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The 2024 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2024, 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:

1. Finish between 1 January 2024 and 15 December 2024.
2. Has at least 8 players.
3. Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
4. 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).
5. Players represent at least 3 national federations.
6. 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.
• 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 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
  • 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 are awarded depending on the tournament format:

• Swiss-system: Top 8 (within top half of ranking), ties included.
• Round-robin: Top 3 with ties (with the exception of the Candidates Tournament 2024 where points are awarded to all players).
• Knockout: Third round or later, up to 8 players.

Points are awarded as follows:

• If the tournament is won outright, basic points for 1st place would be 11 points. Otherwise, 10 basic points would 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 round-robin tournaments (other than Candidates), 4th and below are worth zero points for tied players calculation.

FIDE World Championship points

For the World Chess Championship 2024, the winner will get points calculated as 1st place basic points multiplied by the strength factor, but with its TAR value using winner's performance rating instead.

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:

• 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 7 December 2024.

2024 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
Hastings	Hastings	Dec 28, 2023 – Jan 5, 2024		105	2552	Abhijeet Gupta
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	Jan 12–28		14	2752+3⁄4	Wei Yi
Tata Steel Challengers	Wijk aan Zee	Jan 12–28		14	2637+3⁄4	Leon Luke Mendonca
Djerba Masters	Djerba	Feb 18–25		8	2590+1⁄2	Daniel Dardha
Prague Masters	Prague	Feb 27 – Mar 7		10	2727+1⁄4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Prague Challengers	Prague	Feb 27 – Mar 7		10	2575+3⁄4	Ediz Gürel
Prague Open	Prague	Feb 27 – Mar 7		267	2567+3⁄4	Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis
Shenzhen Masters	Shenzhen	Feb 29 – Mar 7		8	2698	Bu Xiangzhi
Cappelle-la-Grande Open	Cappelle-la-Grande	Mar 2–8		382	2562+5⁄8	Abhimanyu Puranik
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	Mar 3–7		142	2679+7⁄8	Amin Tabatabaei
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	Mar 15–21		363	2602+3⁄4	Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Fagernes Chess International	Fagernes	Mar 24–31		100	2568	Rinat Jumabayev
Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda	La Roda	Mar 27–31		210	2603+7⁄8	Aravindh Chithambaram
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	Mar 26 – Apr 1		935	2689+1⁄4	Hans Niemann
Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa	Alicante	Mar 27 – Apr 1		417	2574+1⁄2	Kirill Alekseenko
Menorca Open	Menorca	Apr 2–7		284	2676+5⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Candidates	Toronto	Apr 3–22	FIDE	8	2744+7⁄8	Gukesh Dommaraju
Sunway Formentera	Formentera	Apr 9–19		51	2581+3⁄4	Alexander Donchenko
Spring Chess Classic	St. Louis	Apr 11–20		10	2624+7⁄8	Leon Luke Mendonca
TePe Sigeman	Malmö	Apr 27 – May 3		8	2676+7⁄8	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei, Sardinia	Apr 27 – May 4		168	2658+1⁄2	Daniel Dardha
Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge	Dubai	May 3–13		135	2694+3⁄8	Pranav V
GCT Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz	Warsaw	May 6–13	Rapid & Blitz	10	2762+3⁄8	Magnus Carlsen
Chinese Chess Championship	Xinghua	May 6–16	National	12	2570+1⁄4	Wang Yue
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	May 13–23		88	2720+5⁄8	Bardiya Daneshvar
Polish Chess Championship	Rzeszów	May 21–31	National	10	2586+1⁄2	Radosław Wojtaszek
Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál	Budapest	May 23–31		210	2597+5⁄8	Yahli Sokolovsky
Americas Continental Championship	Medellin	May 24 – Jun 2	Continental FIDE	387	2582+1⁄8	Roberto García Pantoja
Dubai Open	Dubai	May 25 – Jun 2		71	2608+1⁄2	Mahammad Muradli
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial	Aktobe	May 25 – Jun 2		90	2682+3⁄8	Parham Maghsoodloo
National Open	Las Vegas	Jun 5–9		136	2583+1⁄2	Vasif Durarbayli
UzChess Cup Masters	Tashkent	Jun 6–14		10	2726+7⁄8	Nodirbek Yakubboev
UzChess Cup Challengers	Tashkent	Jun 6–14		10	2625+5⁄8	Shamsiddin Vokhidov
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	Jun 9–18		10	2679+7⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Teplice Open	Teplice	Jun 15–23		240	2629	Max Warmerdam
Serbian Chess Championship	Senta	Jun 17–25	National	10	2556+1⁄8	Aleksandar Inđić
Arona International Chess Festival	Arona, Tenerife	Jun 22–30		161	2584+7⁄8	Xue Haowen
GCT Romania	Bucharest	Jun 24 – Jul 6		10	2761+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
Baku Open	Baku	Jun 29 – Jul 7		126	2625	Sina Movahed
Dutch Chess Championship	Utrecht	Jul 6–13	National	16	2586+3⁄8	Max Warmerdam
GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz	Zagreb	Jul 8–15	Rapid & Blitz	10	2753	Fabiano Caruana
Biel Chess Festival	Biel/Bienne	Jul 13–26		128	2593+3⁄4	Rinat Jumabayev
DOLE Open/NEXTLANE Grand Prix	Aix-en-Provence	Jul 20–28		177	2627+7⁄8	Pranesh M
GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz	St. Louis	Aug 10–17	Rapid & Blitz	10	2765+3⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage	Dortmund	Aug 10–18		193	2582+7⁄8	Nico Zwirs
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	Aug 15–24		217	2677+1⁄4	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival	Polanica-Zdrój	Aug 17–25		10	2696+3⁄8	Vincent Keymer
French Championship	Alpe d'Huez	Aug 17–25	National	16	2577+1⁄4	Jules Moussard
Indian Chess Championship	Gurgaon	Aug 17–27	National	341	2562+7⁄8	Karthik Venkataraman
Russian Championship	Barnaul	Aug 17–28	National	12	2668+3⁄4	Vladislav Artemiev
Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	Aug 19–29		10	2760+5⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Iberoamerican Championship	Linares	Sep 24 – Oct 2		118	2569+7⁄8	Alan Pichot
Gashimov Memorial	Shusha	Sep 25–30	Rapid & Blitz	8	2704+5⁄8	Ian Nepomniachtchi
US Championship	St. Louis	Oct 11–23	National	12	2727+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
Pavlodar Open Masters	Pavlodar	Oct 12–22		96	2585+7⁄8	Aram Hakobyan
WR Chess Masters Cup	London	Oct 14–17		16	2754	Arjun Erigaisi
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	Nov 5–11		8	2724+5⁄8	Aravindh Chithambaram
European Chess Championship	Petrovac	Nov 7–20	Continental FIDE	388	2675+5⁄8	Aleksandar Inđić
Tata Steel Chess India Rapid	Kolkata	Nov 13–15	Rapid	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
Tata Steel Chess India Blitz	Kolkata	Nov 16–17	Blitz	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
International President Cup	Tashkent	Nov 21–29		120	2691+3⁄4	Nihal Sarin
World Chess Championship	Singapore	Nov 25 – Dec 13	FIDE	2	2757	Gukesh Dommaraju
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	Nov 27 – Dec 1		264	2655+1⁄2	Fabiano Caruana
Singapore International Open	Singapore	Nov 29 – Dec 5		285	2626+1⁄8	Lu Shanglei
London Chess Classic	London	Nov 29 – Dec 6		8	2637+5⁄8	Gawain Jones
London Chess Classic – Open	London	Nov 29 – Dec 7		87	2560	Raunak Sadhwani Ilya Smirin
Saint Louis Masters	St. Louis	Dec 3–7		59	2682+1⁄8	Fabiano Caruana Alexander Donchenko
Qatar Masters	Doha	Dec 3–12		138	2714+1⁄2	Andrey Esipenko
European Rapid Championship	Skopje	Dec 7–8	Rapid Continental FIDE	398	2669+1⁄8	Vladimir Fedoseev
European Blitz Championship	Skopje	Dec 9	Blitz Continental FIDE	368	2669+1⁄8	Jorden van Foreest
World Rapid Championship	New York City	Dec 26–28	Rapid FIDE	187	2789+5⁄8
Zurcher Weihnachtsopen	Zürich	Dec 26–30
World Blitz Championship	New York City	Dec 30–31	Blitz FIDE	186	2789+5⁄8

Ranking

At the end of 2024, the best player in the Circuit will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that their final score consists of at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and they played in at least 2 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if their final score consists of 6 or 7 tournaments) or at least 1 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if their final score consists of 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.

•  : Current leader – set to qualify for Candidates Tournament 2026
•  : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification
•  : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification

Top 20 as of 15 December 2024

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Fabiano Caruana	130.42	Candidates 4th – 15.92	GCT Romania 1st – 21.23	GCT Croatia 1st – 13.92	Sinquefield Cup 2nd – 20.85	US Championship 1st – 25.00	US Masters 1st – 17.11	St. Louis Masters T 1st-2nd – 16.39
2	Arjun Erigaisi	124.40	Shenzhen 3rd – 15.18	Menorca 1st – 16.19	Malmö 2nd – 14.00 (T 2nd-3rd)	Jermuk 1st – 19.79	WR Masters 1st – 25.40	Chennai 3rd – 17.22	Doha 2nd – 16.62
3	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	108.49	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 1st – 25.00	Malmö 1st – 16.21	Tashkent (M) 2nd – 19.28	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12	President Cup 5th – 9.11	Doha 3rd – 15.55
4	Alireza Firouzja	88.16	Tata Steel (M) 5th – 0.00	Candidates 7th – 7.35	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	GCT Croatia T 2nd-4th – 6.33	GCT St. Louis 1st – 14.60	Sinquefield Cup 1st – 28.67	WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51
5	Gukesh Dommaraju	84.13	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 7th – 0.00	Candidates 1st – 26.94	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	GCT Croatia 7th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00	World Champion 1st – 28.27
6	R Praggnanandhaa	66.76	Prague (M) 4th – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th)	Candidates 5th – 12.24	GCT Poland 4th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51	Kolkata Rapid 2nd – 11.95	Kolkata Blitz 4th – 0.00
7	Nodirbek Yakubboev	57.40	Moscow 3rd – 12.14	Dubai Police 51st – 0.00	Aktobe 12th – 0.41 (T 7th-17th)	Tashkent (M) 1st – 21.55	Abu Dhabi 1st – 14.77	President Cup 6th – 8.15	Doha 18th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
8	Amin Tabatabaei	56.39	Moscow 1st – 19.79	Dubai Police 6th – 7.64	Sharjah 5th – 7.45	Jermuk 3rd – 10.79	Abu Dhabi 5th – 10.34	President Cup 26th – 0.00	Doha 14th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
9	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	53.56	Moscow 34th – 0.00	Sharjah 4th – 15.17	Tashkent (Ch) 1st – 13.82	Abu Dhabi 3rd – 12.11	President Cup 4th – 12.46	Doha 23rd – 0.00
10	Daniel Dardha	51.73	Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.33 (T 2nd-3rd)	Djerba 1st – 8.60	Menorca 8th – 1.89	Sardinia 1st – 14.07	European Champ. 2nd – 14.05	European Rapid 7th – 2.79	European Blitz 16th – 0.00
11	Andrey Esipenko	50.98	Moscow 2nd – 13.04	Sharjah 55th – 0.00	Russian Champ. 2nd – 14.34	Doha 1st – 23.60
12	Leon Luke Mendonca	47.88	Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 15.15	St. Louis (Spring) 1st – 13.74	Sharjah 28th – 0.00	Dubai Open 23rd – 0.00	Biel/Bienne 2nd – 7.38	Abu Dhabi 4th – 11.23	Doha 16th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
13	Aravindh Chithambaram	47.25	La Roda 1st – 9.52	Menorca 16th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st)	Dubai Police 2nd – 16.52	Sharjah 13th – 0.00	Abu Dhabi 12th – 0.49 (T 7th-15th)	Shusha 6th – 0.00	Chennai 1st – 20.59
14	Parham Maghsoodloo	46.77	Prague (M) 3rd – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th)	Sharjah 9th – 1.93 (T 5th-12th)	Aktobe 1st – 20.06	Tashkent (M) 10th – 0.00	Chennai 6th – 0.00	President Cup 3rd – 13.42	Doha 64th – 0.00
15	Vladimir Fedoseev	38.59	Grenke Open 3rd – 10.30	Menorca 4th – 9.27	Sardinia 6th – 4.18	Sharjah 41st – 0.00	Polanica-Zdrój 4th – 3.68 (T 2nd-5th)	European Champ. 15th – 0.00	European Rapid 1st – 11.16
16	Hans Niemann	38.01	Tata Steel (Ch) 7th – 0.00	Djerba 2nd – 7.69	Grenke Open 1st – 20.82	Dubai Police 7th – 6.66	Sharjah 15th – 0.00	US Championship 4th – 2.84 (T 2nd-7th)
17	Alexander Donchenko	36.20	Formentera 1st – 8.99	Dubai Police 12th – 0.00	Tashkent (Ch) 7th – 0.00	Teplice 3rd – 9.89	European Champ. 16th – 0.00	US Masters 7th – 0.93 (T 6th-20th)	St. Louis Masters T 1st-2nd – 16.39
18	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	35.77	GCT Romania T 5th-7th – 0.00	GCT Croatia T 2nd-4th – 6.33	GCT St. Louis T 4th-5th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12	WR Masters 2nd – 20.32	Chennai 5th – 0.00
19	Aleksandar Inđić	34.94	Grenke Open T 24th-25th – 0.00	Dubai Police 27th – 0.00	Dubai Open 21st – 0.00	Tashkent (Ch) 4th – 2.20 (T 3rd-4th)	Serbian Champ. 1st – 6.17	European Champ. 1st – 19.32	Singapore 4th – 7.25
20	Volodar Murzin	32.34	Menorca 17th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st)	Sardinia 3rd – 11.69	Dubai Police 58th – 0.00	Sharjah 2nd – 17.37	Jermuk 10th – 0.00	Abu Dhabi 7th – 3.15	Singapore 22nd – 0.00

Criticism

The FIDE Circuit system has drawn sharp criticism from top chess players for multiple reasons, as outlined by GMs Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, and Fabiano Caruana. Their objections center on inconsistent scoring, exclusion of certain tournaments, and financial burdens, raising questions about the system's fairness and practicality.

Inconsistent point allocations

Critics argue the points system is poorly designed, rewarding players inconsistently across events of varying importance. For example:

• Tata Steel Chess: GMs Gukesh, Abdusattorov, and Giri tied for second in the prestigious Masters section with performance ratings over 2820 but earned just 14.22 points each. Meanwhile, Leon Luke Mendonca who won the significantly-weaker Challengers section, gained 15.15 points.
• GRENKE Open: GM Hans Niemann earned 20.82 points for winning a relatively weaker open event with a performance rating of 2813, almost as much as Gukesh’s 2847-rated Candidates win (26.94 points) or other super-tournament performances. Niemann scored more than the players tied for 2nd at the Candidates (Nakamura (2819), Nepomniachtchi (2823), Caruana (2817), despite a lower performance rating.

Caruana expressed frustration that lesser performances in open events can surpass scores in elite tournaments, calling it “absurd.”

Limited recognition for top performances in closed tournaments

Only the top three places in elite round-robin tournaments contribute Circuit points, leaving many high-ranking players unrewarded. At Tata Steel, players like Alireza Firouzja and Vidit Gujrathi, who scored respectable results (7.5/13), received zero points.

This system, critics argue, undervalues the difficulty and prestige of closed tournaments like the Candidates or Tata Steel Masters.

Exclusion of certain events

The Circuit excludes tournaments where over 50% of participants are from the same federation unless it is a national championship. For instance, the American Cup, a high-stakes tournament featuring elite players, did not count because all participants were from the United States.

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky justified this rule as a response to perceived exploitation in prior years (e.g., Ding Liren’s qualification via Chinese-organized events). However, this approach penalizes strong national-level tournaments.

Financial burden on players

The shift from the FIDE Grand Prix (with significant prize funds) to the Circuit system forces players to compete in numerous open tournaments, which often have lower prize money and higher financial risks. Giri noted the economic strain, pointing out that players must accept these risks to stay competitive in the Circuit standings.

Caruana highlighted how players like Arjun Erigaisi have gained rating points through opens, while elite players like Firouzja risk losing Elo in high-profile events. The system, he argued, incentivizes quantity over quality, disadvantaging players who rely on elite invitations.

Democratization vs. quality

FIDE defends the Circuit as a way to give more players access to the Candidates by prioritizing open tournaments over exclusive invitations. Sutovsky argued that the system levels the playing field for those without consistent access to elite events.

Caruana, however, countered that this philosophy is flawed, as chess ratings already provide a democratic system. He emphasized that rating gains in open tournaments are achievable through consistent good performance, making the Circuit system redundant and unnecessarily complicated.

Lack of transparency and logic

Critics have questioned the lack of clarity in FIDE’s decisions, such as excluding tournaments like Norway Chess 2024 (due to its six-player format) despite featuring the world’s top players. This leads to confusion about what constitutes a "worthy" event for the Circuit.

Notes

1. ^ Russian players' flags are displayed as the FIDE flag, as Russian and Belarusian flags have been banned from FIDE-rated events in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

1. ^ "FIDE CIRCUIT 2024 REGULATIONS" (PDF). FIDE. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
2. ^ "FIDE Circuit". fide.com. Retrieved 2024-05-04.
3. Doggers (PeterDoggers), Peter (2022-02-28). "FIDE Condemns Military Action; Takes Measures Against Russia, Belarus". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
4. McGourty (Colin_McGourty), Colin (2024-05-03). "Giri, Caruana, Aronian Criticize "Completely Broken" FIDE Circuit". Chess.com. Retrieved 2024-12-16.

See also

• 2023 FIDE Circuit

External links

• FIDE Circuit

• 2024 in chess
• Current chess seasons
• FIDE Circuit