2025 FIDE Circuit

2025 FIDE Circuit
R Praggnanandhaa, the current points leader of the 2025 FIDE Circuit
Duration	1 January 2025 – 21 December 2025[a]
Seasons
← 2024 2026 →

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.

"(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	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	Round robin	14	2763+1⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa
Tata Steel (Ch)	Wijk aan Zee	Jan 17 – Feb 2	Round robin	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	Round robin	10	2624+3⁄8	Mukhiddin Madaminov
Al-Beruniy (Ch)	Tashkent	Feb 2 – 12	Round robin	10	2557+5⁄8	Bardiya Daneshvar
Djerba Masters	Djerba	Feb 15 – 23	Round robin	10	2644+1⁄8	Marc'Andria Maurizzi
World Junior Championship	Petrovac	Feb 23 – Mar 7	FIDE	157	2560+1⁄2	Pranav V
Prague (M)	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7	Round robin	10	2721+1⁄4	Aravindh Chithambaram
Prague (Ch)	Prague	Feb 25 – Mar 7	Round robin	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	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
Spring Chess Classic	St. Louis	Apr 21–30	Round robin	10	2585+1⁄4	Andrew Hong
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	Round robin	10	2760+3⁄4	R Praggnanandhaa
Asian Individual Championship	Al Ain	May 7 – 15	Continental	157	2652+1⁄2	Bardiya Daneshvar
German Championship	Munich	May 15 – 23	National	10	2636+5⁄8	Vincent Keymer
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	May 17 – 25	Open	82	2690+3⁄8	Anish Giri
TePe Sigeman	Malmö	May 20 – 26	Round robin	8	2647	Javokhir Sindarov
American Continental Championship	Foz do Iguaçu	May 23 – 31	Continental	218	2606+1⁄8	Sam Shankland
Norway Chess	Stavanger	May 26 – Jun 6	Double round robin	6	2790+2⁄3	Magnus Carlsen
Dubai Open	Dubai	May 27 – Jun 4	Open	82	2620+1⁄4	Aleksey Grebnev
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	May 28 – Jun 6	Round robin	10	2678+3⁄4	Aravindh Chithambaram
Delhi International Open	New Delhi	Jun 7 – 14	Open	343	2550+1⁄2	Abhijeet Gupta
Münich Whitsun Open	Münich	Jun 8 – 14	Open	152	2594+1⁄8	Elham Amar
UzChess Cup (M)	Tashkent	Jun 18 – 27	Round robin	10	2742+1⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa
UzChess Cup (Ch)	Tashkent	Jun 18 – 27	Round robin	10	2582+1⁄8	Nikolas Theodorou
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial – Aktobe Open	Aktobe	Jun 20 – Jul 1	Open	80	2652+5⁄8	Alexey Sarana
GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia	Zagreb	Jul 2 – 7	Rapid & Blitz	10	2776	Magnus Carlsen
Biel Masters Tournament Open	Biel/Bienne	Jul 12 – 24	Open	112	2564+1⁄2	Karthikeyan Murali
Karpov International Chess Tournament	Khanty-Mansiysk	Jul 14 – 26	Round Robin	10	2655+3⁄4	Amin Tabatabaei
Dole Open	Aix-en-Provence	Jul 19 – 27	Open	272	2646+3⁄4	P. Iniyan
Oskemen Open	Oskemen	Jul 20 – 30	Open	77	2603+1⁄8	Aleksey Grebnev
Czech Open	Pardubice	Jul 25 – Aug 2	Open	202	2562+5⁄8	Alexander Donchenko
British Chess Championship	Liverpool	Aug 2 – 10	National	99	2561	Michael Adams
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Open	Dortmund	Aug 2 – 10	Open	196	2582+5⁄8	Matthias Blübaum
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	Aug 7 – 16	Round robin	10	2718+1⁄4	Vincent Keymer
Rubinstein Memorial	Polanica-Zdrój	Aug 15 – 24	Round robin	10	2657+3⁄8	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	Aug 15 – 24	Open	195	2594+3⁄4	Denis Lazavik
GCT Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	Aug 18 – 28	Round robin	10	2761+3⁄4	Wesley So
Fujairah Global Championship	Fujairah	Aug 25 – Sep 2	Open	44	2660	Pranav V
FIDE Grand Swiss	Samarkand	Sep 3 – 15	FIDE	116	2758+1⁄4
Vila Marteli	Buenos Aires	Oct 8 – 17	Open
U.S. Championship	St. Louis	Oct 10 – 26	National	12
FIDE World Cup	Goa	Oct 31 – Nov 27	FIDE	206
Campeonato Sudamericano Absoluto	Rancagua	Nov 3 – 8	Continental
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	Nov 26 – 30	Open
London Chess Classic	London	Nov 26 – Dec 2	Round robin
London Chess Classic – Open	London	Nov 26 – Dec 5	Open
European Rapid Championship	Pristina	Nov 27 – Dec 1	Rapid Continental
European Blitz Championship	Pristina	Nov 27 – Dec 1	Blitz Continental
London Chess Classic – Rapid	London	Dec 5 – 7	Rapid
World Rapid Championship	Doha	Dec 25 – 31	Rapid FIDE
World Blitz Championship	Doha	Dec 25 – 31	Blitz FIDE

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 September 1, 2025^[2]

No.	Player	Points	Events	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	R Praggnanandhaa	107.00	5	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	Avagyan Memorial 2nd – 15.19	UzChess (M) 1st – 22.19	Sinquefield Cup T 2nd-3rd – 20.72
2	Anish Giri	52.77	4	Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	Sharjah 1st – 20.94	GCT Croatia R&B 7th – 0.00	Chennai 2nd – 14.19	Optional
3	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	50.78	3	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 18.42	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	Sharjah 3rd – 13.80	UzChess (M) 3rd – 18.56	GCT Croatia R&B 6th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup 10th – 0.00	Optional
4	Matthias Blübaum	44.57	4	European Champ 1st – 15.73	German Champ 2nd – 10.93	Dortmund 1st – 6.89	Rubinstein Memorial 3rd – 11.02	Required	Optional
5	Magnus Carlsen	43.96	2	Stavanger 1st – 28.78	GCT Croatia R&B 1st – 15.18	Required			Optional
6	Fabiano Caruana	41.65	2	Tata Steel (M) 9th – 0.00	GCT Romania Classic 4th – 0.00	Stavanger 2nd – 20.93	GCT Croatia R&B 8th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 2nd-3rd – 20.72	Optional
7	Amin Tabatabaei	41.36	5	Aeroflot Open 6th – 6.85	Asian Champ 79th – 0.00	Sharjah 6th – 6.98	Khanty-Mansiysk 1st – 17.13	Fujairah 4th – 10.40	Optional
8	Aravindh Chithambaram	41.32	2	Prague (M) 1st – 24.34	GCT Poland R&B 8th – 0.00	Avagyan Memorial 1st – 16.98	UzChess (M) 10th – 0.00	Rubinstein Memorial 5th – 0.00	Optional
9	Ding Liren	40.64	1	World Champ 2nd – 40.64	Required				Optional
10	Vincent Keymer	39.04	2	Tata Steel (M) 8th – 0.00	Prague (M) 5th – 0.00	German Champ 1st – 15.03	Chennai 1st – 24.01	Required	Optional
11	Javokhir Sindarov	35.94	2	Malmö 1st – 16.17	UzChess (M) 2nd – 19.77	Required			Optional
12	Wesley So	35.03	2	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	GCT Croatia R&B 2nd – 11.04	Sinquefield Cup 1st – 23.99	Required		Optional
13	Nihal Sarin	34.88	5	Tashkent Open 1st – 15.80	Menorca 8th – 1.23	Asian Champ 2nd – 12.96	Dubai Open 6th – 3.49	Chennai 5th – 0.00	Fujairah T 9th-12th – 1.40	Optional
14	Aleksandar Inđić	34.13	5	Tashkent Open 7th – 2.69	Grenke Open 15th – 0.00	Baku Open 1st – 10.08	Sharjah 2nd – 14.75	Dubai Open 5th – 6.61	Optional
15	Bardiya Daneshvar	33.39	7	Al-Beruniy (Ch) 1st – 6.34	Aeroflot Open 9th – 3.58	Tashkent Open 4th – 8.98	Asian Champ 1st – 14.49	Sharjah 15th – 0.00	Aktobe Open 35th – 0.00	Fujairah 17th – 0.00
16	Gukesh Dommaraju	32.03	2	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 22.37	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	Stavanger 3rd – 0.00	GCT Croatia R&B 3rd – 9.66	Sinquefield Cup 8th – 0.00	Optional
17	Nodirbek Yakubboev	31.81	4	Tata Steel (Ch) T 4th-5th – 6.52	Prague (Ch) 1st – 7.98	Asian Champ 15th – 0.00	Avagyan Memorial 6th – 0.00	UzChess (M) 7th – 0.00	Rubinstein Memorial 1st – 17.31	Optional
18	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	30.28	2	GCT Poland R&B 2nd – 9.64	GCT Romania Classic T 2nd-3rd – 20.64	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00	Required		Optional
19	Aleksey Grebnev	30.04	7	World Junior Champ 6th – 2.57	Asian Champ 14th – 0.00	Sharjah 36th – 0.00	Dubai Open 1st – 11.42	Oskemen Open 1st – 9.80	Abu Dhabi 4th – 6.25	Fujairah 22nd – 0.00
20	Vladimir Fedoseev	29.05	2	Tata Steel (M) 4th – 15.79	GCT Poland R&B 1st – 13.26	Required			Optional
21	Shant Sargsyan	28.22	5	Al-Beruniy (M) 2nd – 9.64	European Champ 18th – 0.00	Sharjah 5th – 7.93	Dubai Open 4th – 7.22	Aktobe Open 8th – 3.43	Khanty-Mansiysk 9th – 0.00	Optional
22	Pranav V	25.89	5	World Junior Champ 1st – 6.66	Menorca T 9th-22nd – 0.08	Ljubljana 6th – 1.55	Asian Champ 59th – 0.00	Chennai 9th – 0.00	Fujairah 1st – 17.60	Optional
22	Vasily Ivanchuk	25.83	6	European Champ 42nd – 0.00	Reykjavik 2nd – 5.83	Alicante 3rd – 5.89	Menorca 1st – 12.67	Malmö 8th – 0.00	UzChess (Ch) 4th – 1.44	Fujairah 27th – 0.00
24	Brandon Jacobson	23.69	7	Reykjavik 7th – 3.30	Grenke Open 2nd – 8.23	Menorca 35th – 0.00	Ljubljana 164th – 0.00	American Continental Champ T 9th-13th – 0.16	Abu Dhabi 145th – 0.00	Fujairah 2nd – 12.00
25	Elham Amar	23.19	7	World Junior Champ 3rd – 4.39	Reykjavik 8th – 2.79	Grenke Open 11th – 0.00	Sardinia 6th – 2.88	Sharjah 8th – 5.08	Munich 1st – 8.05	Aktobe Open 21st – 0.00

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

• FIDE Circuit