2025 FIDE Circuit

2025 FIDE Circuit
2025 FIDE Circuit winner R Praggnanandhaa
Duration	1 January 2025 – 30 December 2025[a]
Winner	R Praggnanandhaa

The 2025 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2025, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their seven best results of the year.^[1] R Praggnanandhaa scored the most points, and as winner of the 2025 Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026.^[2]

A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament was eligible for the Circuit if it met the following criteria:^[1]

1. Finish between 1 January 2025 and 15 December 2025. For National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments as well as open tournaments with 50 or more players, 1 January 2025 through 21 December 2025.
2. Has at least 8 players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments with TAR of at least 2700).
3. Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
4. The 8 highest-rated players (6 for Double Round Robin tournaments) have an average standard rating of at least 2550 (2700 for rapid and blitz tournaments besides World and Continental championships) at the start of tournament. This average is referred to as TAR (tournament average rating).
5. Players represent at least 3 national federations.
6. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represent one federation.

The Circuit also included the following tournaments:

• 2024 World Championship
• National Championships that meet points 1 to 4 in above criteria
• 2025 World Rapid Championship
• 2025 World Blitz Championship
• 2025 Continental Rapid Championships
• 2025 Continental Blitz Championships
• Other Rapid and Blitz tournaments that met the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700.
• Double Round Robin Tournaments with 6 or more players where the TAR was at least 2700

Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament were 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
  • 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 players and classical tournaments with 2 multi game-days
  • 0.8 - World Rapid Championship, 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 Championship, 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 - Other blitz tournaments

If multiple weighting coefficients apply these are multiplied together.

Basic points for a tournament were 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 were 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 World Championship 2024, 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 was calculated as the player's performance rating.

For the World Cup 2025, the event points were 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 was eliminated in the quarter finals of the event was deemed to have finished in 5th place for basic points, and as such all gained 5 basic points.

A player's point total for the ranking was the sum of their best 7 tournaments with the following criteria:

• If player had 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 had 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 were 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.

"(M)" denotes the Masters section while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section.
"Open" refers to classical tournaments with 50 or more participants.

•  : Ongoing event
•  : Candidates Tournament qualifying event

2025 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
World Championship	Singapore	25 November – 13 December, 2024	FIDE	2	2754	Gukesh Dommaraju
Tata Steel (M)	Wijk aan Zee	17 January – 2 February	Round robin	14	2763+1⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa
Tata Steel (Ch)	Wijk aan Zee	17 January – 2 February	Round robin	14	2618+5⁄8	Thai Dai Van Nguyen
Azerbaijan Championship	Baku	1–15 February	National	26	2641+3⁄4	Rauf Mamedov
Al-Beruniy (M)	Tashkent	2–12 February	Round robin	10	2624+3⁄8	Mukhiddin Madaminov
Al-Beruniy (Ch)	Tashkent	2–12 February	Round robin	10	2557+5⁄8	Bardiya Daneshvar
Djerba Masters	Djerba	15–23 February	Round robin	10	2644+1⁄8	Marc'Andria Maurizzi
World Junior Championship	Petrovac	23 February – 7 March	FIDE	157	2560+1⁄2	Pranav V
Prague (M)	Prague	25 February – 7 March	Round robin	10	2721+1⁄4	Aravindh Chithambaram
Prague (Ch)	Prague	25 February – 7 March	Round robin	10	2584	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	28 February – 7 March	Open	140	2704+5⁄8	Ian Nepomniachtchi
European Individual Championship	Eforie	14–27 March	Continental	375	2671+5⁄8	Matthias Blübaum
Agzamov Memorial	Tashkent	19–30 March	Open	158	2643+5⁄8	Nihal Sarin
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	9–15 April	Open	419	2612+3⁄4	Parham Maghsoodloo
Open Internacional Alicante	Alicante	16–21 April	Open	557	2599+7⁄8	Volodar Murzin
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	16–21 April	Open	875	2638+3⁄8	Aswath S
Spring Chess Classic	St. Louis	21–30 April	Round robin	10	2585+1⁄4	Andrew Hong
Menorca Open	Menorca	22–27 April	Open	326	2644	Vasyl Ivanchuk
GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland	Warsaw	24 April – 1 May	Rapid & Blitz	10	2741	Vladimir Fedoseev
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei, Sardinia	26 April – 4 May	Open	107	2593+1⁄4	Christopher Yoo
Baku Open	Baku	27 April – 6 May	Open	68	2591+5⁄8	Aleksandar Indjic
Ljubljana Chess Festival	Ljubljana	28 April – 4 May	Open	165	2559+3⁄8	Jan Šubelj
GCT Superbet Classic Romania	Bucharest	6–17 May	Round robin	10	2760+3⁄4	R Praggnanandhaa
Asian Individual Championship	Al Ain	7–15 May	Continental	157	2652+1⁄2	Bardiya Daneshvar
German Championship	Munich	15–23 May	National	10	2636+5⁄8	Vincent Keymer
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	17–25 May	Open	82	2690+3⁄8	Anish Giri
TePe Sigeman	Malmö	20–26 May	Round robin	8	2647	Javokhir Sindarov
American Continental Championship	Foz do Iguaçu	23–31 May	Continental	218	2606+1⁄8	Sam Shankland
Norway Chess	Stavanger	26 May – 6 June	Double round robin	6	2790+2⁄3	Magnus Carlsen
Dubai Open	Dubai	27 May – 4 June	Open	82	2620+1⁄4	Aleksey Grebnev
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	28 May – 6 June	Round robin	10	2678+3⁄4	Aravindh Chithambaram
Delhi International Open	New Delhi	7–14 June	Open	343	2550+1⁄2	Abhijeet Gupta
Munich Whitsun Open	Munich	8–14 June	Open	152	2594+1⁄8	Elham Amar
UzChess Cup (M)	Tashkent	18–27 June	Round robin	10	2742+1⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa
UzChess Cup (Ch)	Tashkent	18–27 June	Round robin	10	2582+1⁄8	Nikolas Theodorou
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial – Aktobe Open	Aktobe	20 June – 1 July	Open	80	2652+5⁄8	Alexey Sarana
GCT SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia	Zagreb	2–7 July	Rapid & Blitz	10	2776	Magnus Carlsen
Biel Masters Tournament Open	Biel/Bienne	12–24 July	Open	112	2564+1⁄2	Karthikeyan Murali
Karpov International Chess Tournament	Khanty-Mansiysk	14–26 July	Round Robin	10	2655+3⁄4	Amin Tabatabaei
Dole Open	Aix-en-Provence	19–27 July	Open	272	2635+3⁄4	P. Iniyan
Oskemen Open	Oskemen	20–30 July	Open	77	2603+1⁄8	Aleksey Grebnev
Czech Open	Pardubice	25 July – 2 August	Open	202	2562+5⁄8	Alexander Donchenko
British Chess Championship	Liverpool	2–10 August	National	99	2561	Michael Adams
Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Open	Dortmund	2–10 August	Open	196	2582+5⁄8	Matthias Blübaum
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	7–16 August	Round robin	10	2718+1⁄4	Vincent Keymer
Rubinstein Memorial	Polanica-Zdrój	15–24 August	Round robin	10	2657+3⁄8	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	15–24 August	Open	195	2594+3⁄4	Denis Lazavik
GCT Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	18–28 August	Round robin	10	2761+3⁄4	Wesley So
Fujairah Global Championship	Fujairah	25 August – 2 September	Open	44	2660	Pranav V
FIDE Grand Swiss	Samarkand	3–15 September	FIDE	116	2758+1⁄4	Anish Giri
Russian Championship	Moscow	1–12 October	National	12	2625+1⁄8	Arseniy Nesterov
U.S. Championship	St. Louis	11–25 October	National	12	2717+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
FIDE World Cup	Goa	1–27 November	FIDE	206	2758+3⁄4	Javokhir Sindarov
KazChess Masters	Almaty	21–29 November	Round robin	10	2601	Alexey Sarana
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	26–30 November	Open	250	2615+1⁄8	Awonder Liang
London Chess Classic – Open	London	26 November – 3 December	Open	120	2608+7⁄8	R Praggnanandhaa Velimir Ivić Ameet Ghasi
London Chess Classic	London	26 November – 5 December	Round robin	10	2678+3⁄8	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
European Rapid Championship	Pristina	27 – 29 November	Rapid Continental	369	2644+3⁄8	Paulius Pultinevičius
European Blitz Championship	Pristina	30 November – 1 December	Blitz Continental	369	2644+3⁄8	Jorden van Foreest
Kazakhstan Chess Cup	Almaty	1 – 12 December	Round robin	12	2593+1⁄2	Aram Hakobyan
President Cup (M)	Tashkent	3–12 December	Round robin	10	2641+1⁄2	Nihal Sarin
World Rapid Championship	Doha	25–28 December	Rapid FIDE	247	2777+7⁄8	Magnus Carlsen
World Blitz Championship	Doha	29–30 December	Blitz FIDE	252	2777+7⁄8	Magnus Carlsen

At the end of 2025, the best player in the Circuit qualified the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they played in at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and he played 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)" denotes the Challengers 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

Final 2025 Rankings^[3]

No.	Player	Points	Events	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1	R Praggnanandhaa	115.17	7	Tata Steel (M) 1st – 25.00	GCT Romania Classic 1st – 23.90	Avagyan Memorial 2nd – 15.19	UzChess (M) 1st – 22.19	Sinquefield Cup T 2nd-3rd – 20.72	World Cup R4 – 0.00	London (Open) T 1st-3rd – 8.17
2	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	84.95	7	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 18.42	Sharjah 3rd – 13.80	UzChess (M) 3rd – 18.56	Grand Swiss 10th – 1.21	World Cup R3 – 0.00	London 1st – 19.62	World Blitz 2nd – 13.34
3	Anish Giri	82.43	6	Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	Sharjah 1st – 20.94	GCT Croatia R&B 7th – 0.00	Chennai 2nd – 14.19	Grand Swiss 1st – 28.41	World Rapid T 9th-13th – 1.25
4	Fabiano Caruana	76.39	4	Tata Steel (M) 9th – 0.00	GCT Romania Classic 4th – 0.00	Stavanger 2nd – 20.93	GCT Croatia R&B 8th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 2nd-3rd – 20.72	U.S. Champ 1st – 23.90	World Blitz T 3rd-4th – 10.84
5	Javokhir Sindarov	68.40	5	Malmö 1st – 16.17	UzChess (M) 2nd – 19.77	Grand Swiss 24th – 0.00	World Cup 1st – 27.88	World Rapid 7th – 4.58	World Blitz 14th – 0.00
6	Matthias Blübaum	63.94	6	European Champ 1st – 15.73	German Champ 2nd – 10.93	Dortmund 1st – 6.89	Rubinstein Memorial 3rd – 11.02	Grand Swiss 2nd – 19.37	World Cup R4 – 0.00
7	Arjun Erigaisi	60.26	5	Tata Steel (M) 10th – 0.00	Stavanger 5th – 0.00	Chennai 3rd – 13.10	Grand Swiss 6th – 6.37	World Cup QF – 14.94	World Rapid 3rd – 15.01	World Blitz T 3rd-4th – 10.84
8	Nihal Sarin	56.50	8	Tashkent Open 1st – 15.80	Menorca 8th – 1.23	Asian Champ 2nd – 12.96	Dubai Open 6th – 3.49	Fujairah T 9th-12th – 1.40	Grand Swiss 9th – 1.21	President Cup 1st – 15.57	World Blitz 7th – 4.84
9	Vincent Keymer	55.83	4	Tata Steel (M) 8th – 0.00	Prague (M) 5th – 0.00	German Champ 1st – 15.03	Chennai 1st – 24.01	Grand Swiss 4th – 16.79	World Cup R4 – 0.00	World Rapid 50th – 0.00
10	Magnus Carlsen	53.23	2	Stavanger 1st – 28.78	GCT Croatia R&B 1st – 15.18	World Rapid 1st – 24.45	World Blitz 1st – 18.34
11	Alireza Firouzja	52.99	3	GCT Poland R&B 5th – 0.00	GCT Romania Classic T 2nd-3rd – 20.64	GCT Croatia R&B T 4th-5th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup 9th – 0.00	Grand Swiss 3rd – 18.08	London 2nd – 14.27	World Rapid 30th – 0.00
12	Wesley So	52.41	4	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	GCT Croatia R&B 2nd – 11.04	Sinquefield Cup 1st – 23.99	U.S. Champ 2nd – 17.38	World Cup R2 – 0.00	World Rapid 8th – 3.47	World Blitz 6th – 5.67
13	Nodirbek Yakubboev	50.55	6	Tata Steel (Ch) T 4th-5th – 6.52	Prague (Ch) 1st – 7.98	Asian Champ 15th – 0.00	Avagyan Memorial 6th – 0.00	Rubinstein Memorial 1st – 17.31	Grand Swiss 14th – 1.21	World Cup 4th – 17.53
14	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	43.69	5	GCT Poland R&B 2nd – 9.64	GCT Romania Classic T 2nd-3rd – 20.64	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00	Grand Swiss 16th – 1.21	World Cup R4 – 0.00	World Rapid 6th – 5.70	World Blitz 5th – 6.50
15	Amin Tabatabaei	41.36	6	Aeroflot Open 6th – 6.85	Asian Champ 79th – 0.00	Sharjah 6th – 6.98	Khanty-Mansiysk 1st – 17.13	Fujairah 4th – 10.40	Grand Swiss 36th – 0.00	World Rapid 44th – 0.00
16	Aravindh Chithambaram	41.32	3	Prague (M) 1st – 24.34	GCT Poland R&B 8th – 0.00	Avagyan Memorial 1st – 16.98	UzChess (M) 10th – 0.00	Rubinstein Memorial 5th – 0.00	World Cup R2 – 0.00	World Rapid 16th – 0.00
17	Ding Liren	40.64	1	World Champ 2nd – 40.64
18	Andrey Esipenko	40.64	5	Aeroflot 3rd – 9.31	Grand Swiss 19th – 1.21	Russian Champ T 2nd-4th – 8.76	World Cup 3rd – 20.11	World Rapid T 9th-13th – 1.25	World Blitz 35th – 0.00
19	Wei Yi	40.34	3	Tata Steel (M) T 5th-6th – 6.58	Prague (M) T 2nd-4th – 11.06	Stavanger 6th – 0.00	World Cup 2nd – 22.70
20	Aleksandar Inđić	34.13	7	Tashkent Open 7th – 2.69	Grenke Open 15th – 0.00	Baku Open 1st – 10.08	Sharjah 2nd – 14.75	Dubai Open 5th – 6.61	Grand Swiss 70th – 0.00	World Cup R2 – 0.00
21	Bardiya Daneshvar	33.39	7	Al-Beruniy (Ch) 1st – 6.34	Aeroflot Open 9th – 3.58	Tashkent Open 4th – 8.98	Asian Champ 1st – 14.49	Sharjah 15th – 0.00	Fujairah 17th – 0.00	World Cup R2 – 0.00
22	José Martínez Alcántara	32.90	3	American Continental Champ 2nd – 6.76	Fujairah 3rd – 11.20	World Cup QF – 14.94	World Rapid 95th – 0.00	World Blitz 240th – 0.00
23	Gukesh Dommaraju	32.03	4	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 22.37	GCT Romania Classic T 6th-9th – 0.00	Stavanger 3rd – 0.00	GCT Croatia R&B 3rd – 9.66	Sinquefield Cup 8th – 0.00	Grand Swiss 41st – 0.00	World Cup R3 – 0.00
24	Mukhiddin Madaminov	31.76	7	Al-Beruniy (M) 1st – 13.68	Tashkent Open 16th – 0.54	Asian Champ 22nd – 0.00	Sharjah 66th – 0.00	UzChess (Ch) 2nd – 6.57	Grand Swiss 107th – 0.00	President Cup 2nd – 10.97
25	Aleksey Grebnev	30.04	7	World Junior Champ 6th – 2.57	Asian Champ 14th – 0.00	Dubai Open 1st – 11.42	Oskemen Open 1st – 9.80	Abu Dhabi 4th – 6.25	Fujairah 22nd – 0.00	World Cup R5 – 0.00

• 2023 FIDE Circuit
• 2024 FIDE Circuit

• Official website