# 2023 FIDE Circuit

The 2023 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2023, which serves as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2024. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score is the sum of their five best results of the year. The winner of the Circuit qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, the winner of which qualifies for the World Chess Championship 2024.
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.

## Tournament eligibility

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament is eligible for the Circuit if it meets the following criteria:
* Finish in the 2023 calendar year.
* Has at least 8 players.
* Has at least 7 rounds (3 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:
* 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 if the players placed in (or tied for) the top 8, provided that the placing is within the top half of the tournament, or at least the third round for knockout tournaments.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th |
| 10 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
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 Cup points

For FIDE World Cup 2023, points are given as above with the following modifications:
* All losing quarterfinalists are given full 5 basic points.
* Extra 2 points are added to final points of all top 8 finishers.

### Player's total and ranking

A player's point total for the ranking is the sum of their best 5 tournaments, of which at least 4 events must be played with standard time controls. Players without 5 such events (for example, Leinier Domínguez and Vidit Gujrathi) are not ranked. Tournaments that could be included in player's results are as follows:
* Official FIDE tournaments.
* National Championships.
* Other eligible tournaments, limited to one event per host country.

## Tournaments

Eligible tournaments as of 30 December 2023.
2023 FIDE Circuit - Eligible Tournaments :
| Tournament | Location | Date | Type | TAR | Winner |
| Indian Chess Championship | New Delhi | 22 December 2022 – 3 January 2023 | National | 2564+1⁄4 | Karthik Venkataraman |
| Rilton Cup | Stockholm | 27 December 2022 – 5 January 2023 | | 2567+5⁄8 | Pranesh M |
| Armenian Chess Championship | Yerevan | 13–21 January | National | 2574 | Samvel Ter-Sahakyan |
| Azerbaijani Chess Championship | Baku | 13–26 January | National | 2568+1⁄4 | Vasif Durarbayli |
| Tata Steel Masters | Wijk aan Zee | 13–29 January | | 2770 | Anish Giri |
| Tata Steel Challengers | Wijk aan Zee | 13–29 January | | 2633+1⁄4 | Alexander Donchenko |
| Floripa Open | Florianópolis | 23–29 January | | 2557+3⁄8 | Alan Pichot |
| WR Chess Masters | Düsseldorf | 15–26 February | | 2743+1⁄4 | Levon Aronian |
| Open International de Cappelle la Grande | Cappelle-la-Grande | 18–24 February | | 2564+1⁄4 | S. P. Sethuraman |
| European Individual Chess Championship | Vrnjačka Banja | 3–13 March | Continental FIDE | 2685+5⁄8 | Alexey Sarana |
| Delhi Open | New Delhi | 23–30 March | | 2579+7⁄8 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| Reykjavik Open | Reykjavík | 29 March – 4 April | | 2630+1⁄4 | Nils Grandelius |
| Fagernes Chess International | Fagernes | 2–9 April | | 2575+1⁄2 | Vahap Şanal |
| International Mexican Open Chess Championship | Mexico City | 4–9 April | | 2568+5⁄8 | Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara |
| Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa | La Nucia | 5–10 April | | 2585+3⁄8 | Yuri Solodovnichenko |
| The Spring Classic | St. Louis | 5–13 April | | 2634+3⁄4 | Benjamin Bok |
| Open Internacional Chess Menorca | Menorca | 11–16 April | | 2660+1⁄2 | Gukesh Dommaraju |
| Polish Chess Championship | Warsaw | 12–20 April | National | 2604+7⁄8 | Bartosz Soćko |
| Sunway Formentera International Chess Festival | Formentera | 18–28 April | | 2613+3⁄8 | Vladimir Fedoseev |
| Kazakhstan Chess Cup | Astana | 23–30 April | | 2635+3⁄8 | Aldiyar Ansat |
| Satty Zhuldyz Masters | Astana | 24–25 April | Rapid & Blitz | 2707+1⁄4 | Levon Aronian |
| Stepan Avagyan Memorial | Jermuk | 2–12 May | | 2656+1⁄4 | Samuel Sevian |
| Capablanca Memorial | Havana | 3–11 May | | 2593+7⁄8 | Jonas Buhl Bjerre |
| TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament | Malmö | 4–10 May | | 2674+5⁄8 | Peter Svidler |
| Baku Open | Baku | 4–12 May | | 2649+3⁄4 | Leon Luke Mendonca |
| GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania | Bucharest | 4–16 May | | 2768+3⁄8 | Fabiano Caruana |
| American Continental Chess Championship | Juan Dolio | 15–23 May | Continental FIDE | 2602+1⁄2 | Georg Meier |
| Sharjah Masters | Sharjah | 16–26 May | | 2718+7⁄8 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland | Warsaw | 19–26 May | Rapid & Blitz | 2754+5⁄8 | Magnus Carlsen |
| Cherry Blossom Classic | Dulles, Virginia | 24–29 May | | 2572+1⁄8 | Vasif Durarbayli Mikhail Antipov |
| Norway Chess Open | Stavanger | 27 May – 3 June | | 2562+1⁄4 | Platon Galperin |
| Norway Chess Blitz | Stavanger | 27 May – 3 June | Blitz | 2771+7⁄8 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| Dubai Open | Dubai | 27 May – 4 June | | 2681+1⁄2 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| Norway Chess – Main Tournament | Stavanger | 27 May – 9 June | | 2771+7⁄8 | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Münchner Pfingst-Open | Munich | 31 May – 6 June | | 2567+1⁄4 | Alexander Motylev |
| Asian Continental Men Blitz Chess Championship | Almaty | 3 June | Blitz Continental FIDE | 2573+5⁄8 | Arystan Isanzhulov |
| Asian Chess Championship | Almaty | 4–11 June | Continental FIDE | 2618 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov |
| Canadian Transnational Chess Championship | Montreal | 6–11 June | | 2587+3⁄4 | Toms Kantans |
| Teplice Open | Teplice | 10–18 June | | 2613+7⁄8 | Frederik Svane |
| The Las Vegas National Open | Las Vegas | 14–18 June | | 2607+1⁄8 | Illia Nyzhnyk Vasif Durarbayli Yasser Quesada Mikhail Antipov |
| Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial – Aktobe Open Classic | Aktobe | 20–27 June | | 2597+1⁄4 | Bardiya Daneshvar |
| Prague Masters | Prague | 20–30 June | | 2697+7⁄8 | Ray Robson |
| Prague Challengers | Prague | 20–30 June | | 2573+3⁄8 | Mateusz Bartel |
| World Open | Philadelphia | 23 June – 4 July | | 2608+1⁄2 | Fidel Corrales Jimenez |
| Sparkassen Chess Trophy | Dortmund | 24 June – 2 July | | 2649+1⁄8 | Alexander Donchenko |
| Orillas de Mar | Adeje | 25 June – 2 July | | 2580 | Abhijeet Gupta |
| Norwegian Chess Championship | Oslo | 30 June – 8 July | National | 2557+1⁄4 | Simen Agdestein |
| Dutch Chess Championship | Utrecht | 2–9 July | National | 2630+7⁄8 | Anish Giri |
| GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia | Zagreb | 3–10 July | Rapid & Blitz | 2768+3⁄8 | Magnus Carlsen |
| International Open "Villa de Benasque" | Benasque | 5–14 July | | 2628+7⁄8 | Bu Xiangzhi |
| International Chess Festival Astana Zhuldyzdary | Astana | 11–18 July | | 2620+1⁄2 | Aditya Mittal |
| Geza Hetenyi Memorial | Budapest | 11–19 July | | 2691+3⁄4 | R Praggnanandhaa |
| Biel Master Tournament | Biel/Bienne | 17–27 July | | 2603+3⁄4 | Bu Xiangzhi |
| Biel Grandmaster Triathlon (classical part) | Biel/Bienne | 18–26 July | | 2699+1⁄8 | Lê Quang Liêm |
| Romania Grand Prix Brașov | Brașov | 18–26 July | | 2564+5⁄8 | Luca Moroni |
| Paleochora International Chess Tournament | Kantanos-Selino | 19–26 July | | 2555+1⁄4 | Bai Jinshi |
| Uralsk Open | Oral | 21–28 July | | 2596+5⁄8 | Hans Niemann |
| FIDE World Cup | Baku | 30 July – 24 August | FIDE | 2777+1⁄4 | Magnus Carlsen |
| International Chess Cup of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI | Rabat | 14–19 August | | 2643+1⁄8 | Paulius Pultinevičius |
| Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival | Abu Dhabi | 16–24 August | | 2672+1⁄2 | Vladimir Fedoseev |
| French Chess Championship | Alpe d'Huez | 18–27 August | National | 2599+1⁄4 | Yannick Gozzoli |
| Open Internacional de Sants-Ciutat de Barcelona | Barcelona | 18–27 August | | 2572+3⁄8 | Elham Amar |
| Maia Chess Open | Maia | 25 August – 2 September | | 2554+3⁄8 | Victor Mikhalevski |
| Tata Steel Chess India Rapid | Kolkata | 5–7 September | Rapid | 2729+3⁄4 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| Tata Steel Chess India Blitz | Kolkata | 8–9 September | Blitz | 2729+3⁄4 | Alexander Grischuk |
| Tsaghkadzor Open | Tsaghkadzor | 19–28 September | | 2580+1⁄4 | Abhimanyu Puranik |
| World Junior Championship | Mexico City | 21 September – 1 October | FIDE | 2572+3⁄4 | Marc'Andria Maurizzi |
| Levitov Chess Week | Amsterdam | 22–26 September | Rapid | 2735+5⁄8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| Asian Games Individual | Hangzhou | 23–27 September | Rapid | 2701+1⁄4 | Wei Yi |
| Yerevan Open | Yerevan | 29 September – 7 October | | 2555+7⁄8 | Karen H. Grigoryan |
| Russian Championship | St Petersburg | 1–12 October | National | 2650 | Vladislav Artemiev |
| US Chess Championship | St. Louis | 5–15 October | National | 2726+3⁄4 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Fagernes International Autumn | Fagernes | 8–15 October | | 2567+1⁄2 | Mads Andersen |
| Spanish Championship | Marbella | 10–21 October | National | 2563+1⁄2 | Eduardo Iturrizaga |
| Qatar Masters | Doha | 11–20 October | | 2747+3⁄8 | Nodirbek Yakubboev |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Douglas, Isle of Man | 23 October – 5 November | FIDE | 2761+5⁄8 | Vidit Gujrathi |
| Bavarian Open | Tegernsee | 28 October – 5 November | | 2562+1⁄2 | Jiří Štoček |
| Torneio Internacional da Figueira da Foz | Figueira da Foz | 5–12 November | | 2562+7⁄8 | Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera |
| GCT St. Louis Rapid and Blitz | St. Louis | 12–19 November | Rapid & Blitz | 2751 | Fabiano Caruana |
| Sinquefield Cup | St. Louis | 21–30 November | | 2759+1⁄4 | Fabiano Caruana |
| U.S. Masters | Charlotte | 22–26 November | | 2594+7⁄8 | Mikhail Antipov |
| Tournament of Peace | Zagreb | 22–30 November | | 2625+3⁄4 | Hans Niemann |
| El Llobregat Open | Sant Boi de Llobregat | 30 November – 8 December | | 2658 | S. L. Narayanan |
| London Chess Classic | London | 1–10 December | | 2674+5⁄8 | Michael Adams |
| Gashimov Memorial | Gabala | 7–11 December | Rapid & Blitz | 2703+7⁄8 | Vidit Gujrathi |
| Champions Chess Tour Finals | Toronto | 9–16 December | Rapid | 2743+7⁄8 | Magnus Carlsen |
| Sunway Chess Festival | Sitges | 12–22 December | | 2646 | Abhimanyu Puranik |
| European Rapid Championship | Zagreb | 14–15 December | Rapid Continental FIDE | 2674+1⁄4 | Alexey Sarana |
| Chennai Grand Masters | Chennai | 15–21 December | | 2711+3⁄8 | Gukesh Dommaraju |
| European Blitz Championship | Zagreb | 16 December | Blitz Continental FIDE | 2674+1⁄4 | David Navara |
| World Rapid Championship | Samarkand | 26–28 December | Rapid FIDE | 2763+1⁄4 | Magnus Carlsen |
| World Blitz Championship | Samarkand | 29–30 December | Blitz FIDE | 2763+1⁄4 | Magnus Carlsen |

## Ranking

"(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.
Final 2023 rankings :
| No. | Player | Points | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 1 | Fabiano Caruana | 118.61 | GCT Romania 1st – 26.84 | Stavanger (Main) 2nd – 21.75 | World Cup 3rd – 21.41 | US Championship 1st – 22.68 | St Louis 1st – 25.93 |
| 2 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 87.36 | Düsseldorf T 2nd-3rd – 19.26 | Sharjah 3rd – 13.13 | Stavanger (Main) 3rd – 19.03 | World Cup QF – 15.86 | Chennai 1st – 20.08 |
| 3 | Anish Giri | 84.31 | Tata Steel (M) 1st – 27.00 | GCT Romania T 2nd-5th – 17.44 | Stavanger (Main) 4th – 16.31 | Dutch Championship 1st – 13.09 | Grand Swiss 7th – 10.47 |
| 4 | Wesley So | 83.40 | Tata Steel (M) 4th – 16.20 | Düsseldorf 4th – 14.60 | GCT Romania T 2nd-5th – 17.44 | US Championship 2nd – 17.01 | St Louis 3rd – 18.15 |
| 5 | Arjun Erigaisi | 81.24 | Sharjah 1st – 21.89 | World Cup QF – 15.86 | Doha T 3rd-8th – 11.13 | Grand Swiss 4th – 14.39 | Chennai 2nd – 17.97 |
| - | Magnus Carlsen | 71.04 | Tata Steel (M) T 2nd-3rd – 20.25 | Stavanger (Main) 6th – 0.00 | World Cup 1st – 29.73 | Doha T 9th-22th – 0.00 | World Rapid 1st – 21.06 |
| - | Hikaru Nakamura | 59.25 | Stavanger (Main) 1st – 27.19 | World Cup R4 – 0.00 | Doha T 3rd-8th – 11.13 | Grand Swiss 2nd – 20.93 | |
| 6 | Amin Tabatabaei | 56.14 | Tata Steel (Ch) 4th – 8.00 | Jermuk 3rd – 10.55 | Sharjah 7th – 8.76 | Budapest 2nd – 14.86 | London 2nd – 13.97 |
| 7 | R Praggnanandhaa | 54.79 | Düsseldorf T 5th-10th – 2.03 | Budapest 1st – 19.18 | World Cup 2nd – 24.18 | Tata Steel India (Rapid) 3rd – 8.96 | Grand Swiss 13th – 0.44 (T 8th-13th) |
| 8 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 54.63 | Tata Steel (M) T 2nd-3rd – 20.25 | Düsseldorf T 5th-10th – 2.03 | Stavanger (Blitz) 1st – 10.88 | Doha 2nd – 21.03 | Grand Swiss 12th – 0.44 (T 8th-13th) |
| - | Leinier Domínguez | 52.47 | World Cup QF – 15.86 | US Championship 3rd – 15.87 | St Louis 2nd – 20.74 | Sitges 209th – 0.00 | |
| - | Vidit Gujrathi | 52.21 | Sharjah 47th – 0.00 | World Cup QF – 15.86 | Grand Swiss 1st – 26.16 | Gabala 1st – 10.19 | |
| - | Samuel Sevian | 49.17 | St. Louis (Spring) 2nd – 10.24 | Jermuk 1st – 15.63 | Sharjah 2nd – 14.23 | US Championship 5th – 9.07 | Grand Swiss 22nd – 0.00 |
| 9 | Hans Niemann | 46.85 | Menorca 6th – 6.82 | Sharjah 6th – 9.85 | Uralsk 1st – 9.66 | US Championship 6th – 7.94 | Zagreb 1st – 12.58 |
| 10 | Javokhir Sindarov | 46.25 | Tata Steel (Ch) 3rd – 9.33 | Dubai 2nd – 14.29 | Hangzhou 3rd – 8.45 | Doha T 3rd-8th – 11.13 | Grand Swiss 8th – 3.05 |
| - | Vladimir Fedoseev | 44.30 | World Cup R3 – 0.00 | Abu Dhabi 1st – 16.39 | Grand Swiss 26th – 0.00 | Sant Boi de Llobregat 3rd – 11.06 | World Rapid 2nd – 16.85 |
| - | Levon Aronian | 41.90 | Tata Steel (M) T 7th-8th – 4.05 | Düsseldorf 1st – 22.30 | Satty Zhuldyz 1st – 10.36 | St Louis 6th – 5.19 (T 4th-6th) | Chennai 5th – 0.00 |
| 11 | Vincent Keymer | 40.88 | Düsseldorf T 5th-10th – 2.03 | Satty Zhuldyz 6th – 4.40 | Prague (M) T 4th-7th – 5.44 | Biel/Bienne 2nd – 15.93 | Grand Swiss 5th – 13.08 |
| - | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 38.59 | Düsseldorf T 2nd-3rd – 19.26 | GCT Romania 9th – 0.00 | World Cup R5 – 0.00 | Amsterdam 1st – 14.14 | St Louis 4th – 5.19 (T 4th-6th) |
| 12 | Haik M. Martirosyan | 38.44 | Jermuk 4th – 9.77 | Sharjah 5th – 10.94 | Prague (M) T 4th-7th – 5.44 | Benasque 6th – 4.19 | European Rapid 2nd – 8.10 |