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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:

1. Finish between 16 December 2024 and 15 December 2025.
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.
• 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:

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

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 - World Chess Championship 2024
  • 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-robins under 10 players: Top 3 with ties.
• Round-robins 10-12 players: Top 4 with ties.
• Round-robins more than 12 players: Top 5 with ties.
• 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.

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:

• 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 13 December 2024.

2025 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
World Chess Championship	Singapore	25 Nov 2024 – 13 Dec 2024	FIDE	2	2757	Gukesh Dommaraju
Hastings	Hastings	28 Dec 2024 – 5 Jan 2025
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	17 Jan – 2 Feb		14
Tata Steel Challengers	Wijk aan Zee	17 Jan – 2 Feb		14
Prague Masters	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7
Prague Challengers	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7
GCT Poland Rapid & Blitz	Warsaw	April 24 – May 1	Rapid & Blitz	10
GCT Romania Classic	Bucharest	May 6 – May 17		10
Norway Chess	Stavanger	May 26 – June 6		6
GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz	Zagreb	Jun 30 - Jul 7	Rapid & Blitz	10
GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz	St. Louis	Aug 9–16	Rapid & Blitz	10
GCT Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	Aug 16–29		10
FIDE World Cup 2025			FIDE
FIDE Grand Swiss 2025			FIDE
World Rapid Championship 2025			Rapid FIDE
World Blitz Championship 2025			Blitz FIDE

Ranking

At the end of 2025, 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
•  : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification

Top 20 as of 24 December 2024

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5(Open)	6(Open)	7
1	Ding Liren	40.64	World Championship 2nd – 40.64	Required	Required	Required	Required	Optional	Optional

Notes

References

1. ^ "FIDE CIRCUIT 2025 REGULATIONS" (PDF). FIDE. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
2. ^ "FIDE Circuit". fide.com. Retrieved 2024-05-04.

See also

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

External links

• FIDE Circuit

• 2025 in chess
• Current chess seasons
• FIDE Circuit