The FIDE Circuit is a new pathway for chess players to earn themselves a spot in the Candidates Tournament, the prestigious invitational that determines who will be the next challenger of the reigning world chess champion, Ding Liren. It tracks all the biggest notable chess tournaments in the world, and awards players points based on their five highest scores in eligible events.
But what exactly is the FIDE Circuit? What does it encompass, and how does it work?
The FIDE Circuit, explained
For the 2023-2024 world chess championship cycle, The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, better known as FIDE, introduced a new pathway to qualify for the Candidates Tournament called the FIDE Circuit. It is a collection of high-level international tournaments, where the players’ five best results are tallied via a complicated points system. For an event to qualify for FIDE Circuit points, it needs to meet the following criteria:
- Finish in the 2023 calendar year.
- Feature at least eights players and seven rounds of competition.
- The eight highest-rated players at the event have an average standard rating of 2,550 at the start of the tournament (TAR).
- The Chief Arbiter is an International Arbiter.
- Recommended FPL Fair Play procedures are applied.
- Players represent at least three national federations, and
- Not more than 50 percent of either the 20 highest-rated players or all players, if there are fewer than 20 players, shall represent one federation.
The last two criteria don’t apply to national championships. Furthermore, while the events primarily need to be in the standard (classical) time control, the players’ best result in the following faster events can also be included in the points total calculation:
- World Rapid Championship
- World Blitz Championship
- Continental Rapid and Blitz Championships
- Other Rapid & Blitz tournaments that meet the above criteria and have an average standard rating of top eight players 2,700 or higher.
Confused yet? We haven’t even gotten to the calculation algorithm!
I still get surprised sometimes by how bureaucratic the chess world can sometimes be, though I appreciate the difficulties of standardizing a points system across all big international events in the world, and all my grumbling aside, the FIDE Circuit has been one of the least controversial in execution and the best-received in practice when it comes to Candidates qualification paths.
FIDE Circuit points system and calculation
Players’ individual tournament results are converted into circuit points by multiplying the following elements.
- The number of points earned in the tournament itself.
- “Basic points,” awarded based on the player’s placement in the tournament, with first place offering 10 and eighth place offering two.
- The tournament’s strength factor, calculated by subtracting 2,500 from the field’s average rating, then dividing the remainder by 100.
- The weighting of the tournament, based on its format.
For example, Fabiano Caruana’s win at the 2023 US Championship, where he finished with eight points out of 12, earned him 22.68 points.
Further details, listing every exception to every exception, are available in FIDE’s announcement post. The list of eligible tournaments is available on the federation’s dedicated website.
Who will win the FIDE Circuit in 2023?
Fabiano Caruana is the runaway leader of the FIDE Circuit, but he has already qualified for the tournament via the World Cup. This means three other players are still realistically in the running for the spot:
- Dommaraju Gukesh
- Wesley So
- Anish Giri
Gukesh is the nominal frontrunner heading into the 2023 Grand Swiss Tournament, but with only their five events counting towards players’ point total, Giri’s meager 2.03 haul from Düsseldorf means he has the greatest potential to improve. Of course, should either of his direct rivals make a deep run in the Grand Swiss, that might outdo any gains he himself may make at the event.
Of course, there’s also the added complication of the alternative qualification paths: Should a player make it to the Candidates Tournament in a different way, similarly to Caruana, they’d automatically be out of the running for the FIDE Circuit spot.
Here’s how that one will shake out.
2024 Candidates Tournament: all qualification paths
Eight players will fight it out in the 2024 Candidates Tournament for a chance to challenge Ding Liren. These are the pathways to get there.
- The loser of the 2022 World Chess Championship final – Ian Nepomniachtchi
- The top three finishers of the 2023 FIDE World Cup –
Magnus Carlsen, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Fabiano Caruana, Nijat Abasov (who is only confirmed if Carlsen truly declines or qualifies another way) - The top two finishers of the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament – TBA x2
- The winner of the 2023 FIDE Circuit – TBA
- The highest-rated eligible player in the January 2024 rankings – TBA
The qualification pathways are hierarchical, meaning if you earn yourself a spot through one of the avenues higher up the list, you are automatically exempted from the ones below. This means that the rating spot is superseded by the FIDE Circuit qualification.
