2026–2027 FIDE Circuit

The 2026–2027 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2026 and 2027, which will serve as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2028. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score will be the sum of their twelve best results of the year.

Unlike every year before 2026, this FIDE Circuit will be combined of tournaments played in 2026 and 2027. All Circuits till 2025 included events of the year itself only.

This is an open category equivalent to 2026-2027 FIDE Women's Circuit (as in women category)

As per regulation 2.1 of FIDE Circuit 2026–2027 Regulations,^[1] eligible tournaments are :-

• FIDE‐rated individual over‐the‐board standard tournaments
• World Rapid Championships, 2026 and 2027
• World Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027
• Continental over‐the‐board Rapid and Blitz Championships 2026 and 2027
• Other over‐the‐board FIDE‐rated Rapid & Blitz tournaments
• Other pre‐approved FIDE‐rated tournaments

None of those mentioned above (except World Chess Championship 2026 and World Rapid and Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027) are eligible tournaments if they do not follow any of the conditions mentioned below. World Chess Championship 2026 and World Rapid and Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027 shall be considered irrespective of the conditions below.

• The tournaments must finish between
  • 1 January 2026 and 21 December 2026 or 1 January 2027 and 21 December 2027 (for National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments and traditional open tournaments with at least 50 players).
  • 1 January 2026 and 15 December 2026 or 1 January 2027 and 15 December 2027 (for all other tournaments).
• The tournament must have at least
  • 6 players with TAR of at least 2700 (for double round robin tournaments)
  • 8 players (for all other formats)
• The number of rounds in the tournament must be at least
  • 4 (for knockout tournaments)
  • 7 (for all other formats)
• TAR of the rated tournaments not pre-approved by FIDE must not be less than
  • 2550 (for FIDE Rated Individual standard tournaments, World Rapid and Blitz Championships and Continental Rapid and Blitz Championships.)
  • 2650 (for other over‐the‐board FIDE‐rated Rapid & Blitz tournaments.)
• The TAR is the average rating of top 12 players in the tournament (If less than 12 players in the tournament, then the average rating of all the players in the tournament).
• Players must represent at least 3 different Member Federations or Affiliated Members.
• Not more than 50% of the 20 highest‐rated players (or all players if fewer than 20 players) shall represent one federation.

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
  • 1.5 - FIDE World Championship 2026
  • 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
  • 0.85 - Standard tournaments with 3 multi-game days
  • 0.8 - World Rapid Championship, Knockout Tournaments with fewer than 6 rounds and standard tournaments with 4 multi-game days
  • 0.75 - Standard tournaments with 5 multi-game days
  • 0.7 - Standard tournaments with 6 or more multi-game days
  • 0.6 - World Blitz Championship, Continental Rapid Championships, and other eligible rapid tournaments
  • 0.5 - Mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments
  • 0.4 - Continental Blitz Championships and other eligible 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 shared equally among all tied players.

For the Candidates Tournament 2026, Top five with ties will earn the points.

For the World Championship 2026, runner-up will receive points in the Circuit equal to the basic points for 2nd place multiplied by the k-factor and multiplied by 1.5. The TPR for this event will calculated as the player's performance rating.

For Total Chess World Championship Tour, Top 5 finishers in each stage, including the Pilot tournament will be given points in the Circuit by the k-factor and multipled by 0.8 . Also each stage of the tour is deemed as a Standard Tournament.

A player's point total for the ranking is the sum of their best 12 tournaments with the following criteria:

• If player has 11 or 12 tournaments to count:
  • No more than 7 or 8 respectively standard tournaments with the participation of less than 50 players can be counted.
  • No more than 4 rapid/blitz tournaments can be counted.
• If player has 10 tournaments or less:
  • No more than 6 standard tournaments with participation of less than 50 players can be counted.
  • No more than 3 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.

"Open" refers to classical tournaments with 50 or more participants.

•  : Ongoing event

At the end of 2027, the best player in the Circuit maybe qualifies the Candidates Tournament 2028, provided that they play in at least 8 tournaments (including at least 5 in standard time controls) and he plays at least 4 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 11 or 12 tournaments) or at least 3 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 10 tournaments).^[2]

Tournament results which can't be counted for qualification for the Candidates Tournament 2028 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 2028 (Next top leader if the current top player has already qualified through other route)
•  : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2028 qualification
•  : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2028 via another path
•  : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2028 qualification