2023 FIDE Circuit

The 2023 FIDE Circuit is 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.

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 (eight) highest-rated players have an average standard rating of at least 2550 at the start of tournament. This quotient 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) shall represent one federation.

The Circuit also include the following tournaments as eligible:
 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 same criteria above, except that the TAR quotient must be at least 2700 in standard rating.

Points system

Event points 
Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament would be calculated as follows:

where:
  - Points obtained by player from the tournament
  - Basic points
  - Tournament strength factor, calculated as 
  - Tournament weighting
 1.0 - Standard classical tournaments
 0.8 - World Rapid Championships
 0.6 - World Blitz Championships and other eligible Rapid tournaments
 0.5 - Eligible mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments
 0.4 - Eligible 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 third round for knockout tournaments. 

For tied positions, basic points will be 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 should be 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 
A player's total points for the ranking is the sum of their best 5 tournaments, of which at least 4 events must be played with standard time controls. 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 6 October 2023.

Rankings 
At the end of 2023, the best player in the Circuit not yet qualified through other means (previous Championship, Chess World Cup, or Grand Swiss) will qualify for the 2024 Candidates Tournament, provided that they have played 5 eligible tournaments, including at least 4 in standard time controls.

 : Qualifies for Candidates Tournament 2024.
 : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2024 via another path.

Notes

References

External links 
 FIDE Circuit

2023 in chess
FIDE