2024 FIDE Circuit explained

2024 FIDE Circuit
Duration:	28 December 2023 – 31 December 2024
Prevseason Year:	2023
Prevseason Link:	2023 FIDE Circuit
Nextseason Year:	2025
Nextseason Link:	2025 FIDE Circuit

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.^[1]

Tournament eligibility

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

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 x k x w

where:

P - Points obtained by player from the tournamentB - Basic pointsk - 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:

• 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 the World Chess Championship 2024, the winner will get points calculated as 1st place basic points multiplied 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!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 15 November 2024.

2024 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type		TAR	Winner
Hastings	Hastings	data-sort-value="01-05"	Dec 28, 2023 Jan 5, 2024		105	2552	Abhijeet Gupta
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	data-sort-value="01-28"	Jan 12–28		14		Wei Yi
Tata Steel Challengers	Wijk aan Zee	data-sort-value="01-28"	Jan 12–28		14		Leon Luke Mendonca
Djerba Masters	Djerba	data-sort-value="02-25"	Feb 18–25		8		Daniel Dardha
Prague Masters	Prague	data-sort-value="03-07"	Feb 27 Mar 7		10		Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Prague Challengers	Prague	data-sort-value="03-07"	Feb 27 Mar 7		10		Ediz Gürel
Prague Open	Prague	data-sort-value="03-07"	Feb 27 Mar 7		267		Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis
Shenzhen Masters	Shenzhen	data-sort-value="03-07"	Feb 29 Mar 7		8	2698	Bu Xiangzhi
Cappelle-la-Grande Open	Cappelle-la-Grande	data-sort-value="03-08"	Mar 2–8		382		Abhimanyu Puranik
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	data-sort-value="03-07"	Mar 3–7		142		Amin Tabatabaei
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	data-sort-value="03-21"	Mar 15–21		363		Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Fagernes Chess International	Fagernes	data-sort-value="03-31"	Mar 24–31		100	2568	Rinat Jumabayev
Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda	La Roda	data-sort-value="03-31"	Mar 27–31		210		Aravindh Chithambaram
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	data-sort-value="04-01"	Mar 26 Apr 1		935		Hans Niemann
Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa	Alicante	data-sort-value="04-01"	Mar 27 Apr 1		417		Kirill Alekseenko
Menorca Open	Menorca	data-sort-value="04-07"	Apr 2–7		284		Arjun Erigaisi
Candidates	Toronto	data-sort-value="04-22"	Apr 3–22	FIDE	8		Gukesh Dommaraju
Sunway Formentera	Formentera	data-sort-value="04-19"	Apr 9–19		51		Alexander Donchenko
Spring Chess Classic - A	St. Louis	data-sort-value="04-20"	Apr 11–20		10		Leon Luke Mendonca
TePe Sigeman	Malmö	data-sort-value="05-03"	Apr 27 May 3		8		Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei, Sardinia	data-sort-value="05-04"	Apr 27 May 4		168		Daniel Dardha
Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge	Dubai	data-sort-value="05-13"	May 3–13		135		Pranav V
GCT Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz	Warsaw	data-sort-value="05-13"	May 6–13	Rapid & Blitz	10		Magnus Carlsen
Chinese Chess Championship	Xinghua	data-sort-value="05-16"	May 6–16	National	12		Wang Yue
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	data-sort-value="05-23"	May 13–23		88		Bardiya Daneshvar
Polish Chess Championship	Rzeszów	data-sort-value="05-31"	May 21–31	National	10		Radosław Wojtaszek
Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál	Budapest	data-sort-value="05-31"	May 23–31		210		Yahli Sokolovsky
Americas Continental Championship	Medellin	data-sort-value="06-02"	May 24 Jun 2	Continental FIDE	387		Roberto García Pantoja
Dubai Open	Dubai	data-sort-value="06-02"	May 25 Jun 2		71		Mahammad Muradli
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial	Aktobe	data-sort-value="06-02"	May 25 Jun 2		90		Parham Maghsoodloo
National Open	Las Vegas	data-sort-value="06-09"	Jun 5–9		136		Vasif Durarbayli
UzChess Cup Masters	Tashkent	data-sort-value="06-14"	Jun 6–14		10		Nodirbek Yakubboev
UzChess Cup Challengers	Tashkent	data-sort-value="06-14"	Jun 6–14		10		Shamsiddin Vokhidov
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	data-sort-value="06-18"	Jun 9–18		10		Arjun Erigaisi
Teplice Open	Teplice	data-sort-value="06-23"	Jun 15–23		240	2629	Max Warmerdam
Serbian Chess Championship	Senta	data-sort-value="06-25"	Jun 17–25	National	10		Aleksandar Inđić
Arona International Chess Festival	Arona, Tenerife	data-sort-value="06-30"	Jun 22–30		161		Xue Haowen
GCT Romania	Bucharest	data-sort-value="07-06"	Jun 24 Jul 6		10		Fabiano Caruana
Baku Open	Baku	data-sort-value="07-07"	Jun 29 Jul 7		126	2625	Sina Movahed
Dutch Chess Championship	Utrecht	data-sort-value="07-13"	Jul 6–13	National	16		Max Warmerdam
GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz	Zagreb	data-sort-value="07-15"	Jul 8–15	Rapid & Blitz	10	2753	Fabiano Caruana
Biel Chess Festival	Biel/Bienne	data-sort-value="07-26"	Jul 13–26		128		Rinat Jumabayev
DOLE Open/NEXTLANE Grand Prix	Aix-en-Provence	data-sort-value="07-28"	Jul 20–28		177		Pranesh M
GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz	St. Louis	data-sort-value="08-17"	Aug 10–17	Rapid & Blitz	10		Alireza Firouzja
Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage	Dortmund	data-sort-value="08-18"	Aug 10–18		193		Nico Zwirs
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	data-sort-value="08-24"	Aug 15–24		217		Nodirbek Yakubboev
Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival	Polanica-Zdrój	data-sort-value="08-25"	Aug 17–25		10		Vincent Keymer
French Championship	Alpe d'Huez	data-sort-value="08-25"	Aug 17–25	National	16		Jules Moussard
Indian Chess Championship	Gurgaon	data-sort-value="08-27"	Aug 17–27	National	341		Karthik Venkataraman
Russian Championship	Barnaul	data-sort-value="08-28"	Aug 17–28	National	12		Vladislav Artemiev
Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	data-sort-value="08-29"	Aug 19–29		10		Alireza Firouzja
Iberoamerican Championship	Linares	data-sort-value="10-02"	Sep 24 Oct 2		118		Alan Pichot
Gashimov Memorial	Shusha	data-sort-value="09-30"	Sep 25–30	Rapid & Blitz	8		Ian Nepomniachtchi
US Championship	St. Louis	data-sort-value="10-23"	Oct 11–23	National	12		Fabiano Caruana
Pavlodar Open Masters	Pavlodar	data-sort-value="10-22"	Oct 12–22		96		Aram Hakobyan
WR Chess Masters Cup	London	data-sort-value="10-17"	Oct 14–17		16	2754	Arjun Erigaisi
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	data-sort-value="11-11"	Nov 5–11		8		Aravindh Chithambaram
European Chess Championship	Petrovac	data-sort-value="11-20"	Nov 7–20	Continental FIDE	388		Aleksandar Inđić
Tata Steel Chess India Rapid	Kolkata	data-sort-value="11-15"	Nov 13–15	Rapid	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
Tata Steel Chess India Blitz	Kolkata	data-sort-value="11-17"	Nov 16–17	Blitz	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
International President Cup	Tashkent	data-sort-value="11-29"	Nov 21–29		120		Nihal Sarin
World Chess Championship	Singapore	data-sort-value="12-13"	Nov 25 Dec 13	FIDE	2
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	data-sort-value="12-01"	Nov 27 Dec 1		264		Fabiano Caruana
London Chess Classic	London	data-sort-value="12-08"	Nov 29 Dec 8		8
London Chess Classic – Open	London	data-sort-value="12-08"	Nov 29 Dec 8		87	2560
Elllobregat Open Chess	Sant Boi de Llobregat	data-sort-value="12-08"	Nov 29 Dec 8		118
Saint Louis Masters	St. Louis	data-sort-value="12-07"	Dec 3–7		59
Qatar Masters	Doha	data-sort-value="12-12"	Dec 3–12		138
European Rapid Championship	Skopje	data-sort-value="12-08"	Dec 6–8	Rapid Continental FIDE	364	2644
European Blitz Championship	Skopje	data-sort-value="12-11"	Dec 9–11	Blitz Continental FIDE	364	2644
World Rapid Championship	New York City	data-sort-value="12-28"	Dec 26–28	Rapid FIDE
Zurcher Weihnachtsopen	Zürich	data-sort-value="12-30"	Dec 26–30
World Blitz Championship	New York City	data-sort-value="12-31"	Dec 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 their final score consists of at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and they played in at least 2 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if their final score consists of 6 or 7 tournaments) or at least 1 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if their final score consists of 5 tournaments). The players who don't meet this criteria are marked in pink (as well as tournament results which can't be counted for qualification for the Candidates Tournament per 2024 FIDE Circuit regulations). The current leader is marked in green. "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section.

Top 20 as of 2 December 2024^[2]

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Arjun Erigaisi	114.77	Shenzhen 3rd – 15.18	Grenke Open T 6th-7th – 6.99	Menorca 1st – 16.19	Malmö 2nd – 14.00 (T 2nd-3rd)	Jermuk 1st – 19.79	WR Masters 1st – 25.40	Chennai 3rd – 17.22
2	Fabiano Caruana	114.03	Candidates 4th – 15.92	GCT Romania 1st – 21.23	GCT Croatia 1st – 13.92	Sinquefield Cup 2nd – 20.85	US Championship 1st – 25.00	US Masters 1st – 17.11	St. Louis Masters TBD
3	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	101.13	Tata Steel (M) 3rd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 1st – 25.00	Malmö 1st – 16.21	Tashkent (M) 2nd – 19.28	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 9.12	Shusha 2nd – 8.19	President Cup 5th – 9.11
4	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
5	R Praggnanandhaa	66.76	Prague (M) 4th – 11.36 (T 2nd-4th)	Candidates 5th – 12.24	GCT Poland 4th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	WR Masters T 3rd-4th – 16.51	Kolkata Rapid 2nd – 11.95	Kolkata Blitz 4th – 0.00
6	Nodirbek Yakubboev	57.02	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	President Cup 6th – 8.15
7	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	Chennai 4th – 0.00	President Cup 26th – 0.00
8	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
9	Shamsiddin Vokhidov	53.56	Moscow 34th – 0.00	Sharjah 4th – 15.17	Tashkent (Ch) 1st – 13.82	Abu Dhabi 3rd – 12.11	President Cup 4th – 12.46
10	Daniel Dardha	48.94	Tata Steel (Ch) 2nd – 10.33 (T 2nd-3rd)	Djerba 1st – 8.60	Menorca 8th – 1.89	Sardinia 1st – 14.07	European Champ. 2nd – 14.05
11	Leon Luke Mendonca	47.50	Tata Steel (Ch) 1st – 15.15	St. Louis (Spring) 1st – 13.74	Sharjah 28th – 0.00	Dubai Open 23rd – 0.00	Biel/Bienne 2nd – 7.38	Abu Dhabi 4th – 11.23
12	Aravindh Chithambaram	47.25	La Roda 1st – 9.52	Menorca 16th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st)	Dubai Police 2nd – 16.52	Sharjah 13th – 0.00	Abu Dhabi 12th – 0.49 (T 7th-15th)	Shusha 6th – 0.00	Chennai 1st – 20.59
13	Parham Maghsoodloo	46.77	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	Chennai 6th – 0.00	President Cup 3rd – 13.42
14	Hans Niemann	38.01	Tata Steel (Ch) 7th – 0.00	Djerba 2nd – 7.69	Grenke Open 1st – 20.82	Dubai Police 7th – 6.66	Sharjah 15th – 0.00	US Championship 4th – 2.84 (T 2nd-7th)
15	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	35.77	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 – 20.32	Chennai 5th – 0.00
16	Volodar Murzin<	--in the FIDE ratings list, Murzin is listed as FID; that is not so for Nepomniachtchi and Artemiev, who are listed as RUS. That is why Murzin does not require the Russian-flag footnote-->	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
17	Yu Yangyi	32.22	Shenzhen 2nd – 16.17	Dubai Police 22nd – 0.00	Sharjah 8th – 4.14	Tashkent (M) 3rd – 11.91
18	Wei Yi	31.04	Tata Steel (M) 1st – 20.54	GCT Poland 2nd – 10.50
19	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	President Cup 18th – 0.00
20	Bu Xiangzhi	28.64	Shenzhen 1st – 18.15	Aktobe 4th – 10.49

See also

• 2023 FIDE Circuit

External links

• FIDE Circuit

Notes and References

1. Web site: FIDE CIRCUIT 2024 REGULATIONS . 25 January 2024. 28 January 2024. FIDE . en.
2. Web site: FIDE Circuit . 2024-05-04 . fide.com . en.