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.

Tournament eligibility

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

• Finish between 1 January 2025 and for National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments as well as traditional open tournaments (with 50 or more players), 21 December 2025. For other tournaments, 15 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:

• The World Chess Championship 2024
• National Championships that meet points 1 to 4 in above criteria
• 2025 World Rapid Chess Championship
• 2025 World Blitz Chess 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

Points system

Event points

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

$P=B\times k\times w$

where:

• $P$ - Points obtained by player from the tournament
• $B$ - Basic points
• $k$ - Tournament strength factor, calculated as $k=(TAR-2500)/100$
• $w$ - 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 or 7 players and standard classical tournaments with 2 multi game-days
  • 0.8 - World Rapid Championships, Knockout Tournaments with fewer than 6 rounds and standard classical tournaments with 3 multi game-days
  • 0.7 - Standard classical tournaments with 4 multi game-days
  • 0.6 - World Blitz Championships and other Rapid tournaments and standard 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 - Blitz tournaments

If multiple weighting coefficients apply these are multiplied together.

Basic points

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:

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 100% shared equally among all tied players.

FIDE World Championship 2024 points

For the World Chess Championship 2024, the 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 will be calculated as the player's performance rating.

FIDE World Cup 2025 points

For the Chess 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.

Player's total and ranking

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

Tournaments	Standard events with under 50 players allowed	Rapid/Blitz allowed
1–5	4	1
6	4	2
7	5	2

• 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.

Tournaments

Eligible tournaments as of 17 January 2025.

2025 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	Template:Tooltip	TAR	Winner
World Chess Championship	Template:Flagicon Singapore	Nov 25Template:Snd Dec 13, 2024	FIDE	2	2754	Template:Flagicon Gukesh Dommaraju
Tata Steel Masters	Template:Flagicon Wijk aan Zee	Jan 17Template:Snd Feb 2		14	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon R Praggnanandhaa
Tata Steel Challengers	Template:Flagicon Wijk aan Zee	Jan 17Template:Snd Feb 2		14	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon Thai Dai Van Nguyen
Azerbaijan Men's Championship 2025	Template:Flagicon Baku	Feb 1–15		26	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon Rauf Mamedov
Al-Beruniy Masters	Template:Flagicon Tashkent	Feb 2–12		10	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon Mukhiddin Madaminov
Al-Beruniy Challengers	Template:Flagicon Tashkent	Feb 2–12		10	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon Bardiya Daneshvar
Djerba Masters	Template:Flagicon Djerba	Feb 15–23		10	Template:Fraction	Template:Flagicon Marc'Andria Maurizzi
Prague Masters	Template:Flagicon Prague	Feb 25Template:Snd Mar 7		10	Template:Fraction
Prague Challengers	Template:Flagicon Prague	Feb 25Template:Snd Mar 7		10	2584
Aeroflot Open	Template:Flagicon Moscow	Feb 28Template:Snd Mar 7
European Individual Chess Championship	Template:Flagicon Eforie	Mar 14–27	Continental FIDE
Reykjavik Open	Template:Flagicon Reykjavík	Apr 9–15
Fagernes Chess International	Template:Flagicon Fagernes	Apr 13–20
Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda	Template:Flagicon La Roda	Apr 15–20
Menorca Open	Template:Flagicon Menorca	Apr 22–27
GCT Poland Rapid & Blitz	Template:Flagicon Warsaw	Apr 24Template:Snd May 1	Rapid & Blitz	10
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Template:Flagicon Sardinia	Apr 26 - May 4
Sunway Formentera	Template:Flagicon Formentera	Apr 29Template:Snd May 9
GCT Romania Classic	Template:Flagicon Bucharest	May 6–17		10
Sharjah Masters	Template:Flagicon Sharjah	May 16–26
American Continental Chess Championship	Template:Flagicon Natal, Rio Grande do Norte	May	Continental FIDE
Norway Chess	Template:Flagicon Stavanger	May 26Template:Snd Jun 6		6
Delhi International Open	Template:Flagicon New Delhi	Jun 07–14
GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz	Template:Flagicon Zagreb	Jun 30Template:Snd Jul 7	Rapid & Blitz	10
GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz	Template:Flagicon St. Louis	Aug 9–16	Rapid & Blitz	10
GCT Sinquefield Cup	Template:Flagicon St. Louis	Aug 16–29		10
FIDE Grand Swiss 2025	Template:Flagicon Samarkand	Sep 3–15	FIDE	114
FIDE World Cup 2025	Template:Flagicon	Oct 31Template:Snd Nov 27	FIDE	206
U.S. Masters	Template:Flagicon Charlotte	Nov 26–30
World Rapid Championship 2025	Template:Flagicon Doha	Dec 25–31	Rapid FIDE
World Blitz Championship 2025	Template:Flagicon Doha	Dec 25–31	Blitz FIDE

Ranking

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)" – Challenger section.

• Template:Colorbox: Current leader – set to qualify for Candidates Tournament 2026
• Template:Colorbox: Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2026 via another path
• Template:Colorbox: Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification

Top 20 as of 2 February 2025

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Template:Flagicon Ding Liren	40.64	Template:Flagicon World Champ. 2nd – 40.64	Required				Optional
2	Template:Flagicon R Praggnanandhaa	25.00	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) 1st – 25.00	Required				Optional
3	Template:Flagicon Gukesh Dommaraju	22.37	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 22.37	Required				Optional
4	Template:Flagicon Nodirbek Abdusattorov	18.42	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 18.42	Required				Optional
5	Template:Flagicon Marc'Andria Maurizzi	16.14	Template:Flagicon Djerba 1st – 16.14	Required				Optional
6	Template:Flagicon Vladimir Fedoseev	15.79	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) 4th – 15.79	Required				Optional
7	Template:Flagicon Aydin Suleymanli	14.05	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.08	Template:Flagicon Baku 8th – 3.97	Required			Optional
8	Template:Flagicon Mukhiddin Madaminov	13.68	Template:Flagicon Al-Beruniy (M) 1st – 13.68	Required				Optional
9	Template:Flagicon Daniel Dardha	11.74	Template:Flagicon Djerba 2nd – 11.74	Required				Optional
10	Template:Flagicon Rauf Mamedov	11.34	Template:Flagicon Baku 1st – 11.34	Required				Optional
11	Template:Flagicon Thai Dai Van Nguyen	11.27	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 11.27	Required				Optional
12	Template:Flagicon Shant Sargsyan	9.64	Template:Flagicon Al-Beruniy (M) 2nd – 9.64	Required				Optional
13	Template:Flagicon Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	9.07	Template:Flagicon Baku 2nd – 9.07	Required				Optional
14	Template:Flagicon Haik M. Martirosyan	9.02	Template:Flagicon Al-Beruniy (M) 3rd – 9.02	Required				Optional
15	Template:Flagicon Erwin l'Ami	8.30	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (Ch) 3rd – 8.30	Required				Optional
16	Template:Flagicon Misratdin Iskandarov	7.94	Template:Flagicon Baku 3rd – 7.94	Required				Optional
17	Template:Flagicon Parham Maghsoodloo	7.70	Template:Flagicon Djerba 3rd – 7.70	Required				Optional
18	Template:Flagicon Teimour Radjabov	6.80	Template:Flagicon Baku 4th – 6.80	Required				Optional
20=	Template:Flagicon Wei Yi	6.58	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Required				Optional
20=	Template:Flagicon Anish Giri	6.58	Template:Flagicon Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Required				Optional

See also

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

External links

• FIDE Circuit