knockout tournaments. 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 10 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For tied positions, basic points were calculated as 50% of points for final ranking as determined by 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 rule was applied, basic points were shared equally among all tied players.
FIDE World Cup points For the FIDE World Cup 2023, points were given as above with the following modifications: All losing quarterfinalists were given full 5 basic points. 2 extra points were added to the final points of all top 8 finishers.
Player's total and ranking A player's point total for the ranking was the sum of their best 5 tournaments, of which at least 4 events had to be played with standard time controls. Players without 5 such events (for example, Leinier Domínguez and Vidit Gujrathi) were not ranked. Tournaments that could be included in player's results were as follows: Official FIDE tournaments. National Championships. Other eligible tournaments, limited to one event per host country.
Tournaments Eligible tournaments as of 30 December 2023. +2023 FIDE Circuit - Eligible Tournaments Tournament Location Date Type TAR Winner Indian Chess Championship New Delhi 22 December, 2022 3 January, 2023 National Karthik Venkataraman Rilton Cup Stockholm 27 December, 2022 5 January, 2023 Pranesh M Armenian Chess Championship Yerevan 13–21 January National 2574 Samvel Ter-Sahakyan Azerbaijani Chess Championship Baku 13–26 January National Vasif Durarbayli Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee 13–29 January 2770 Anish Giri Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee 13–29 January Alexander Donchenko Floripa Open Florianópolis 23–29 January Alan Pichot WR Chess Masters Düsseldorf 15–26 February Levon Aronian Open International de Cappelle la Grande Cappelle-la-Grande 18–24 February S. P. Sethuraman European Individual Chess Championship Vrnjačka Banja 3–13 March ContinentalFIDE Alexey Sarana Delhi Open New Delhi 23–30 March Aravindh Chithambaram Reykjavik Open Reykjavík 29 March 4 April Nils Grandelius Fagernes Chess International Fagernes 2–9 April Vahap Şanal International Mexican Open Chess Championship Mexico City 4–9 April Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa La Nucia 5–10 April Yuri Solodovnichenko The Spring Classic St. Louis 5–13 April Benjamin Bok Open Internacional Chess Menorca Menorca 11–16 April Gukesh Dommaraju Polish Chess Championship Warsaw 12–20 April National Bartosz Soćko Sunway Formentera International Chess Festival Formentera 18–28 April Vladimir Fedoseev Kazakhstan Chess Cup Astana 23–30 April Aldiyar Ansat Satty Zhuldyz Masters Astana 24–25 April Rapid & Blitz Levon Aronian Stepan Avagyan Memorial Jermuk 2–12 May Samuel Sevian Capablanca Memorial Havana 3–11 May Jonas Buhl Bjerre TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament Malmö 4–10 May Peter Svidler Baku Open Baku 4–12 May Leon Luke Mendonca GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania Bucharest 4–16 May Fabiano Caruana American Continental Chess Championship Juan Dolio 15–23 May ContinentalFIDE Georg Meier Sharjah Masters Sharjah 16–26 May Arjun Erigaisi GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland Warsaw 19–26 May Rapid & Blitz Magnus Carlsen Cherry Blossom Classic Dulles, Virginia 24–29 May Vasif Durarbayli Mikhail Antipov Norway Chess Open Stavanger 27 May 3 June Platon Galperin Norway Chess Blitz Stavanger 27 May 3 June Blitz Nodirbek Abdusattorov Dubai Open Dubai 27 May 4 June Aravindh Chithambaram Norway Chess – Main Tournament Stavanger 27 May 9 June Hikaru Nakamura Münchner Pfingst-Open Munich 31 May 6 June Alexander Motylev Asian Continental Men Blitz Chess Championship Almaty 3 June BlitzContinentalFIDE Arystan Isanzhulov Asian Chess Championship Almaty 4–11 June ContinentalFIDE 2618 Shamsiddin Vokhidov Canadian Transnational Chess Championship Montreal 6–11 June Toms Kantans Teplice Open Teplice 10–18 June Frederik Svane The Las Vegas National Open Las Vegas 14–18 June Illia Nyzhnyk Vasif Durarbayli Yasser Quesada Mikhail Antipov Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial – Aktobe Open Classic Aktobe 20–27 June Bardiya Daneshvar Prague Masters Prague 20–30 June Ray Robson Prague Challengers Prague 20–30 June Mateusz Bartel World Open Philadelphia 23 June 4 July Fidel Corrales Jimenez Sparkassen Chess Trophy Dortmund 24 June 2 July Alexander Donchenko Orillas de Mar Adeje 25 June 2 July 2580 Abhijeet Gupta Norwegian Chess Championship Oslo 30 June 8 July National Simen Agdestein Dutch Chess Championship Utrecht 2–9 July National Anish Giri GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia Zagreb 3–10 July Rapid & Blitz Magnus Carlsen International Open "Villa de Benasque" Benasque 5–14 July Bu Xiangzhi International Chess Festival Astana Zhuldyzdary Astana 11–18 July Aditya Mittal Geza Hetenyi Memorial Budapest 11–19 July R Praggnanandhaa Biel Master Tournament Biel/Bienne 17–27 July Bu Xiangzhi Biel Grandmaster Triathlon (classical part) Biel/Bienne 18–26 July Lê Quang Liêm Romania Grand Prix Brașov Brașov 18–26 July Luca Moroni Paleochora International Chess Tournament Kantanos-Selino 19–26 July Bai Jinshi Uralsk Open Oral 21–28 July Hans Niemann FIDE World Cup Baku 30 July 24 August FIDE Magnus Carlsen International Chess Cup of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI Rabat 14–19 August Paulius Pultinevičius Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival Abu Dhabi 16–24 August Vladimir Fedoseev French Chess Championship Alpe d'Huez 18–27 August National Yannick Gozzoli Open Internacional de Sants-Ciutat de Barcelona Barcelona 18–27 August Elham Amar Maia Chess Open Maia 25 August 2 September Victor Mikhalevski Tata Steel Chess India Rapid Kolkata 5–7 September Rapid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Tata Steel Chess India Blitz Kolkata 8–9 September Blitz Alexander Grischuk Tsaghkadzor Open Tsaghkadzor 19–28 September Abhimanyu Puranik World Junior Championship Mexico City 21 September – 1 October FIDE Marc'Andria Maurizzi Levitov Chess Week Amsterdam 22–26 September Rapid Ian Nepomniachtchi Asian Games Individual Hangzhou 23–27 September Rapid Wei Yi Yerevan Open Yerevan 29 September – 7 October Karen H. Grigoryan Russian Championship St Petersburg 1–12 October National 2650 Vladislav Artemiev US Chess Championship St. Louis 5–15 October National Fabiano Caruana Fagernes International Autumn Fagernes 8–15 October Mads Andersen Spanish Championship Marbella 10–21 October National Eduardo Iturrizaga Qatar Masters Doha 11–20 October Nodirbek Yakubboev FIDE Grand Swiss Douglas, Isle of Man 23 October 5 November FIDE Vidit Gujrathi Bavarian Open Tegernsee 28 October 5 November Jiří Štoček Torneio Internacional da Figueira da Foz Figueira da Foz 5–12 November Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera GCT St. Louis Rapid and Blitz St. Louis 12–19 November Rapid & Blitz 2751 Fabiano Caruana Sinquefield Cup St. Louis 21–30 November Fabiano Caruana U.S. Masters Charlotte 22–26 November Mikhail Antipov Tournament of Peace Zagreb 22–30 November Hans Niemann El Llobregat Open Sant Boi de Llobregat 30 November 8 December 2658 S. L. Narayanan London Chess Classic London 1–10 December Michael Adams Gashimov Memorial Gabala 7–11 December Rapid & Blitz Vidit Gujrathi Champions Chess Tour Finals Toronto 9–16 December Rapid Magnus Carlsen Sunway Chess Festival Sitges 12–22 December 2646 Abhimanyu Puranik European Rapid Championship Zagreb 14–15 December RapidContinentalFIDE Alexey Sarana Chennai Grand Masters Chennai 15–21 December Gukesh Dommaraju European Blitz Championship Zagreb 16 December BlitzContinentalFIDE David Navara World Rapid Championship Samarkand 26–28 December RapidFIDE Magnus Carlsen World Blitz Championship Samarkand 29–30 December BlitzFIDE Magnus Carlsen
Ranking "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section. : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2024 via another path. : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2024 via this path.