The 2026–2027 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2026 and 2027, which will serve as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2028. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score will be the sum of their twelve best results of the years.
It also includes a sub-ranking list which consists scores of only tournaments with more than 50 participants, serving as a qualification path for Total Chess World Championship Tour events.
Unlike every year before 2026, this FIDE Circuit will be combined of tournaments played in 2026 and 2027. All Circuits till 2025 included events of the year itself only.
This is an open category equivalent to 2026-2027 FIDE Women's Circuit (as in women category).
Eligible tournaments As per regulation 2.1 of FIDE Circuit 2026–2027 Regulations, eligible tournaments are :-
FIDE‐rated individual over‐the‐board standard tournaments World Rapid Championships, 2026 and 2027 World Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027 Continental over‐the‐board Rapid and Blitz Championships 2026 and 2027 Other over‐the‐board FIDE‐rated Rapid & Blitz tournaments Other pre‐approved FIDE‐rated tournaments
None of those mentioned above (except World Chess Championship 2026 and World Rapid and Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027) are eligible tournaments if they do not follow any of the conditions mentioned below. World Chess Championship 2026 and World Rapid and Blitz Championships, 2026 and 2027 shall be considered irrespective of the conditions below.
The tournaments must finish between 1 January 2026 and 21 December 2026 or 1 January 2027 and 21 December 2027 (for National Championships, zonal and continental tournaments and traditional open tournaments with at least 50 players). 1 January 2026 and 15 December 2026 or 1 January 2027 and 15 December 2027 (for all other tournaments). The tournament must have at least 6 players with TAR of at least 2700 (for double round robin tournaments) 8 players (for all other formats) The number of rounds in the tournament must be at least 4 (for knockout tournaments) 7 (for all other formats) TAR of the rated tournaments not pre-approved by FIDE must not be less than 2550 (for FIDE Rated Individual standard tournaments, World Rapid and Blitz Championships and Continental Rapid and Blitz Championships.) 2650 (for other over‐the‐board FIDE‐rated Rapid & Blitz tournaments.) The TAR is the average rating of top 12 players in the tournament (If less than 12 players in the tournament, then the average rating of all the players in the tournament). Players must represent at least 3 different Member Federations or Affiliated Members. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest‐rated players (or all players if fewer than 20 players) shall represent one federation.
Points system
Event points Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament are calculated as follows:
where:
- Points obtained by player from the tournament - Basic points - Tournament strength factor, calculated as - Tournament weighting 1.5 - World Chess Championship 2026 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 0.85 - Standard tournaments with 3 multi-game days 0.8 - Total Chess World Championship Tour, World Rapid Championship, Knockout Tournaments with fewer than 6 rounds and standard tournaments with 4 multi-game days 0.75 - Standard tournaments with 5 multi-game days 0.7 - Standard tournaments with 6 or more multi-game days 0.6 - World Blitz Championship, Continental Rapid Championships, and other eligible rapid tournaments 0.5 - Mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments 0.4 - Continental Blitz Championships and other eligible blitz tournaments
If multiple weighting coefficients apply, these are multiplied together.
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. 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 are awarded as follows: 1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th11/108765432
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.
Candidates Tournament Points
For the Candidates Tournament 2026, Top five with ties will earn the points.
World Championship 2026
For the World Championship 2026, runner-up will receive points in the Circuit equal to the basic points for 2nd place multiplied by the k-factor and multiplied by 1.5. The TPR for this event will calculated as the player's performance rating.
Total World Championship Tour
For Total Chess World Championship Tour, Top 5 finishers in each stage, including the Pilot tournament will be given points in the Circuit by the k-factor and multiplied by 0.8 . Also each stage of the tour is deemed as a Standard Tournament.
Player's total and ranking A player's point total for the ranking is the sum of their best 12 tournaments with the following criteria: TournamentsStandard events with under 50 players allowedRapid/Blitz allowed8–106311741284
If player has 11 or 12 tournaments to count: No more than 7 or 8 respectively standard tournaments with the participation of less than 50 players can be counted. No more than 4 rapid/blitz tournaments can be counted. If player has 10 tournaments or less: No more than 6 standard tournaments with participation of less than 50 players can be counted. No more than 3 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 with TAR below 2650.
Tournaments "(M)" denotes the Masters section while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section. "Open" refers to classical tournaments with 50 or more participants.
: Ongoing events
+2026–2027 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments Tournament Location Date Type TAR WinnerRilton Cup StockholmOpen170 Xu XiangyuFloripa Open 2026 FlorianópolisOpen542 André DiamantTata Steel (M) Wijk aan ZeeRound robin14 Nodirbek AbdusattorovTata Steel (Ch)14 Andy WoodwardAl-Beruniy Masters TashkentRound robin102602 Aram HakobyanPrague (M) PragueRound robin10 Nodirbek AbdusattorovPrague (Ch)10 2552 Václav Finěk Saint Louis Masters St. Louis Open 70 Mikhail Antipov Aeroflot Open Moscow Open 169 Ian Nepomniachtchi Tashkent Open – Agzamov Memorial Tashkent Open 101 Haik M. Martirosyan Reykjavik Open Reykjavík Open422 2609 Amin TabatabaeiCandidates Tournament PegeiaFIDE8 Javokhir Sindarov Open Internacional Alicante Alicante Open520 Igor Kovalenko Grenke Open Karlsruhe Open1098 Mukhammadzokhid SuyarovEuropean Individual Championship KatowiceContinental521 Roman DehtiarovMenorca Masters MenorcaRapid6 Nihal SarinMenorca OpenOpen420 Abhimanyu MishraKarpov International Tournament Khanty-MansiyskRound robin10 Denis Lazavik Bangkok Chess Club Open Bangkok Open241 Đầu Khương Duy Baku Open Baku Open100 Sina MovahedTePe Sigeman MalmöRound robin8 Magnus Carlsen Sardinia World Chess Festival Orosei Open163 Frederik Svane GCT Super Rapid & Blitz Poland Warsaw Rapid & Blitz10 Hans NiemannGCT Super Chess Classic Romania BucharestRound robin10 Vincent KeymerNorway Chess OsloDouble round robin6 R PraggnanandhaaStepan Avagyan Memorial JermukRound robin10 Samuel SevianAsian Individual Championship UlaanbaatarContinental143 Kong XiangruiAktobe Open – Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial Aktobe Open81 Andrew HongUzChess Cup (M) TashkentRound robin10 Mukhiddin MadaminovUzChess Cup (Ch)102580 Mahammad MuradliGCT Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia ZagrebRapid & Blitz10 Alireza Firouzja Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid Charlotte 3 July 2026 RapidOpen 93 Javokhir Sindarov Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz BlitzOpen 932711 Javokhir SindarovChennai Grand Masters ChennaiRound robin8 Alireza Firouzja Dole Open Aix-en-ProvenceOpen306 Robert HovhannisyanOskemen Open OskemenOpen79 Andrey EsipenkoAsian Rapid Championship 2026 Hong KongRapidContinental128 Aleksey GrebnevAsian Blitz Championship 202630 July 2026BlitzContinental114 Lê Tuấn Minh Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Trophy DortmundOpen208 Elham AmarGCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz St. LouisRapid & Blitz10 R PraggnanandhaaSpilimbergo International Chess Festival SpilimbergoOpen2412570 Daniel DardhaGCT Sinquefield Cup St. LouisRound robin10 Wesley So Kanizsa Open and Hungarian Individual Open Championship Nagykanizsa Open226 Pranesh MRubinstein Memorial Polanica-ZdrójRound robin10 Awonder Liang Abu Dhabi Masters Abu Dhabi Open109 Jakhongir Vakhidov Chess Slovak Open SkalicaRound robin10 Aditya Mittal Abhimanyu Mishra Atyrau Open AtyrauOpen122Total Chess 2026 Pilot BudapestFIDE24 U.S. Masters Charlotte Open World Chess Championship 2026 GenevaFIDE2Elllobregat Open Sant Boi de LlobregatOpenSunway Sitges International Festival SitgesOpenFloripa Open 2027 FlorianópolisOpen
Ranking 2026–2027 FIDE Circuit Standings At the end of 2027, the top two finishers in the Circuit will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2028, provided that they play in at least 8 tournaments (including at least 5 in standard time controls) and play at least 4 standard tournaments with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 11 or 12 tournaments) or at least 3 standard tournament with participations of more than 50 players (if they played in 10 tournaments).
Tournament results which can't be counted for qualification for the Candidates Tournament 2028 are marked in pink.
"(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" denotes the Challengers section. : Current leaders – set to qualify for Candidates Tournament 2028 (Next top leader if the current top player has already qualified through another route) : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2028 qualification : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2028 via another path : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2028 qualification