2025 FIDE Circuit

The 2025 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2025, which serves as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score is the sum of their seven best results of the year. The winner of the Circuit qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2026.^[1]

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament is eligible for the Circuit if it meets the following criteria:^[1]

• Finish between 1 January 2025 and 15 December 2025. For National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments as well as open tournaments with 50 or more players, 1 January 2025 through 21 December 2025.
• 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 have an average standard rating of at least 2550 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 includes 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 meet the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700.
• Double Round Robin Tournaments with 6 or more players where the TAR is at least 2700

Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament are calculated as follows:

${\displaystyle P=B\times k\times w}$

where:

• ${\displaystyle P}$ - Points obtained by player from the tournament
• ${\displaystyle B}$ - Basic points
• ${\displaystyle k}$ - Tournament strength factor, calculated as ${\displaystyle k=(TAR-2500)/100}$
• ${\displaystyle w}$ - 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 for a tournament are 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 are awarded as follows:

• 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 100% shared equally among all tied players.

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.

For the World Cup 2025, the event points will be 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 is eliminated in the quarter finals of the event will be deemed to have finished in 5th points for basic points, and as such will all gain 5 basic points.

A player's point total for the ranking is the sum of their best 7 tournaments with the following criteria:

• If player has 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 has 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 that could be included in player's results are as follows:

• Official FIDE tournaments.
• National Championships.
• Other eligible tournaments, counting all tournaments with minimum TAR of 2650 and up to two lower tournaments per host country with TAR below 2650.

2025 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
World Championship	Singapore	Nov 25 – Dec 13, 2024	FIDE	2	2754	Gukesh Dommaraju
Tata Steel (M)	Wijk aan Zee	Jan 17 – Feb 2		14	2763+1⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa
Tata Steel (Ch)	Wijk aan Zee	Jan 17 – Feb 2		14	2618+5⁄8	Thai Dai Van Nguyen
Azerbaijan Championship	Baku	Feb 1 – 15	National	26	2641+3⁄4	Rauf Mamedov
Al-Beruniy (M)	Tashkent	Feb 2 – 12		10	2624+3⁄8	Mukhiddin Madaminov
Al-Beruniy (Ch)	Tashkent	Feb 2 – 12		10	2557+5⁄8	Bardiya Daneshvar
Djerba Masters	Djerba	Feb 15 – 23		10	2644+1⁄8	Marc'Andria Maurizzi
World Junior Championship	Petrovac	Feb 23 – Mar 7	FIDE Open	157	2560+1⁄2	Pranav V
Prague (M)	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7		10	2721+1⁄4	Aravindh Chithambaram
Prague (Ch)	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7		10	2584	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	Feb 28 – Mar 7	Open	140	2704+5⁄8	Ian Nepomniachtchi
European Individual Championship	Eforie	Mar 14 – 27	Continental Open	375	2671+5⁄8	Matthias Blübaum
Agzamov Memorial	Tashkent	Mar 19 – 30	Open	158	2643+5⁄8	Nihal Sarin
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	Apr 9 – 15	Open	419	2612+3⁄4	Parham Maghsoodloo
Open Internacional Alicante	Alicante	Apr 16 – 21	Open	557	2599+7⁄8	Volodar Murzin
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	Apr 16 – 21	Open	875	2638+3⁄8	Aswath S
Menorca Open	Menorca	Apr 22 – 27	Open	326	2644	Vasyl Ivanchuk
GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland	Warsaw	Apr 24 – May 1	Rapid & Blitz	10	2741	Vladimir Fedoseev
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei, Sardinia	Apr 26 – May 4	Open	107	2593+1⁄4	Christopher Yoo
Baku Open	Baku	Apr 27 – May 6	Open	68	2591+5⁄8	Aleksandar Indjic
Ljubljana Chess Festival	Ljubljana	Apr 28 – May 4	Open	165	2559+3⁄8	Jan Šubelj
GCT Superbet Classic Romania	Bucharest	May 6 – 17		10	2760+3⁄4	R Praggnanandhaa
Asian Individual Championship	Al Ain	May 7 – 15	Continental Open	157	2652+1⁄2	Bardiya Daneshvar
German Championship	Munich	May 15 – 23	National	10	2642+1⁄8
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	May 17 – 25	Open	82	2690+3⁄8
TePe Sigeman	Malmo	May 20 – 26		8	2647
American Continental Championship	Foz do Iguaçu	May 23 – 31	Continental Open	228	2609+5⁄8
Norway Chess	Stavanger	May 26 – Jun 6		6	2790+2⁄3
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	May 28 – Jun 6		10	2678+3⁄4
Delhi International Open	New Delhi	Jun 7 – 14	Open
UzChess Cup (M)	Tashkent	Jun 18 – 28		10
UzChess Cup (Ch)	Tashkent	Jun 18 – 28		10
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial	Aktobe	Jun 20 – Jul 1	Open
GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia	Zagreb	Jun 30 – Jul 7	Rapid & Blitz	10
Jihlava Open	Jihlava	Jul 7 – 13	Open
Dole Open	Aix-en-Provence	Jul 10 – 27	Open
Biel (M)	Biel	Jul 12 – 25
Biel (Ch)	Biel	Jul 12 – 25
Biel Open	Biel	Jul 12 – 25	Open
Karpov International Chess Tournament	Khanty-Mansiysk	Jul 14 – 26
Oskemen Open	Oskemen	Jul 20 – 30	Open
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	Aug 6 – 15		8
GCT Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz	St. Louis	Aug 9 – 16	Rapid & Blitz	10
Rubinstein Memorial	Polanica-Zdrój	Aug 15 – 24
GCT Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	Aug 16 – 29		10
Maia Open	Maia	Aug 22 – 30	Open
Fujairah Global Championship	Fujairah	Aug 25 – Sep 2	Open	50
FIDE Grand Swiss	Samarkand	Sep 3 – 15	FIDE Open	114
U.S. Championship	St. Louis	Oct 8 – 24	National	12
Villa Martelli	Buenos Aires	Oct 8 – 17
FIDE World Cup	New Delhi	Oct 31 – Nov 27	FIDE Open	206
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	Nov 26 – 30	Open
European Rapid Championship	Pristina	Nov 27 – Dec 1	Rapid Continental
European Blitz Championship	Pristina	Nov 27 – Dec 1	Blitz Continental
World Rapid Championship	Doha	Dec 25 – 31	Rapid FIDE
World Blitz Championship	Doha	Dec 25 – 31	Blitz FIDE

"(M)" denotes the Masters section while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section.
"Open" refers to classical tournaments with 50 or more participants.

At the end of 2025, the best player in the Circuit will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they played in at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls). Among these tournaments, there shall be 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

Top 25 as of May 16, 2025^[2]

No.	Player	Points	Events	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	R Praggnanandhaa	68.40	4	Tata Steel (M) 1st – 25.00	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	GCT Poland R&B 3rd – 8.44	GCT Romania Classic 1st – 23.90	Required	Optional
2	Ding Liren	40.64	1	World Champ 2nd – 40.64	Required				Optional
3	Bardiya Daneshvar	33.39	4	Al-Beruniy (Ch) 1st – 6.34	Aeroflot 9th – 3.58	Tashkent Open 4th – 8.98	Asian Champ 1st – 14.49	Required	Optional
4	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	30.28	2	GCT Poland R&B 2nd – 9.64	GCT Romania Classic T 1st-3rd – 20.64	Required			Optional
5	Nihal Sarin	29.99	3	Tashkent Open 1st – 15.80	Menorca 8th – 1.23	Asian Champ 2nd – 12.96	Required		Optional
6	Vladimir Fedoseev	29.05	2	Tata Steel (M) 4th – 15.79	GCT Poland R&B 1st – 13.26	Required			Optional
7	Vasyl Ivanchuk	24.39	5	Djerba 9th – 0.00	European Champ 42nd – 0.00	Reykjavik 2nd – 5.83	Alicante 3rd – 5.89	Menorca 1st – 12.67	Optional
8	Aravindh Chithambaram	24.34	2	Prague (M) 1st – 24.34	GCT Poland R&B 8th – 0.00	Required			Optional
9	Gukesh Dommaraju	22.37	2	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 22.37	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	Required			Optional
10	Marc'Andria Maurizzi	22.02	3	Djerba 1st – 16.14	Prague (Ch) 3rd – 5.88	European Champ 220th – 0.00	Required		Optional
11	Alireza Firouzja	20.64	1	GCT Superbet Romania T 1st-3rd – 20.64	Required				Optional
12	Lu Shanglei	19.03	3	Reykjavik Open 6th – 3.81	Alicante 2nd – 6.29	Menorca 2nd – 8.93	Required		Optional
13	Parham Maghsoodloo	18.86	2	Djerba 3rd – 7.70	Reykjavik 1st – 11.16	Required			Optional
14	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	18.42	2	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 18.42	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	Required			Optional
15	Ian Nepomniachtchi	18.01	1	Aeroflot 1st – 18.01	Required				Optional
16	Anish Giri	17.64	2	Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	Required			Optional
17	Wei Yi	17.64	2	Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	Required			Optional
18	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	17.03	3	Aeroflot 51st – 0.00	Tashkent Open 5th – 8.26	Asian Champ 3rd – 8.77	Required		Optional
19	Matthias Blübaum	15.73	1	European Champ 1st – 15.73	Required				Optional
20	Daniel Dardha	15.53	4	Djerba 2nd – 11.74	World Junior Champ T 9th-16th – 0.07	European Champ 25th – 0.00	Sardinia 4th – 3.72	Required	Optional
21	Nodirbek Yakubboev	14.50	3	Tata Steel (Ch) 3rd – 6.52	Prague (Ch) 1st – 7.98	Asian Champ 15th – 0.00	Required		Optional
22	Mukhiddin Madaminov	14.22	3	Al-Beruniy (M) 1st – 13.68	Tashkent Open 16th – 0.54	Asian Champ 22nd – 0.00	Required		Optional
23	Aydin Suleymanli	14.05	4	Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.08	AZE Champ T 5th-8th – 3.97	European Champ 27th – 0.00	Baku Open 12th – 0.00	Required	Optional
24	Frederik Svane	14.02	2	Tata Steel (Ch) 7th – 0.00	European Champ 2nd – 14.02	Required			Optional
25	Maxim Rodshtein	13.16	1	European Champ 3rd – 13.16	Required				Optional

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

• FIDE Circuit