2024 FIDE Circuit

2024 FIDE Circuit
2024 FIDE Circuit winner Fabiano Caruana
Duration	28 December 2023 – 31 December 2024
Winner	Fabiano Caruana

The 2024 FIDE Circuit was a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2024, which served as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players received points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score was the sum of their seven best results of the year.^[1] Fabiano Caruana scored the most points, and as winner of the 2024 Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026.^[2]

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

1. Finished between 1 January 2024 and 15 December 2024.
2. Had at least 8 players.
3. Had at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
4. The 8 highest-rated players had an average standard rating of at least 2550 at the start of the tournament. This average is referred to as TAR (tournament average rating).
5. Players represented at least 3 national federations.
6. Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represented one federation.

The Circuit also included the following tournaments:

• The World Chess Championship 2024.
• National Championships that met points 1 to 4 in the above criteria.
• World Rapid Championship.
• World Blitz Championship.
• Continental Rapid Championships.
• Continental Blitz Championships.
• Other Rapid and Blitz tournaments that met the above criteria, except that the TAR had to be at least 2700.

Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament were calculated as follows:

${\displaystyle P=B\times k\times w}$

where:

• ${\displaystyle P}$ - Points obtained by player from the tournament
• ${\displaystyle B}$ - Basic points
• ${\displaystyle k}$ - Tournament strength factor, calculated as ${\displaystyle k=(TAR-2500)/100}$
• ${\displaystyle w}$ - 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 for a tournament were 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 were awarded to all players).
• Knockout: Third round or later, up to 8 players.

Points were awarded as follows:

• If the tournament was 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 were 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 was applied, basic points were shared equally among all tied players.
• For round-robin tournaments (other than the Candidates), 4th and below were worth zero points for tied players calculation.

For the World Chess Championship 2024, the winner had points calculated as 1st place basic points multiplied by the strength factor, but with its TAR value using the winner's performance rating instead.

A player's point total for the ranking was the sum of their best 7 tournaments with the following criteria:

• If a player had 6 or 7 tournaments to count:
  • No more than 4 or 5 respectively standard tournaments with the participation of less than 50 players could be counted.
  • No more than 2 rapid/blitz tournaments could be counted.
• If a player had 5 tournaments or less:
  • No more than 4 standard tournaments with participation of less than 50 players could be counted.
  • No more than 1 rapid/blitz tournament could be counted.

Tournaments that could be included in a player's results were 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.

Eligible tournaments as of 31 December 2024.^[3]

2024 FIDE Circuit – Eligible Tournaments

Tournament	Location	Date	Type	P#	TAR	Winner
Hastings	Hastings	28 December, 2023 – 5 January, 2024		105	2552	Abhijeet Gupta
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	12–28 January		14	2752+3⁄4	Wei Yi
Tata Steel Challengers	Wijk aan Zee	12–28 January		14	2637+3⁄4	Leon Luke Mendonca
Djerba Masters	Djerba	18–25 February		8	2590+1⁄2	Daniel Dardha
Prague Masters	Prague	27 February – 7 March		10	2727+1⁄4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Prague Challengers	Prague	27 February – 7 March		10	2575+3⁄4	Ediz Gürel
Prague Open	Prague	27 February – 7 Mar		267	2567+3⁄4	Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis
Shenzhen Masters	Shenzhen	29 February – 7 March		8	2698	Bu Xiangzhi
Cappelle-la-Grande Open	Cappelle-la-Grande	2–8 March		382	2562+5⁄8	Abhimanyu Puranik
Aeroflot Open	Moscow	3–7 March		142	2679+7⁄8	Amin Tabatabaei
Reykjavik Open	Reykjavík	15–21 March		363	2602+3⁄4	Bogdan-Daniel Deac
Fagernes Chess International	Fagernes	24–31 March		100	2568	Rinat Jumabayev
Torneo International de Ajedrez de Roda	La Roda	27–31 March		210	2603+7⁄8	Aravindh Chithambaram
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe	26 March – 1 April		935	2689+1⁄4	Hans Niemann
Open Internacional de Ajedrez Semana Santa	Alicante	27 March – 1 April		417	2574+1⁄2	Kirill Alekseenko
Menorca Open	Menorca	2–7 April		284	2676+5⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Candidates	Toronto	3–22 April	FIDE	8	2744+7⁄8	Gukesh Dommaraju
Sunway Formentera	Formentera	9–19 April		51	2581+3⁄4	Alexander Donchenko
Spring Chess Classic	St. Louis	11–20 April		10	2624+7⁄8	Leon Luke Mendonca
TePe Sigeman	Malmö	27 April – 3 May		8	2676+7⁄8	Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Sardinia World Chess Festival	Orosei	27 April – 4 May		168	2658+1⁄2	Daniel Dardha
Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge	Dubai	3–13 May		135	2694+3⁄8	Pranav V
GCT Superbet Poland Rapid & Blitz	Warsaw	6–13 May	Rapid & Blitz	10	2762+3⁄8	Magnus Carlsen
Chinese Chess Championship	Xinghua	6–16 May	National	12	2570+1⁄4	Wang Yue
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah	13–23 May		88	2720+5⁄8	Bardiya Daneshvar
Polish Chess Championship	Rzeszów	21–31 May	National	10	2586+1⁄2	Radosław Wojtaszek
Budapesti Tavaszi Fesztivál	Budapest	23–31 May		210	2597+5⁄8	Yahli Sokolovsky
Americas Continental Championship	Medellín	24 May – 2 June	Continental FIDE	387	2582+1⁄8	Roberto García Pantoja
Dubai Open	Dubai	25 May – 2 June		71	2608+1⁄2	Mahammad Muradli
Vladimir Dvorkovich Memorial	Aktobe	25 May – 2 June		90	2682+3⁄8	Parham Maghsoodloo
National Open	Las Vegas	5–9 June		136	2583+1⁄2	Vasif Durarbayli
UzChess Cup Masters	Tashkent	6–14 June		10	2726+7⁄8	Nodirbek Yakubboev
UzChess Cup Challengers	Tashkent	6–14 June		10	2625+5⁄8	Shamsiddin Vokhidov
Stepan Avagyan Memorial	Jermuk	9–18 June		10	2679+7⁄8	Arjun Erigaisi
Teplice Open	Teplice	15–23 June		240	2629	Max Warmerdam
Serbian Chess Championship	Senta	17–25 June	National	10	2556+1⁄8	Aleksandar Inđić
Arona International Chess Festival	Arona, Tenerife	22–30 June		161	2584+7⁄8	Xue Haowen
GCT Romania	Bucharest	24 June – 6 July		10	2761+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
Baku Open	Baku	29 June – 7 July		126	2625	Sina Movahed
Dutch Chess Championship	Utrecht	6–13 July	National	16	2586+3⁄8	Max Warmerdam
GCT Croatia Rapid & Blitz	Zagreb	8–15 July	Rapid & Blitz	10	2753	Fabiano Caruana
Biel Chess Festival	Biel/Bienne	13–26 July		128	2593+3⁄4	Rinat Jumabayev
DOLE Open/NEXTLANE Grand Prix	Aix-en-Provence	20–28 July		177	2627+7⁄8	Pranesh M
GCT St. Louis Rapid & Blitz	St. Louis	10–17 August	Rapid & Blitz	10	2765+3⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Internationale Dortmunder Schachtage	Dortmund	10–18 August		193	2582+7⁄8	Nico Zwirs
Abu Dhabi Masters	Abu Dhabi	15–24 August		217	2677+1⁄4	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Akiba Rubinstein Chess Festival	Polanica-Zdrój	17–25 August		10	2696+3⁄8	Vincent Keymer
French Championship	Alpe d'Huez	17–25 August	National	16	2577+1⁄4	Jules Moussard
Indian Chess Championship	Gurgaon	17–27 August	National	341	2562+7⁄8	Karthik Venkataraman
Russian Championship	Barnaul	17–28 August	National	12	2668+3⁄4	Vladislav Artemiev[a]
Sinquefield Cup	St. Louis	19–29 August		10	2760+5⁄8	Alireza Firouzja
Iberoamerican Championship	Linares	24 September – 2 October		118	2569+7⁄8	Alan Pichot
Gashimov Memorial	Shusha	25–30 September	Rapid & Blitz	8	2704+5⁄8	Ian Nepomniachtchi[a]
US Championship	St. Louis	11–23 October	National	12	2727+1⁄4	Fabiano Caruana
Pavlodar Open Masters	Pavlodar	12–22 October		96	2585+7⁄8	Aram Hakobyan
WR Chess Masters Cup	London	14–17 October		16	2754	Arjun Erigaisi
Chennai Grand Masters	Chennai	5–11 November		8	2724+5⁄8	Aravindh Chithambaram
European Chess Championship	Petrovac	7–20 November	Continental FIDE	388	2675+5⁄8	Aleksandar Inđić
Tata Steel Chess India Rapid	Kolkata	13–15 November	Rapid	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
Tata Steel Chess India Blitz	Kolkata	16–17 November	Blitz	10	2757	Magnus Carlsen
International President Cup	Tashkent	21–29 November		120	2691+3⁄4	Nihal Sarin
World Chess Championship	Singapore	25 November – 13 December	FIDE	2	2757	Gukesh Dommaraju
U.S. Masters	Charlotte	27 November – 1 December		264	2655+1⁄2	Fabiano Caruana
Singapore International Open	Singapore	29 November – 5 December		285	2626+1⁄8	Lu Shanglei
London Chess Classic	London	29 November – 6 December		8	2637+5⁄8	Gawain Jones
London Chess Classic – Open	London	29 November – 7 December		87	2560	Raunak Sadhwani Ilya Smirin
Saint Louis Masters	St. Louis	3–7 December		59	2682+1⁄8	Fabiano Caruana Alexander Donchenko
Qatar Masters	Doha	3–12 December		138	2714+1⁄2	Andrey Esipenko
European Rapid Championship	Skopje	7–8 December	Rapid Continental FIDE	398	2669+1⁄8	Vladimir Fedoseev
European Blitz Championship	Skopje	9 December	Blitz Continental FIDE	368	2669+1⁄8	Jorden van Foreest
World Rapid Championship	New York	26–28 December	Rapid FIDE	180	2785+7⁄8	Volodar Murzin
World Blitz Championship	New York	30–31 December	Blitz FIDE	188	2785+7⁄8	Magnus Carlsen Ian Nepomniachtchi[a]

At the end of 2024, the best player in the Circuit qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that his final score consisted of at least 5 tournaments (including at least 4 in standard time controls) and he played in at least 2 standard tournaments with over 50 participating players (if his final score consisted of 6 or 7 tournaments) or at least 1 standard tournament with over 50 participating players (if his final score consisted of 5 tournaments). Tournament results which could not be counted for qualification to the Candidates Tournament 2026 are marked in pink. "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section.

•  : Player qualified for Candidates Tournament 2026 via this path.
•  : Current World Champion – ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification
•  : Player ineligible for Candidates Tournament 2026 qualification

Final 2024 rankings^[3]

No.	Player	Points	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
1	Fabiano Caruana	130.42	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 T 1st-2nd – 16.39
2	Arjun Erigaisi	124.40	Shenzhen 3rd – 15.18	Menorca 1st – 16.19	Malmö 2nd – 14.00 (T 2nd-3rd)	Avagyan Memorial 1st – 19.79	WR Masters 1st – 25.40	Chennai 3rd – 17.22	Doha 2nd – 16.62
3	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	108.49	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	President Cup 5th – 9.11	Doha 3rd – 15.55
4	Alireza Firouzja	89.07	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	World Rapid 7th – 7.24
5	Gukesh Dommaraju	84.13	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 14.22 (T 2nd-4th)	Prague (M) 7th – 0.00	Candidates 1st – 26.94	GCT Romania T 2nd-4th – 14.70	GCT Croatia 7th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-7th – 0.00	World Champion 1st – 28.27
6	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
7	Volodar Murzin	63.50	Menorca 17th – 0.13 (T 8th-21st)	Sardinia 3rd – 11.69	Sharjah 2nd – 17.37	Abu Dhabi 7th – 3.15	Singapore 22nd – 0.00	World Rapid 1st – 25.16	World Blitz T 5th-8th – 6.00
8	Nodirbek Yakubboev	57.40	Moscow 3rd – 12.14	Dubai Police 51st – 0.00	Aktobe 12th – 0.41 (T 7th-17th)	Tashkent (M) 1st – 21.55	Abu Dhabi 1st – 14.77	President Cup 6th – 8.15	Doha 18th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
9	Amin Tabatabaei	56.39	Moscow 1st – 19.79	Dubai Police 6th – 7.64	Sharjah 5th – 7.45	Avagyan Memorial 3rd – 10.79	Abu Dhabi 5th – 10.34	President Cup 26th – 0.00	Doha 14th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
10	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	Doha 23rd – 0.00	World Blitz 36th – 0.00
11	Daniel Dardha	51.73	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	European Rapid 7th – 2.79	European Blitz 16th – 0.00
12	Andrey Esipenko	50.98	Moscow 2nd – 13.04	Sharjah 55th – 0.00	Russian Champ. 2nd – 14.34	Doha 1st – 23.60	World Rapid 29th – 0.00	World Blitz 75th – 0.00
13	Ian Nepomniachtchi[a]	49.16	Candidates 3rd – 17.14	GCT Romania T 5th-7th – 0.00	GCT Croatia 5th – 0.00	GCT St. Louis T 6th-7th – 0.00	Shusha 1st – 11.25	World Rapid 3rd – 16.58	World Blitz T 1st-2nd – 15.44
14	Leon Luke Mendonca	47.88	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	Doha 16th – 0.38 (T 7th-20th)
15	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
16	Parham Maghsoodloo	46.77	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	Doha 64th – 0.00
17	Hans Niemann	44.01	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)	World Blitz T 5th-8th – 6.00
18	Vladimir Fedoseev	38.59	Grenke Open 3rd – 10.30	Menorca 4th – 9.27	Sardinia 6th – 4.18	Sharjah 41st – 0.00	Polanica-Zdrój 4th – 3.68 (T 2nd-5th)	European Champ. 15th – 0.00	European Rapid 1st – 11.16
19	Alexander Donchenko	36.20	Formentera 1st – 8.99	Dubai Police 12th – 0.00	Tashkent (Ch) 7th – 0.00	Teplice 3rd – 9.89	European Champ. 16th – 0.00	US Masters 7th – 0.93 (T 6th-20th)	St. Louis Masters T 1st-2nd – 16.39
20	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	World Rapid 34th – 0.00

The FIDE Circuit system has drawn criticism from top players, including Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, and Fabiano Caruana, for various reasons. Critics have highlighted issues such as flawed scoring and financial burdens, raising questions about the system's fairness and practicality.^[5][6][7]

Critics argue the points system is poorly designed, rewarding players inconsistently and only awarding the first three players in closed tournaments. For example, Gukesh, Abdusattorov, and Giri tied for first in the Tata Steel Masters (with a +4 score), but earned only 14.22 points each, while Leon Luke Mendonca gained 15.15 points for winning the significantly weaker Challengers section. Firouzja, Vidit and Praggnanandhaa didn't win any points for tying for fifth among the fourteen players, despite scoring +2.

Caruana expressed frustration that third place at the relatively weaker Menorca Open, with a TAR of 2676+5⁄8, earned more points than he did for fourth place at the Candidates Tournament, which had a TAR of 2744+7⁄8.^[5] The Candidates was an exception to the top three rule, as Circuit points were awarded to all eight participants. For the 2025 Circuit, the rules were amended to reward points to the top four finishers in closed events with 11–13 participants, and the top five finishers in events with more than 13 participants.^[8]

The Circuit excludes tournaments where over 50% of participants are from the same federation unless it is a national championship. For instance, the American Cup, a high-stakes tournament featuring strong players, did not count because all participants were from the United States. FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky justified this rule as a response to perceived exploitation in prior years, citing protests by American players against Ding Liren’s qualification to the 2022 Candidates via Chinese-organized events played a role. Aronian suggested only allowing tournaments with pre-announced participants.^[5]

Norway Chess, another strong tournament that featured world number one Magnus Carlsen as well as World Champion Ding, also didn't qualify for the Circuit due to having only six participants, as only tournaments with eight or more players were eligible. The rules for the 2025 Circuit were amended to allow double round-robin tournaments with at least 6 participants and an average rating of 2700 to be eligible.^[8]

The shift from the FIDE Grand Prix (with significant prize funds) to the Circuit system forces players to compete in numerous open tournaments, which often have lower prize money and higher financial risks. Giri noted the economic strain, pointing out that players must accept these risks to stay competitive in the Circuit standings.^[5]

FIDE defends the Circuit as a way to give more players access to the Candidates by prioritizing open tournaments over exclusive invitations. Sutovsky, who was previously president of the Association of Chess Professionals which organized the ACP Tour, a precursor to the Circuit, argued that the system levels the playing field for those without consistent access to elite events. Caruana countered that FIDE ratings already provide a democratic system, and emphasized that rating gains in open tournaments are achievable through consistent good performance, making the Circuit system redundant and unnecessarily complicated.^[5]

• 2023 FIDE Circuit

• Official website