2025 FIDE Circuit

The 2025 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2025, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their seven best results of the year.^[1] R Praggnanandhaa scored the most points, and as winner of the 2025 Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026.^[2]

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

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.
2. Has at least 8 players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments with TAR of at least 2700).
3. Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
4. The 8 highest-rated players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments) have an average standard rating of at least 2550 (2700 for rapid and blitz tournaments besides World and Continental championships) 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 included 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 met the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700.
• Double Round Robin Tournaments with 6 or more players where the TAR was at least 2700

Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament were 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 were 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 were 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 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 were 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 was eliminated in the quarter finals of the event was deemed to have finished in 5th place for basic points, and as such all gained 5 basic points.

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

• If player had 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 had 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 were 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

At the end of 2025, the best player in the Circuit qualified the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they played in at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and he played 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

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

• Official website