Norway Chess and the International Chess Federation (FIDE) have announced the qualification paths for the 24-player October 2026 pilot event of the Total Chess World Championship Tour. Reigning World Champions Gukesh Dommaraju and Ju Wenjun are the two players named, with another 12 to be chosen by classical ratings. Five players will also qualify from the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar at the end of this month.Â
Two months ago Norway Chess and FIDE announced the creation of the Total Chess World Championship Tour. The tour, mixing rapid, blitz, and ‘fast classic’ (45 minutes + a 30-second increment) chess, will grant the title of ‘FIDE World Combined Champion.’Â
The $2.7 million tour is due to start in earnest in 2027, with three 24-player $750,000 events followed by a four-player $450,000 Finals. Venues are yet to be decided, with India one of the countries being scouted out.
A glimpse from this week, as the Norway Chess team is in India 🇮🇳
So far, it has been a week of exciting meetings and inspiring conversations about the future of chess, and we are grateful for the warm welcome and great energy! ✨
India is one of the world’s most vibrant chess… pic.twitter.com/IHjKDBDk1V
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) December 11, 2025
First, however, a single 24-player pilot event is planned for October 2026, and that’s the event for which qualification paths have been announced.
The complicated path to 24 players seems designed to ensure the participation of most of the world elite. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky recently commented, “Going forwards, I’ll submit a proposal, eliminating rating spot altogether towards Candidates-2028,” but classical ratings will be used to select half of the players for the first Total Chess World Championship event. Nine players will be taken from the January 2026 rating list, and another three from the June 2026 list.
Nice! Top 9 is the new thing now.👌💪 https://t.co/MESfiNfUDp pic.twitter.com/MMb6088uE9
— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) December 9, 2025
That list will of course include the world number-one in classical, rapid, and blitz, Magnus Carlsen, the clearest candidate for what FIDE describes as the aim of the Tour: “To identify ‘The Total Chess Player’, a versatile competitor who excels across multiple time controls.” GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri, Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and Wei Yi also look set to be confirmed, barring any unexpected late activity in December.
The full top 10 will likely be qualified, since Gukesh gains a spot as world champion, along with Ju. We’ll have the reigning world champions in 2026 even if Gukesh and Ju play and lose world championship matches before October, since the winners of the 2026 Candidates Tournaments also gain spots. A curiosity is that the Total Chess World Championship Tour will also act as a qualifier to future Candidates Tournaments. Â
We’ll also know another five players who are guaranteed a spot by the end of this year, with three players taken from the World Rapid Championship in Doha and another two from the Blitz. That means at least for the initial event we’ll have two qualification spots from blitz, three from rapid, and 16+ from classical ratings or events. Â
The least clear point for now is the last, with three spots open to “FIDE Circuit/FIDE Open Circuit.” Will that be the 2025 FIDE Circuit, or the 2026 FIDE Circuit up to some cut-off point, and what’s the FIDE Open Circuit, which hadn’t been mentioned before? Sutovsky wrote on X that, “Points 22-24 to be detalized [sic] later, but these are aimed at players who mostly compete in Open tournaments.”Â
The qualification paths overlap, with some players likely to qualify by multiple routes. Details of how that will be handled are expected later this month, as FIDE notes “the full Regulations, including player replacement rules, will be published by December 22, 2025.”
In any case, it’s already clear that the pilot event of the Total Chess World Championship Tour has the potential to be one of the top tournaments of 2026.
