The 2025 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2025, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their seven best results of the year. R Praggnanandhaa scored the most points, and as winner of the 2025 Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026.
Tournament eligibility A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament was eligible for the Circuit if it met the following criteria: Finish between 1 January 2025 and 15 December 2025 (21 December for National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments, open tournaments) Has at least 8 players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments with TAR of at least 2700). Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events). The 8 highest-rated players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments) have an average standard rating of at least 2550 (2700 for rapid and blitz tournaments besides World and Continental championships) at the start of tournament. This average is referred to as TAR (tournament average rating). Players represent at least 3 national federations. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represent one federation.
The Circuit also included the following tournaments: 2024 World Championship National Championships that meet points 1 to 4 in above criteria 2025 World Rapid Championship 2025 World Blitz Championship 2025 Continental Rapid Championships 2025 Continental Blitz Championships Other Rapid and Blitz tournaments that met the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700. Double Round Robin Tournaments with 6 or more players where the TAR was 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 2.0 - FIDE World Championship 2024 1.0 - Standard classical tournaments with at most 1 'multi game-day', a day on which multiple games are played 0.9 - Double Round Robin Tournaments with 6-7 players and classical tournaments with 2 multi game-days 0.8 - World Rapid Championship, Knockout Tournaments with fewer than 6 rounds and classical tournaments with 3 multi game-days 0.7 - Standard classical tournaments with 4 multi game-days 0.6 - World Blitz Championship, other Rapid tournaments, and classical tournaments with 5 multi game-days 0.5 - Mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments and standard classical tournaments with 6 or more multi game-days 0.4 - Other blitz tournaments If multiple weighting coefficients apply these are multiplied together.
Basic points Basic points for a tournament were awarded depending on the tournament format: Swiss-system: Top 8 (within top half of ranking), ties included. Double round-robins 6-7 players: Top 2 with ties. Round-robins 8-10 players: Top 3 with ties. Round-robins 11-13 players: Top 4 with ties. Round-robins 14 players: Top 5 with ties. Knockout: Third round or later, up to 8 players.
Points were awarded as follows: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 11/10 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 11 points for an outright winner with no tie-break criteria applied (in Knockout tournaments, victory in the Final after only the games with the longest time control have been played). Otherwise, 10 basic points will be used for calculation. For tied positions, basic points are 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 is applied, basic points are shared equally among all tied players.
World Championship 2024 For the World Championship 2024, runner-up Ding Liren received points in the 2025 Circuit equal to the basic points for 2nd place multiplied by the k-factor and multiplied by 2. The TPR for this event was calculated as the player's performance rating.
World Cup 2025 For the World Cup 2025, the event points were equal to the normal number of event points plus the difference between the number of games won and lost (if positive, not more than 2). Anyone who was eliminated in the quarter finals of the event was deemed to have finished in 5th place for basic points, and as such all gained 5 basic points.
Player's total and ranking Tournaments that could be included in player's results were as follows: Official FIDE tournaments National Championships Other eligible tournaments with minimum TAR of 2650 At most two eligible tournaments per host country with TAR below 2650 A player's point total for the ranking was the sum of their best 7 tournaments with the following criteria: If player had 6 or 7 tournaments to count: No more than 4 or 5 respectively standard tournaments with the participation of less than 50 players can be counted. No more than 2 rapid/blitz tournaments can be counted. If player had 5 tournaments or less: No more than 4 standard tournaments with participation of less than 50 players can be counted. No more than 1 rapid/blitz tournament can be counted.
Tournaments "(M)" denotes the Masters section while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section. "Open" refers to classical tournaments with 50 or more participants.
: Ongoing event : Candidates Tournament qualifying event
+2025 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments Tournament Location Date Type TAR Winner World Championship Singapore 25 November13 December, 2024 FIDE 2 2754 Gukesh Dommaraju Tata Steel (M) Wijk aan Zee 17 January2 February Round robin 14 R Praggnanandhaa Tata Steel (Ch) Wijk aan Zee 17 January2 February Round robin 14 Thai Dai Van Nguyen Azerbaijan Championship Baku 115 February National 26 Rauf Mamedov Al-Beruniy (M) Tashkent 212 February Round robin 10 Mukhiddin Madaminov Al-Beruniy (Ch) Tashkent 212 February Round robin 10 Bardiya Daneshvar Djerba Masters Djerba 1523 February Round robin 10 Marc'Andria Maurizzi World Junior Championship Petrovac 23 February7 March FIDE 157 Pranav V Prague (M) Prague 25 February7 March Round robin 10 Aravindh Chithambaram Prague (Ch) Prague 25 February7 March Round robin 10 2584 Nodirbek Yakubboev Aeroflot Open Moscow 28 February7 March Open 140 Ian Nepomniachtchi European Individual Championship Eforie 1427 March Continental 375 Matthias Blübaum Agzamov Memorial Tashkent 1930 March Open 158 Nihal Sarin Reykjavik Open Reykjavík 915 April Open 419 Parham Maghsoodloo Open Internacional Alicante Alicante 1621 April Open 557 Volodar Murzin Grenke Open Karlsruhe 1621 April Open 875 Aswath S Spring Chess Classic St. Louis 2130 April Round robin 10 Andrew Hong Menorca Open Menorca 2227 April Open 326 2644 Vasyl Ivanchuk GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland Warsaw 24 April1 May Rapid & Blitz 10 2741 Vladimir Fedoseev Sardinia World Chess Festival Orosei, Sardinia26 April4 May Open 107 Christopher Yoo Baku Open Baku27 April6 May Open 68 Aleksandar Indjic Ljubljana Chess Festival Ljubljana28 April4 May Open 165 Jan Šubelj GCT Superbet Classic Romania Bucharest 617 May Round robin 10 R Praggnanandhaa Asian Individual Championship Al Ain 715 May Continental 157 Bardiya Daneshvar German Championship Munich 1523 May National 10 Vincent Keymer Sharjah Masters Sharjah 1725 May Open 82 Anish Giri TePe Sigeman Malmö 2026 May Round robin 8 2647 Javokhir Sindarov American Continental Championship Foz do Iguaçu 2331 May Continental 218 Sam Shankland Norway Chess Stavanger 26 May6 June Double round robin 6 Magnus Carlsen Dubai Open Dubai 27 May4 June Open 82 Aleksey Grebnev Stepan Avagyan Memorial Jermuk 28 May6 June Round robin 10 Aravindh Chithambaram Delhi International Open New Delhi 714 June Open 343 Abhijeet Gupta Munich Whitsun Open Munich 814 June Open 152 Elham Amar UzChess Cup (M) Tashkent 1827 June Round robin 10 R Praggnanandhaa UzChess Cup (Ch) Tashkent 1827 June Round robin 10 Nikolas Theodorou Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial – Aktobe Open Aktobe 20 June1 July Open 80 Alexey Sarana GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia Zagreb 27 July Rapid & Blitz 10 2776 Magnus Carlsen Biel Masters Tournament Open Biel/Bienne 1224 July Open 112 Karthikeyan Murali Karpov International Chess Tournament Khanty-Mansiysk 1426 July Round Robin 10 Amin Tabatabaei Dole Open Aix-en-Provence 1927 July Open 272 P. Iniyan Oskemen Open Oskemen 2030 July Open 77 Aleksey Grebnev Czech Open Pardubice 25 July2 August Open 202 Alexander Donchenko British Chess Championship Liverpool 210 August National 99 2561 Michael Adams Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Open Dortmund 210 August Open 196 Matthias Blübaum Chennai Grand Masters Chennai 716 August Round robin 10 Vincent Keymer Rubinstein Memorial Polanica-Zdrój 1524 August Round robin 10 Nodirbek Yakubboev Abu Dhabi Masters Abu Dhabi 1524 August Open 195 Denis Lazavik GCT Sinquefield Cup St. Louis 1828 August Round robin 10 Wesley So Fujairah Global Championship Fujairah 25 August2 September Open 44 2660 Pranav V FIDE Grand Swiss Samarkand 315 September FIDE 116 Anish Giri Russian Championship Moscow 112 October National 12 Arseniy Nesterov U.S. Championship St. Louis 1125 October National 12 Fabiano Caruana FIDE World Cup Goa 127 November FIDE 206 Javokhir Sindarov KazChess Masters Almaty 2129 November Round robin 10 2601 Alexey Sarana U.S. Masters Charlotte 2630 November Open 250 Awonder LiangLondon Chess Classic – Open London 26 November3 December Open 120 R Praggnanandhaa Velimir Ivić Ameet Ghasi London Chess Classic London 26 November5 December Round robin 10 Nodirbek Abdusattorov European Rapid Championship Pristina 2729 November RapidContinental 369 Paulius Pultinevičius European Blitz Championship Pristina 30 November1 December BlitzContinental 369 Jorden van Foreest Kazakhstan Chess Cup Almaty 112 December Round robin 12 Aram Hakobyan President Cup (M) Tashkent 312 December Round robin 10 Nihal Sarin World Rapid Championship Doha 2528 December RapidFIDE 247 Magnus Carlsen World Blitz Championship Doha 2930 December BlitzFIDE 252 Magnus Carlsen
Ranking At the end of 2025, the best player in the Circuit qualified the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they played in at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and he played at least 2 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 6 or 7 tournaments) or at least 1 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 5 tournaments).
Tournament results which can't be counted for qualification for the Candidates Tournament 2026 are marked in pink. "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section. : Current leader – set to qualify for Candidates Tournament 2026 (Next top leader if the current top player has already qualified through other route) : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2026 via another path : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification