Announced on Monday, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has granted six wildcard invitations for the upcoming 2025 FIDE World Cup, a major tournament in November that will award three seats in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. The winner of that will play the next world championship match against GM Gukesh Dommaraju. The announced players are GMs Divya Deshmukh, Kirill Alekseenko, Andy Woodward, Abhimanyu Mishra, Volodar Murzin, and IM Faustino Oro.
With the exception of 28-year-old Alekseenko, who participated in the 2020-2021 Candidates Tournament, all of the listed players are under 20. Divya, 19, won the 2025 Women’s World Cup; Woodward, 15, won the Junior’s Closed U.S. Championship; Mishra, 16, is the youngest player ever to become a grandmaster; Murzin, 19, is the reigning rapid world champion; and Oro, 11, is a promising talent who just crossed the 2500-rating mark on Monday, completing one of the requirements for the grandmaster title not long after breaking into double digits by age.
11-year-old Faustino Oro beats his co-leader, crosses 2500 on the live rating list, and now needs just half a point in the next 3 games for his 1st GM norm! 🤯https://t.co/DJh7AdhcC6 pic.twitter.com/UczMtZ4s69
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 22, 2025
Divya’s invitation was not included in the announcement, but it was posted by GM Emil Sutovsky, FIDE’s CEO, on X. She was awarded a sixth wildcard spot. Sutovsky originally posted an “important clarification” on September 20th, writing, “FIDE is not distributing wild cards for Indian players in Goa” because the Indian Chess Federation already receive local wildcard spots as the hosts. Two days later, he announced that Divya had got a spot after “the last-minute dropout of the qualified player” and for “female representation in the event.”
Divya Deshmukh gets the wild-card for the FIDE World Cup in Goa.
After Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan declined an invite, there was no female representation in the event. However, due to the last-minute dropout of the qualified player, FIDE President got to assign one more wild card -…
— Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) September 22, 2025
Pairings for the event have not been published, but we do have a participants list. There are a few notable players missing from the world top-10. It’s no surprise that GM Magnus Carlsen, the 2023 winner, isn’t signed up. World number-two GM Hikaru Nakamura aims to qualify for the Candidates Tournament via the top rating spot, so he won’t need to play in this event (he needs to play 11 more rated games). World number-three GM Fabiano Caruana has already qualified via the 2024 FIDE Circuit.
World number-eight GM Alireza Firouzja, who is not on the list, forfeits one of his last chances at qualifying for the next world championship. He hasn’t provided a reason, but he didn’t play in 2023 either and back then said, “I didn’t see myself playing one month every day chess, it was just too much for me to compete. For me going to one place and staying there for one month to play, it’s a bit weird.”
The French number-one can, theoretically, still qualify via the FIDE Circuit if others qualify through the World Cup, but the situation is now largely outside of his control.
There are also players who didn’t need to play but who are still participating. Top seed GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is just about guaranteed to enter the Candidates via the 2025 FIDE Circuit. Likewise, GM Anish Giri has already qualified for the Candidates by winning the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. Gukesh, who doesn’t need to qualify for the world championship match, is surely looking to put up a better performance than his at the Grand Swiss, where he lost three games in a row and dropped out of the world top-10.
Top 20 Entries
| # | Name | FED | Title | Rating | B-Year |
| 1 | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | GM | 2785 | 2005 | |
| 2 | Erigaisi Arjun | GM | 2771 | 2003 | |
| 3 | Gukesh Dommaraju | GM | 2767 | 2006 | |
| 4 | So, Wesley | GM | 2756 | 1993 | |
| 5 | Wei, Yi | GM | 2753 | 1999 | |
| 6 | Keymer, Vincent | GM | 2751 | 2004 | |
| 7 | Abdusattorov, Nodirbek | GM | 2748 | 2004 | |
| 8 | Giri, Anish | GM | 2746 | 1994 | |
| 9 | Aronian, Levon | GM | 2744 | 1982 | |
| 10 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | GM | 2742 | 1990 | |
| 11 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | GM | 2741 | 1985 | |
| 12 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | GM | 2738 | 1990 | |
| 13 | Niemann, Hans Moke | GM | 2733 | 2003 | |
| 14 | Fedoseev, Vladimir | GM | 2731 | 1995 | |
| 15 | Le, Quang Liem | GM | 2729 | 1991 | |
| 16 | Sindarov, Javokhir | GM | 2722 | 2005 | |
| 17 | Yu, Yangyi | GM | 2714 | 1994 | |
| 18 | Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | GM | 2712 | 1994 | |
| 19 | Rapport, Richard | GM | 2711 | 1996 | |
| 20 | Aravindh, Chithambaram VR. | GM | 2711 | 1999 |
For most players, this is their last chance to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. Let us know in the comments: whom are you rooting for?
