2023 FIDE Circuit

The 2023 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2023, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2024. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their five best results of the year. The winner of the Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, the winner of which qualified for the World Chess Championship 2024.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Since the winner of the Circuit (Fabiano Caruana) had already qualified to the 2024 Candidates Tournament via the Chess World Cup 2023, the second-place finisher in the Circuit, Gukesh Dommaraju, qualified to the 2024 Candidates.

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament was eligible for the Circuit if it met the following criteria:^[6]

1. Finished in the 2023 calendar year.
2. Had at least 8 players.
3. Had at least 7 rounds (3 rounds for knockout events).
4. The 8 highest-rated players had 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 represented at least 3 national federations.
6. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represented one federation.

The Circuit also included the following tournaments:

• National Championships that met points 1 to 4 in the 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.

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
  • 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 for a tournament were awarded if the players placed in (or tied for) the top 8, provided that the placing was within the top half of the tournament, or at least the third round for knockout tournaments.

For tied positions, basic points were 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 was applied, basic points were shared equally among all tied players.

For the FIDE World Cup 2023, points were given as above with the following modifications:

• All losing quarterfinalists were given full 5 basic points.
• 2 extra points were added to the final points of all top 8 finishers.

A player's point total for the ranking was the sum of their best 5 tournaments,^[7] of which at least 4 events had to be played with standard time controls. Players without 5 such events (for example, Leinier Domínguez and Vidit Gujrathi) were not ranked. Tournaments that could be included in player's results were as follows:

• Official FIDE tournaments.
• National Championships.
• Other eligible tournaments, limited to one event per host country.

Eligible tournaments as of 30 December 2023.^[8]

"(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section.

•  : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2024 via another path.
•  : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2024 via this path.

• 2024 FIDE Circuit

• Official website