The Total Chess World Championship Tour, organized by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE, is an annual series of chess tournaments among top players combining the most popular time controls – fast classical, rapid, and blitz. It is foreseen that each year three tournaments will be played and the players with the best combined score will qualify for the Grand Final to determine the FIDE World Combined Champion.
The first event, the Total Chess World Championship 2026, will be a pilot event played in a single leg while the tour, in true sense, will start from 2027.
Qualified players The following players, qualified from the path mentioned against them, are qualified for the pilot event. +Path/TitlePlayerRatingRank(October 2026)Reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh Dommaraju271028Reigning Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun2553292Medalists of World Rapid Championship 2025Gold Magnus Carlsen28231Silver Vladislav Artemiev265363Bronze Arjun Erigaisi274612Both finalists of World Blitz Championship 2025Silver Nodirbek Abdusattorov27805Replacement for Magnus Maxime Vachier-Lagrave271723Top 9 Players in Classical FIDE Rating list (as on January 1, 2026)#3 Fabiano Caruana27843#4 Vincent Keymer27618#6 Anish Giri275211#7 Alireza Firouzja275710#8 R. Praggnanandhaa27637Replacement for Magnus Wesley So27706#14 Richárd Rapport271127#19 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov271029#20 Levon Aronian272519Winner of Candidates Tournament 2026 Javokhir Sindarov27824Women's Candidates Tournament 2026Winner Vaishali Rameshbabu2452995Runner up (Replacement for Ju Wenjun) Bibisara Assaubayeva2532385Top 3 Players in Standard FIDE Rating list (as on June 1, 2026)#12 Hans Niemann271722#14 Jan-Krzysztof Duda274113#18 Lê Quang Liêm273216FIDE Open Circuit 2026-2027 (as on September 1, 2026) (Open circuit, including only open tournaments)#1 Haik M. Martirosyan266154#2 Andrew Hong2609135#3 Ian Nepomniachtchi271921FIDE Circuit 2026-2027 (as on September 1, 2026) (Full circuit, replacement for World Champion and Winner of Candidates)#13 Jorden van Foreest271624#15 Abhimanyu Mishra263685
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