# 2025 FIDE Circuit

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.

## Tournament eligibility

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament is eligible for the Circuit if it meets the following criteria:
* Finish between 1 January 2025 and for National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments as well as traditional open tournaments (with 50 or more players), 21 December 2025. For other tournaments, 15 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:
* The World Chess Championship 2024
* National Championships that meet points 1 to 4 in above criteria
* 2025 World Rapid Chess Championship
* 2025 World Blitz Chess 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

## 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
** 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 and classical tournaments with 2 multi game-days
** 0.8 - World Rapid Championships, 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 Championships, 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 - Blitz tournaments
If multiple weighting coefficients apply these are multiplied together.

### 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.
* 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:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
| 11/10 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
* 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.

### FIDE World Championship 2024 points

For the World Chess Championship 2024, the 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 will be calculated as the player's performance rating.

### FIDE World Cup 2025 points

For the Chess 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.

### 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 March 7, 2025.
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 Masters | Wijk aan Zee | Jan 17 – Feb 2 | | 14 | 2763+1⁄8 | R Praggnanandhaa |
| Tata Steel Challengers | Wijk aan Zee | Jan 17 – Feb 2 | | 14 | 2618+5⁄8 | Thai Dai Van Nguyen |
| Azerbaijan Championship | Baku | Feb 1 – 15 | National | 26 | 2641+3⁄4 | Rauf Mamedov |
| Al-Beruniy Masters | Tashkent | Feb 2 – 12 | | 10 | 2624+3⁄8 | Mukhiddin Madaminov |
| Al-Beruniy Challengers | Tashkent | Feb 2 – 12 | | 10 | 2557+5⁄8 | Bardiya Daneshvar |
| Djerba Masters | Djerba | Feb 15 – 23 | | 10 | 2644+1⁄8 | Marc'Andria Maurizzi |
| World Junior Championship | Petrovac | Feb 23 – Mar 7 | FIDE | 157 | 2560+1⁄2 | Pranav V |
| Prague Masters | Prague | Feb 25 – Mar 7 | | 10 | 2721+1⁄4 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| Prague Challengers | Prague | Feb 25 – Mar 7 | | 10 | 2584 | Nodirbek Yakubboev |
| Aeroflot Open | Moscow | Feb 28 – Mar 7 | | 140 | 2704+5⁄8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| European Individual Championship | Eforie | Mar 14 – 27 | Continental FIDE | 376 | 2671+5⁄8 | |
| Reykjavik Open | Reykjavík | Apr 9 – 15 | | | | |
| Fagernes Chess International | Fagernes | Apr 13 – 20 | | | | |
| Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez de Roda | La Roda | Apr 15 – 20 | | | | |
| Open Internacional Alicante | Alicante | Apr 16 – 21 | | | | |
| Grenke Chess Open | Karlsruhe | Apr 16 – 21 | | | | |
| Menorca Open | Menorca | Apr 22 – 27 | | | | |
| GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland | Warsaw | Apr 24 – May 1 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | | |
| Sardinia World Chess Festival | Sardinia | Apr 26 – May 4 | | | | |
| Sunway Formentera | Formentera | Apr 29 – May 9 | | | | |
| GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania | Bucharest | May 6 – 17 | | 10 | | |
| Sharjah Masters | Sharjah | May 16 – 26 | | | | |
| TePe Sigeman | Malmo | May 20 – 26 | | | | |
| American Continental Championship | Natal | May 23 – 31 | Continental FIDE | | | |
| Norway Chess | Stavanger | May 26 – Jun 6 | | 6 | | |
| Delhi International Open | New Delhi | Jun 07 – 14 | | | | |
| GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia | Zagreb | Jun 30 – Jul 7 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | | |
| Dole Open | Aix-en-Provence | Jul 10 – 27 | | | | |
| Biel Masters | Biel | Jul 12 – 25 | | | | |
| Biel Challengers | Biel | Jul 12 – 25 | | | | |
| Biel Open | Biel | Jul 12 – 25 | | | | |
| GCT Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz | St. Louis | Aug 9 – 16 | Rapid & Blitz | 10 | | |
| GCT Sinquefield Cup | St. Louis | Aug 16 – 29 | | 10 | | |
| Maia Open | Maia | Aug 22 – 30 | | | | |
| Fujairah Global Chess Championship | Fujairah | Aug 24 – Sep 9 | | | | |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Samarkand | Sep 3 – 15 | FIDE | 114 | | |
| U.S. Championship | St. Louis | Oct 8 – 24 | National | 12 | | |
| FIDE World Cup | New Delhi | Oct 31 – Nov 27 | FIDE | 206 | | |
| U.S. Masters | Charlotte | Nov 26 – 30 | | | | |
| European Rapid Championship | Pristina | Nov 27 – Dec 1 | Rapid Continental FIDE | | | |
| European Blitz Championship | Pristina | Nov 27 – Dec 1 | Blitz Continental FIDE | | | |
| World Rapid Championship | Doha | Dec 25 – 31 | Rapid FIDE | | | |
| World Blitz Championship | Doha | Dec 25 – 31 | Blitz FIDE | | | |

## Ranking

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)" – Challenger 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 March 7, 2025 :
| No. | Player | Points | Events | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 1 | Ding Liren | 40.64 | 1 | World Champ. 2nd – 40.64 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 2 | R Praggnanandhaa | 36.06 | 2 | Tata Steel (M) 1st – 25.00 | Prague (M) 4th – 11.06 (T 2nd-4th) | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 3 | Aravindh Chithambaram | 24.34 | 1 | Prague (M) 1st – 24.34 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 4 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 22.37 | 1 | Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 22.37 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 5 | Marc'Andria Maurizzi | 22.02 | 2 | Djerba 1st – 16.14 | Prague (Ch) 3rd – 5.88 | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 18.42 | 1 | Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 18.42 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 7 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 18.01 | 1 | Aeroflot 1st – 18.01 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 8 | Anish Giri | 17.64 | 2 | Tata Steel (M) 6th – 6.58 (T 5th-6th) | Prague (M) 2nd – 11.06 (T 2nd-4th) | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 9 | Wei Yi | 17.64 | 2 | Tata Steel (M) 5th – 6.58 (T 5th-6th) | Prague (M) 3rd – 11.06 (T 2nd-4th) | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 10 | Vladimir Fedoseev | 15.79 | 1 | Tata Steel (M) 4th – 15.79 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 11 | Nodirbek Yakubboev | 14.50 | 1 | Tata Steel (Ch) 3rd – 6.52 | Prague (Ch) 1st – 7.98 | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 12 | Mukhiddin Madaminov | 13.68 | 1 | Al-Beruniy (M) 1st – 13.68 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 13 | Aydin Suleymanli | 14.05 | 2 | Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.08 | AZE Champ 8th – 3.97 | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 14 | Daniel Dardha | 11.81 | 2 | Djerba 2nd – 11.74 | World Junior 9th – 0.07 (T 9th-16th) | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 15 | Rauf Mamedov | 11.34 | 1 | AZE Champ 1st – 11.34 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 16 | Thai Dai Van Nguyen | 11.27 | 2 | Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 11.27 | Prague (M) 10th – 0.00 | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 17 | Richard Rapport | 10.13 | 1 | Aeroflot 2nd – 10.13 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 18 | Bardiya Daneshvar | 9.92 | 2 | Al-Beruniy (Ch) 1st – 6.34 | Aeroflot 9th – 3.58 | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 19 | Shant Sargsyan | 9.64 | 1 | Al-Beruniy (M) 2nd – 9.64 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 20 | Andrey Esipenko | 9.31 | 1 | Aeroflot 3rd – 9.31 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 21 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 9.07 | 1 | AZE Champ 2nd – 9.07 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 22 | Haik Martirosyan | 9.02 | 1 | Al-Beruniy (M) 3rd – 9.02 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 23 | Maxim Matlakov | 8.49 | 1 | Aeroflot 4th – 8.49 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 24 | Erwin l'Ami | 8.30 | 1 | Tata Steel (Ch) 3rd – 8.30 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |
| 25 | Misratdin Iskandarov | 7.94 | 1 | AZE Champ 3rd – 7.94 | Required | Required | Required | Required | Optional | Optional |