2024 FIDE Circuit

2024 FIDE Circuit
Duration	28 December 2023 – 31 December 2024

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. 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:

1. Finish between 1 January 2024 and 15 December 2024.
2. Has at least 8 players.
3. Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
4. 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).
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 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 World Chess Championship 2024, the winner will get points calculated as 1st place basic points multipled 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	Opens (50+) required	Rapid/Blitz allowed
5	1	1
6 or 7	2	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 14 October 2024.

2024 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
Hastings Masters	Hastings	28 December 2023 – 5 January 2024		105	2552	Abhijeet Gupta
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	12–28 January		14	2752+3⁄4	Wei Yi
Tata Steel Challengers	Wijk aan Zee	12–28 January		14	2637+3⁄4	Leon Luke Mendonca
Djerba Masters	Djerba	18–25 February		8	2590+1⁄2	Daniel Dardha
Prague Masters	Prague	27 February – 7 March		10	2727+1⁄4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Prague Challengers	Prague	27 February – 7 March		10	2575+3⁄4	Ediz Gurel
Prague Open	Prague	27 February – 7 March		267	2567+3⁄4	Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis
Shenzhen Masters	Shenzhen	29 February – 7 March		8	2698	Bu Xiangzhi
Cappelle-la-Grande Open	Cappelle-la-Grande	2–8 March		382	2562+5⁄8	Abhimanyu Puranik
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	3–7 March		142	2679+7⁄8	Amin Tabatabaei
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	15–21 March		363	2602+3⁄4	Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Fagernes Chess International	Fagernes	24–31 March		100	2568	Rinat Jumabayev
Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda	La Roda	27–31 March		210	2603+7⁄8	Aravindh Chithambaram
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	March 26 – April 1		935	2689+1⁄4	Hans Niemann
Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa	Alicante	March 27 – April 1		417	2574+1⁄2	Kirill Alekseenko
Menorca Open	Menorca	April 2–7		284	2676+5⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Candidates	Toronto	April 3–22	FIDE	8	2744+7⁄8	Gukesh Dommaraju
Sunway Formentera Chess Festival	Formentera	April 9–19		51	2581+3⁄4	Alexander Donchenko
Spring Chess Classic	St. Louis	April 11–20		10	2624+7⁄8	Leon Luke Mendonca
TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament	Malmö	April 27 – May 3		8	2676+7⁄8	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei, Sardinia	April 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 – June 2	FIDE	387	2582+1⁄8	Roberto García Pantoja
Dubai Open	Dubai	May 25 – June 2		71	2608+1⁄2	Mahammad Muradli
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial	Aktobe	May 25 – June 2		90	2682+3⁄8	Parham Maghsoodloo
National Open	Las Vegas	June 5–9		136	2583+1⁄2	Vasif Durarbayli
UzChess Cup Masters	Tashkent	June 6–14		10	2726+7⁄8	Nodirbek Yakubboev
UzChess Cup Challengers	Tashkent	June 6–14		10	2625+5⁄8	Shamsiddin Vokhidov
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	June 9–18		10	2679+7⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Teplice Open	Teplice	June 15–23		240	2629	Max Warmerdam
Serbian Chess Championship	Senta	June 17–25	National	10	2556+1⁄8	Aleksandar Inđić
Arona International Chess Festival	Arona, Tenerife	June 22–30		161	2584+7⁄8	Xue Haowen
GCT Romania	Bucharest	June 24 – July 6		10	2761+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
Baku Open	Baku	June 29 – July 7		126	2625	Sina Movahed
Dutch Chess Championship	Utrecht	July 6–13	National	16	2586+3⁄8	Max Warmerdam
GCT Croatia	Zagreb	July 8–15	Rapid & Blitz	10	2753	Fabiano Caruana
Biel Chess Festival	Biel/Bienne	July 13–26		128	2593+3⁄4	Rinat Jumabayev
DOLE Open/NEXTLANE Grand Prix	Aix-en-Provence	July 20–28		177	2627+7⁄8	Pranesh M
GCT St. Louis Rapid and Blitz	St. Louis	August 10–17	Rapid & Blitz	10	2765+3⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage	Dortmund	August 10–18		193	2582+7⁄8	Nico Zwirs
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	August 15–24		217	2677+1⁄4	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Russian Championship	Barnaul	August 16–29	National	12	2668+3⁄4	Vladislav Artemiev
Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival	Polanica-Zdrój	August 17–25		10	2696+3⁄8	Vincent Keymer
French Chess Championship	Alpe d'Huez	August 17–25	National	16	2577+1⁄4	Jules Moussard
Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	August 17–29		10	2760+5⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Ibero-American Championships	Linares	September 24 – October 2		118	2569+7⁄8	Alan Pichot
Gashimov Memorial	Shusha	September 25–30	Rapid & Blitz	8	2704+5⁄8	Ian Nepomniachtchi
US Chess Championship	St. Louis	October 11–23	National	12	2727
WR Chess Masters Cup	London	October 14–17		16	2754	Arjun Erigaisi
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	November 5–11		8
European Chess Championship	Petrovac	November 7–20	FIDE
World Chess Championship	Singapore	November 20 – December 15	FIDE	2
International President Cup	Tashkent	November 21–27
U.S. Masters Chess Championship	Charlotte	November 27 – December 1
London Chess Classic	London	November 29 – December 8
London Chess Classic – Open Section	London	November 29 – December 8
Elllobregat Open Chess	Sant Boi de Llobregat	November 29 – December 8
Saint Louis Masters	St. Louis	December 2–8
European Rapid Chess Championship	Skopje	December 6–8	Rapid FIDE
European Blitz Chess Championship	Skopje	December 9–11	Blitz FIDE
World Rapid Chess Championship	New York City	December 26–28	Rapid FIDE
Zurcher Weihnachtsopen	Zürich	December 26–30
World Blitz Chess Championship	New York City	December 30–31	Blitz FIDE

Ranking

At the end of 2024, the best player in the Circuit will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they have played 5 eligible tournaments, including at least 4 in standard time controls. The current leader is marked in green. "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section. Tournaments with 50+ players are marked in aqua, rapid and blitz tournaments are marked in purple.

Top 20 as of 18 October 2024

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Arjun Erigaisi	101.52	Shenzhen 3rd – 15.18	Grenke Open T 6th-7th – 6.99	Menorca 1st – 16.19	Malmö 2nd – 14.00 (T 2nd-3rd)	Sharjah 7th – 5.24	Jermuk 1st – 19.79	WR Masters 1st – 24.13
	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	92.02	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 1st – 25.00	Malmö 1st – 16.21	GCT Poland 6th – 0.00	Tashkent (M) 2nd – 19.28	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12	Shusha 2nd – 8.19
	Alireza Firouzja	88.16	Tata Steel (M) 5th – 0.00	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
	Fabiano Caruana	71.92	Candidates 4th – 15.92	GCT Romania 1st – 21.23	GCT Croatia 1st – 13.92	GCT St. Louis T 6th-7th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup 2nd – 20.85
2	Amin Tabatabaei	56.01	Moscow 1st – 19.79	Dubai Police 6th – 7.64	Sharjah 5th – 7.45	Jermuk 3rd – 10.79	Abu Dhabi 5th – 10.34
	Gukesh Dommaraju	55.86	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 7th – 0.00	Candidates 1st – 26.94	GCT Poland 10th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	GCT Croatia 7th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00
	R Praggnanandhaa	54.81	Tata Steel (M) 7th – 0.00	Prague (M) 4th – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th)	Candidates 5th – 12.24	GCT Poland 4th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00	WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51
3	Nodirbek Yakubboev	48.87	Moscow 3rd – 12.14	Dubai Police 51st – 0.00	Sharjah 86th – 0.00	Aktobe 12th – 0.41 (T 7th-17th)	Tashkent (M) 1st – 21.55	Abu Dhabi 1st – 14.77
4	Leon Luke Mendonca	47.50	Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 15.15	St. Louis (Spring) 1st – 13.74	Sharjah 28th – 0.00	Dubai Open 23th – 0.00	Biel/Bienne 2nd – 7.38	Abu Dhabi 4th – 11.23
	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	41.10	Moscow 34th – 0.00	Sharjah 4th – 15.17	Tashkent (Ch) 1st – 13.82	Abu Dhabi 3rd – 12.11
	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	37.04	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 – 21.59
5	Hans Niemann	35.17	Tata Steel (Ch) 7th – 0.00	Djerba 2nd – 7.69	Grenke Open 1st – 20.82	Dubai Police 7th – 6.66	Sharjah 15th – 0.00
	Daniel Dardha	34.89	Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.33 (T 2nd-3rd)	Djerba 1st – 8.60	Menorca 8th – 1.89	Sardinia 1st – 14.07
6	Parham Maghsoodloo	33.35	Tata Steel (M) 13th – 0.00	Prague (M) 3rd – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th)	Sharjah 9th – 1.93 (T 5th-12th)	Aktobe 1st – 20.06	Tashkent (M) 10th – 0.00	WR Masters R1 – 0.00
7	Volodar Murzin	32.34	Menorca 17th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st)	Sardinia 3rd – 11.69	Dubai Police 58th – 0.00	Sharjah 2nd – 17.37	Jermuk 10th – 0.00	Abu Dhabi 7th – 3.15
	Yu Yangyi	32.22	Shenzhen 2nd – 16.17	Dubai Police 22nd – 0.00	Sharjah 8th – 4.14	Tashkent (M) 3rd – 11.91
	Wei Yi	31.04	Tata Steel (M) 1st – 20.54	GCT Poland 2nd – 10.50
8	Abhimanyu Puranik	30.61	Cappelle-la-Grande 1st – 5.95	Fagernes 2nd – 5.78	Sharjah 14th – 0.00	Aktobe 11th – 0.41 (T 7th-17th)	Baku 2nd – 9.84	Aix-en-Provence 3rd – 8.63	Abu Dhabi 22nd – 0.00
	Bu Xiangzhi	28.64	Shenzhen 1st – 18.15	Aktobe 4th – 10.49
	Ian Nepomniachtchi	28.39	Tata Steel (M) 8th – 0.00	Candidates 3rd – 17.14	GCT Romania T 5th-7th – 0.00	GCT Croatia 5th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 8th-9th – 0.00	Shusha 1st – 11.25

See also

• 2023 FIDE Circuit

External links

• FIDE Circuit