# 2024 FIDE Circuit

The 2024 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2024, 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. Fabiano Caruana scored the most points, and as winner of the 2024 Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026.

## Tournament eligibility

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament is eligible for the Circuit if it meets the following criteria:
* Finish between 1 January 2024 and 15 December 2024.
* Has at least 8 players.
* 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:
* 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.

## Points system
### Event points

Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament are calculated as follows:
    $P=B\times k\times w$
where:
* $P$ - Points obtained by player from the tournament
* $B$ - Basic points
* $k$ - Tournament strength factor, calculated as $k=(TAR-2500)/100$
* $w$ - 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

Basic points for a tournament are awarded depending on the tournament format:
* Swiss-system: Top 8 (within top half of ranking), ties included.
* Round-robin: Top 3 with ties (with the exception of the Candidates Tournament 2024 where points are awarded to all players).
* Knockout: Third round or later, up to 8 players.
Points are awarded as follows:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
| 11/10 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
* 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.
* For round-robin tournaments (other than Candidates), 4th and below are worth zero points for tied players calculation.

### FIDE World Championship points

For the World Chess Championship 2024, the winner will get points calculated as 1st place basic points multiplied by the strength factor, but with its TAR value using winner's performance rating instead.

### 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:
| Tournaments | Standard events with under 50 players allowed | Rapid/Blitz allowed |
| 1–5 | 4 | 1 |
| 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 7 | 5 | 2 |
* 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 31 December 2024.
2024 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments :
| Tournament | Location | Date | Type | P# | TAR | Winner |
| Hastings | Hastings | Dec 28, 2023 – Jan 5, 2024 | | 105 | 2552 | Abhijeet Gupta |
| Tata Steel Masters | Wijk aan Zee | Jan 12–28 | | 14 | 2752+3⁄4 | Wei Yi |
| Tata Steel Challengers | Wijk aan Zee | Jan 12–28 | | 14 | 2637+3⁄4 | Leon Luke Mendonca |
| Djerba Masters | Djerba | Feb 18–25 | | 8 | 2590+1⁄2 | Daniel Dardha |
| Prague Masters | Prague | Feb 27 – Mar 7 | | 10 | 2727+1⁄4 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| Prague Challengers | Prague | Feb 27 – Mar 7 | | 10 | 2575+3⁄4 | Ediz Gürel |
| Prague Open | Prague | Feb 27 – Mar 7 | | 267 | 2567+3⁄4 | Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis |
| Shenzhen Masters | Shenzhen | Feb 29 – Mar 7 | | 8 | 2698 | Bu Xiangzhi |
| Cappelle-la-Grande Open | Cappelle-la-Grande | Mar 2–8 | | 382 | 2562+5⁄8 | Abhimanyu Puranik |
| Aeroflot Open | Moscow | Mar 3–7 | | 142 | 2679+7⁄8 | Amin Tabatabaei |
| Reykjavik Open | Reykjavík | Mar 15–21 | | 363 | 2602+3⁄4 | Bogdan-Daniel Deac |
| Fagernes Chess International | Fagernes | Mar 24–31 | | 100 | 2568 | Rinat Jumabayev |
| Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda | La Roda | Mar 27–31 | | 210 | 2603+7⁄8 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| Grenke Open | Karlsruhe | Mar 26 – Apr 1 | | 935 | 2689+1⁄4 | Hans Niemann |
| Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa | Alicante | Mar 27 – Apr 1 | | 417 | 2574+1⁄2 | Kirill Alekseenko |
| Menorca Open | Menorca | Apr 2–7 | | 284 | 2676+5⁄8 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| Candidates | Toronto | Apr 3–22 | FIDE | 8 | 2744+7⁄8 | Gukesh Dommaraju |
| Sunway Formentera | Formentera | Apr 9–19 | | 51 | 2581+3⁄4 | Alexander Donchenko |
| Spring Chess Classic | St. Louis | Apr 11–20 | | 10 | 2624+7⁄8 | Leon Luke Mendonca |
| TePe Sigeman | Malmö | Apr 27 – May 3 | | 8 | 2676+7⁄8 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| Sardinia World Chess Festival | Orosei, Sardinia | Apr 27 – May 4 | | 168 | 2658+1⁄2 | Daniel Dardha |
| Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge | Dubai | May 3–13 | | 135 | 2694+3⁄8 | Pranav V |
| GCT Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz | Warsaw | May 6–13 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | 2762+3⁄8 | Magnus Carlsen |
| Chinese Chess Championship | Xinghua | May 6–16 | National | 12 | 2570+1⁄4 | Wang Yue |
| Sharjah Masters | Sharjah | May 13–23 | | 88 | 2720+5⁄8 | Bardiya Daneshvar |
| Polish Chess Championship | Rzeszów | May 21–31 | National | 10 | 2586+1⁄2 | Radosław Wojtaszek |
| Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál | Budapest | May 23–31 | | 210 | 2597+5⁄8 | Yahli Sokolovsky |
| Americas Continental Championship | Medellin | May 24 – Jun 2 | Continental FIDE | 387 | 2582+1⁄8 | Roberto García Pantoja |
| Dubai Open | Dubai | May 25 – Jun 2 | | 71 | 2608+1⁄2 | Mahammad Muradli |
| Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial | Aktobe | May 25 – Jun 2 | | 90 | 2682+3⁄8 | Parham Maghsoodloo |
| National Open | Las Vegas | Jun 5–9 | | 136 | 2583+1⁄2 | Vasif Durarbayli |
| UzChess Cup Masters | Tashkent | Jun 6–14 | | 10 | 2726+7⁄8 | Nodirbek Yakubboev |
| UzChess Cup Challengers | Tashkent | Jun 6–14 | | 10 | 2625+5⁄8 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov |
| Stepan Avagyan Memorial | Jermuk | Jun 9–18 | | 10 | 2679+7⁄8 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| Teplice Open | Teplice | Jun 15–23 | | 240 | 2629 | Max Warmerdam |
| Serbian Chess Championship | Senta | Jun 17–25 | National | 10 | 2556+1⁄8 | Aleksandar Inđić |
| Arona International Chess Festival | Arona, Tenerife | Jun 22–30 | | 161 | 2584+7⁄8 | Xue Haowen |
| GCT Romania | Bucharest | Jun 24 – Jul 6 | | 10 | 2761+1⁄4 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Baku Open | Baku | Jun 29 – Jul 7 | | 126 | 2625 | Sina Movahed |
| Dutch Chess Championship | Utrecht | Jul 6–13 | National | 16 | 2586+3⁄8 | Max Warmerdam |
| GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz | Zagreb | Jul 8–15 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | 2753 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Biel Chess Festival | Biel/Bienne | Jul 13–26 | | 128 | 2593+3⁄4 | Rinat Jumabayev |
| DOLE Open/NEXTLANE Grand Prix | Aix-en-Provence | Jul 20–28 | | 177 | 2627+7⁄8 | Pranesh M |
| GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz | St. Louis | Aug 10–17 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | 2765+3⁄8 | Alireza Firouzja |
| Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage | Dortmund | Aug 10–18 | | 193 | 2582+7⁄8 | Nico Zwirs |
| Abu Dhabi Masters | Abu Dhabi | Aug 15–24 | | 217 | 2677+1⁄4 | Nodirbek Yakubboev |
| Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival | Polanica-Zdrój | Aug 17–25 | | 10 | 2696+3⁄8 | Vincent Keymer |
| French Championship | Alpe d'Huez | Aug 17–25 | National | 16 | 2577+1⁄4 | Jules Moussard |
| Indian Chess Championship | Gurgaon | Aug 17–27 | National | 341 | 2562+7⁄8 | Karthik Venkataraman |
| Russian Championship | Barnaul | Aug 17–28 | National | 12 | 2668+3⁄4 | Vladislav Artemiev |
| Sinquefield Cup | St. Louis | Aug 19–29 | | 10 | 2760+5⁄8 | Alireza Firouzja |
| Iberoamerican Championship | Linares | Sep 24 – Oct 2 | | 118 | 2569+7⁄8 | Alan Pichot |
| Gashimov Memorial | Shusha | Sep 25–30 | Rapid & Blitz | 8 | 2704+5⁄8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| US Championship | St. Louis | Oct 11–23 | National | 12 | 2727+1⁄4 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Pavlodar Open Masters | Pavlodar | Oct 12–22 | | 96 | 2585+7⁄8 | Aram Hakobyan |
| WR Chess Masters Cup | London | Oct 14–17 | | 16 | 2754 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| Chennai Grand Masters | Chennai | Nov 5–11 | | 8 | 2724+5⁄8 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| European Chess Championship | Petrovac | Nov 7–20 | Continental FIDE | 388 | 2675+5⁄8 | Aleksandar Inđić |
| Tata Steel Chess India Rapid | Kolkata | Nov 13–15 | Rapid | 10 | 2757 | Magnus Carlsen |
| Tata Steel Chess India Blitz | Kolkata | Nov 16–17 | Blitz | 10 | 2757 | Magnus Carlsen |
| International President Cup | Tashkent | Nov 21–29 | | 120 | 2691+3⁄4 | Nihal Sarin |
| World Chess Championship | Singapore | Nov 25 – Dec 13 | FIDE | 2 | 2757 | Gukesh Dommaraju |
| U.S. Masters | Charlotte | Nov 27 – Dec 1 | | 264 | 2655+1⁄2 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Singapore International Open | Singapore | Nov 29 – Dec 5 | | 285 | 2626+1⁄8 | Lu Shanglei |
| London Chess Classic | London | Nov 29 – Dec 6 | | 8 | 2637+5⁄8 | Gawain Jones |
| London Chess Classic – Open | London | Nov 29 – Dec 7 | | 87 | 2560 | Raunak Sadhwani Ilya Smirin |
| Saint Louis Masters | St. Louis | Dec 3–7 | | 59 | 2682+1⁄8 | Fabiano Caruana Alexander Donchenko |
| Qatar Masters | Doha | Dec 3–12 | | 138 | 2714+1⁄2 | Andrey Esipenko |
| European Rapid Championship | Skopje | Dec 7–8 | Rapid Continental FIDE | 398 | 2669+1⁄8 | Vladimir Fedoseev |
| European Blitz Championship | Skopje | Dec 9 | Blitz Continental FIDE | 368 | 2669+1⁄8 | Jorden van Foreest |
| World Rapid Championship | New York | Dec 26–28 | Rapid FIDE | 180 | 2785+7⁄8 | Volodar Murzin |
| World Blitz Championship | New York | Dec 30–31 | Blitz FIDE | 188 | 2785+7⁄8 | Magnus Carlsen Ian Nepomniachtchi |

## Ranking

At the end of 2024, the best player in the Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that his final score consists of at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and he played in at least 2 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if his final score consists of 6 or 7 tournaments) or at least 1 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if his 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.
* : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2026 via this path.
* : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification
* : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification
Final 2024 rankings :
| No. | Player | Points | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 1 | Fabiano Caruana | 130.42 | Candidates 4th – 15.92 | GCT Romania 1st – 21.23 | GCT Croatia 1st – 13.92 | Sinquefield Cup 2nd – 20.85 | US Championship 1st – 25.00 | US Masters 1st – 17.11 | St. Louis Masters T 1st-2nd – 16.39 |
| 2 | Arjun Erigaisi | 124.40 | Shenzhen 3rd – 15.18 | Menorca 1st – 16.19 | Malmö 2nd – 14.00 (T 2nd-3rd) | Jermuk 1st – 19.79 | WR Masters 1st – 25.40 | Chennai 3rd – 17.22 | Doha 2nd – 16.62 |
| 3 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 108.49 | Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th) | Prague (M) 1st – 25.00 | Malmö 1st – 16.21 | Tashkent (M) 2nd – 19.28 | Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12 | President Cup 5th – 9.11 | Doha 3rd – 15.55 |
| 4 | Alireza Firouzja | 89.07 | Candidates 7th – 7.35 | GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70 | GCT Croatia T 2nd-4th – 6.33 | GCT St. Louis 1st – 14.60 | Sinquefield Cup 1st – 28.67 | WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51 | World Rapid 7th – 7.24 |
| 5 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 84.13 | Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th) | Prague (M) 7th – 0.00 | Candidates 1st – 26.94 | GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70 | GCT Croatia 7th – 0.00 | Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00 | World Champion 1st – 28.27 |
| 6 | R Praggnanandhaa | 66.76 | Prague (M) 4th – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th) | Candidates 5th – 12.24 | GCT Poland 4th – 0.00 | GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70 | WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51 | Kolkata Rapid 2nd – 11.95 | Kolkata Blitz 4th – 0.00 |
| 7 | Volodar Murzin | 63.50 | Menorca 17th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st) | Sardinia 3rd – 11.69 | Sharjah 2nd – 17.37 | Abu Dhabi 7th – 3.15 | Singapore 22nd – 0.00 | World Rapid 1st – 25.16 | World Blitz T 5th-8th – 6.00 |
| 8 | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 57.40 | Moscow 3rd – 12.14 | Dubai Police 51st – 0.00 | Aktobe 12th – 0.41 (T 7th-17th) | Tashkent (M) 1st – 21.55 | Abu Dhabi 1st – 14.77 | President Cup 6th – 8.15 | Doha 18th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th) |
| 9 | Amin Tabatabaei | 56.39 | Moscow 1st – 19.79 | Dubai Police 6th – 7.64 | Sharjah 5th – 7.45 | Jermuk 3rd – 10.79 | Abu Dhabi 5th – 10.34 | President Cup 26th – 0.00 | Doha 14th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th) |
| 10 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 53.56 | Moscow 34th – 0.00 | Sharjah 4th – 15.17 | Tashkent (Ch) 1st – 13.82 | Abu Dhabi 3rd – 12.11 | President Cup 4th – 12.46 | Doha 23rd – 0.00 | World Blitz 36th – 0.00 |
| 11 | Daniel Dardha | 51.73 | Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.33 (T 2nd-3rd) | Djerba 1st – 8.60 | Menorca 8th – 1.89 | Sardinia 1st – 14.07 | European Champ. 2nd – 14.05 | European Rapid 7th – 2.79 | European Blitz 16th – 0.00 |
| 12 | Andrey Esipenko | 50.98 | Moscow 2nd – 13.04 | Sharjah 55th – 0.00 | Russian Champ. 2nd – 14.34 | Doha 1st – 23.60 | World Rapid 29th – 0.00 | World Blitz 75th – 0.00 |
| 13 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 49.16 | Candidates 3rd – 17.14 | GCT Romania T 5th-7th – 0.00 | GCT Croatia 5th – 0.00 | GCT St. Louis T 6th-7th – 0.00 | Shusha 1st – 11.25 | World Rapid 3rd – 16.58 | World Blitz T 1st-2nd – 15.44 |
| 14 | Leon Luke Mendonca | 47.88 | Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 15.15 | St. Louis (Spring) 1st – 13.74 | Sharjah 28th – 0.00 | Dubai Open 23rd – 0.00 | Biel/Bienne 2nd – 7.38 | Abu Dhabi 4th – 11.23 | Doha 16th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th) |
| 15 | Aravindh Chithambaram | 47.25 | La Roda 1st – 9.52 | Menorca 16th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st) | Dubai Police 2nd – 16.52 | Sharjah 13th – 0.00 | Abu Dhabi 12th – 0.49 (T 7th-15th) | Shusha 6th – 0.00 | Chennai 1st – 20.59 |
| 16 | Parham Maghsoodloo | 46.77 | Prague (M) 3rd – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th) | Sharjah 9th – 1.93 (T 5th-12th) | Aktobe 1st – 20.06 | Tashkent (M) 10th – 0.00 | Chennai 6th – 0.00 | President Cup 3rd – 13.42 | Doha 64th – 0.00 |
| 17 | Hans Niemann | 44.01 | Tata Steel (Ch) 7th – 0.00 | Djerba 2nd – 7.69 | Grenke Open 1st – 20.82 | Dubai Police 7th – 6.66 | Sharjah 15th – 0.00 | US Championship 4th – 2.84 (T 2nd-7th) | World Blitz T 5th-8th – 6.00 |
| 18 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 38.59 | Grenke Open 3rd – 10.30 | Menorca 4th – 9.27 | Sardinia 6th – 4.18 | Sharjah 41st – 0.00 | Polanica-Zdrój 4th – 3.68 (T 2nd-5th) | European Champ. 15th – 0.00 | European Rapid 1st – 11.16 |
| 19 | Alexander Donchenko | 36.20 | Formentera 1st – 8.99 | Dubai Police 12th – 0.00 | Tashkent (Ch) 7th – 0.00 | Teplice 3rd – 9.89 | European Champ. 16th – 0.00 | US Masters 7th – 0.93 (T 6th-20th) | St. Louis Masters T 1st-2nd – 16.39 |
| 20 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 35.77 | GCT Romania T 5th-7th – 0.00 | GCT Croatia T 2nd-4th – 6.33 | GCT St. Louis T 4th-5th – 0.00 | Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12 | WR Masters 2nd – 20.32 | Chennai 5th – 0.00 | World Rapid 34th – 0.00 |

## Criticism

The FIDE Circuit system has drawn criticism from top players, including Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, and Fabiano Caruana, for various reasons. Critics have highlighted issues such as flawed scoring and financial burdens, raising questions about the system's fairness and practicality.

### Flawed point allocations

Critics argue the points system is poorly designed, rewarding players inconsistently and only awarding the first three players in closed tournaments. For example, Gukesh, Abdusattorov, and Giri tied for first in the Tata Steel Masters (with a +4 score), but earned only 14.22 points each, while Leon Luke Mendonca gained 15.15 points for winning the significantly weaker Challengers section. Firouzja, Vidit and Praggnanandhaa didn't win any points for tying for fifth among the fourteen players, despite scoring +2.
Caruana expressed frustration that third place at the relatively weaker Menorca Open, with a TAR of 2676+5⁄8, earned more points than he did for fourth place at the Candidates Tournament, which had a TAR of 2744+7⁄8. The Candidates was an exception to the top three rule, as Circuit points were awarded to all eight participants. For the 2025 Circuit, the rules were amended to reward points to the top four finishers in closed events with 11–13 participants, and the top five finishers in events with more than 13 participants.

#### Exclusion of certain events

The Circuit excludes tournaments where over 50% of participants are from the same federation unless it is a national championship. For instance, the American Cup, a high-stakes tournament featuring strong players, did not count because all participants were from the United States. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky justified this rule as a response to perceived exploitation in prior years, citing protests by American players against Ding Liren’s qualification to the 2022 Candidates via Chinese-organized events played a role. Aronian suggested only allowing tournaments with pre-announced participants.
Norway Chess, another strong tournament that featured world number one Magnus Carlsen as well as World Champion Ding, also didn't qualify for the Circuit due to having only six participants, as only tournaments with eight or more players were eligible. The rules for the 2025 Circuit were amended to allow double round-robin tournaments with at least 6 participants and an average rating of 2700 to be eligible.

### Financial burden on players

The shift from the FIDE Grand Prix (with significant prize funds) to the Circuit system forces players to compete in numerous open tournaments, which often have lower prize money and higher financial risks. Giri noted the economic strain, pointing out that players must accept these risks to stay competitive in the Circuit standings.

### Inclusion of open tournaments

FIDE defends the Circuit as a way to give more players access to the Candidates by prioritizing open tournaments over exclusive invitations. Sutovsky, who was previously president of the Association of Chess Professionals which organized the ACP Tour, a precursor to the Circuit, argued that the system levels the playing field for those without consistent access to elite events. Caruana countered that FIDE ratings already provide a democratic system, and emphasized that rating gains in open tournaments are achievable through consistent good performance, making the Circuit system redundant and unnecessarily complicated.