Total Chess World Championship 2026

Not to be confused with World Chess Championship 2026.

Total Chess World Championship 2026 (pilot event)
Venue	Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel
Location	Budapest, Hungary
Dates	10 – 21 November 2026
Organizing body	Norway Chess, Hungarian Chess Federation and FIDE
Competitors	24 from 10 nations

Total Chess World Championship 2026 will be the first Total Chess World Championship, announced by Norway Chess on October 15, 2025, approved and endorsed by FIDE and to be jointly organized by both of these bodies in collaboration with the host Hungarian Chess Federation. The tournament is a new initiative to combine talents of the three chess formats of classical, rapid and blitz into one tournament tour. The event is a part of the Total Chess World Championship Tour 2026–27, which offers two places in the Candidates Tournament 2028.

The pilot event will be held at the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel in Budapest, Hungary.

Tournament

Group Stage

Group A Rank Player Rating (Classical) Opponents (by rank) 1 2 3 4 5 6 Magnus Carlsen 2823 Group C Rank Player Rating (Classical) Opponents (by rank) 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2772

Group B Rank Player Rating (Classical) Opponents (by rank) 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fabiano Caruana 2783 Group D Rank Player Rating (Classical) Opponents (by rank) 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wesley So 2771

Knockout Stage

Knockout Bracket 1

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group winner, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group winner, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group winner, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group winner, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Knockout Bracket 2

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group rank 2nd, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 2nd, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 2nd, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 2nd, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Knockout Bracket 3

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group rank 3rd, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 3rd, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 3rd, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 3rd, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Knockout Bracket 4

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group rank 4th, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 4th, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 4th, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 4th, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Knockout Bracket 5

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group rank 5th, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 5th, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 5th, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 5th, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Knockout Bracket 6

	Semifinals					Finals
	Group rank 6th, 1st blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 6th, 4th blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 6th, 2nd blitz rank mutually
	Group rank 6th, 3rd blitz rank mutually					Third Place

Format

Sources:

Tournament

The event will take place for all the three formats in early to mid-November 2026 and finals shall be played by four highest point scorers. The tournament will take place in two stages: a group stage and a knockout stage.

Time control

Fast Classical

Fast Classical is a new term, first used by Norway Chess to describe the time control of the classical leg of the tour. It is made to increase chess audience as a classical game generally takes multiple hours to finish, reducing interest of audience. In this time control, each player gets 45 minutes of time from their first move and gets an increment of 30 seconds after each move made by the player.

Rapid

In this time control, each player gets 15 minutes of time from their first move and gets an increment of 10 seconds after each move made by the player.

Blitz

In this time control, each player gets 3 minutes of time from their first move and gets an increment of 2 seconds after each move made by the player.

Time for each format

Format	Time at 1st move	Increment each move
(Fast) Classical	45 minutes	30 seconds
Rapid	15 minutes	10 seconds
Blitz	3 minutes	2 seconds

Stages

The pilot event consist of two stages, group stage and knockout stage. A blitz tournament played at opening ceremony. The rankings in these games shall act as tie-breaker in group stage.

Opening ceremony blitz games

The tournament is played in opening ceremony. It consist of 9 rounds in swiss format. Rankings in this ceremony shall act as tie-breaker in group stage.

Group stage

4 groups are made with 6 players each. The 4 highest rated players are placed in 4 different groups and lots are drawn to select other 5 players from the eligible players in each group. Each player should get exactly one group.

Players of the same group compete with each other in double round robin format in fast classical time format. Point system is given in the table below. The players shall be ranked 1 to 6 by the points scored. if two or more players scored equal points, the blitz games played in opening ceremony shall break the tie.

Knockout stage

Players ranked from 1 to 6 in each group shall participate in 6 different knockout brackets. Players ranked 1 in their respective groups participate in Knockout bracket 1, same with 2 to 6.

Semifinal pairings in each Knockout bracket are determined by their pre‑tournament blitz rank among those four, and paired 1–4 and 2–3. Point system is explained in the table below.

Winner of knockout bracket 1 is crowned Combined World Champion.

	Group Stage	Knockout stage
	Fast classical	Fast classical	Rapid	Blitz
Win	3	8	4	1
Draw	1	4	2	0.5
Loss	0	0	0	0

Knockout daily winner structure

In the semi-final, 3rd-place match, and final, the matches will be played over two days, using the “two-day system” described next. Each day includes Fast Classical, Rapid, and Blitz games before a winner is determined. First, four Blitz games will be played, then two Rapid games, and then the Fast Classical game.

The higher-ranked player based on the pre-tournament blitz ranking chooses the color for the first Blitz game on Day 1. Colors for all remaining games on Day 1 and Day 2 then alternate.

Each day produces a day-winner, or a tie occurs.

Scores reset each day, and in case of a tie in one of the days, the other day acts as a tiebreaker. A tie occurs at the end of day 2 if a player wins day 1 and the other player wins day 2, or each day is tied. In this case, an Armageddon game (time format in table below), where Black has the draw odds, is played to determine the winner. The event is always determined on the final day. The player who has the most total points over two days chooses the color. If they have equal points, then an Armageddon bidding takes place.

Time format of Armageddon game

Colour	Time at 1st move	Increment each move (from move 41)
White	10 minutes	1 second
Black	7 minutes

Point distribution

For the Total Chess World Championship tour, the following amount of points are given for the respective rank of a player in his/her respective bracket. The lowest ranked player in each knockout bracket receives the same number of points as the winner of the it's preceding bracket. Additionally, 5 bonus points are given to the winner of the pilot tournament for each subsequent leg he/she wins (if any).

Rank in Bracket	Knockout Bracket
	Knockout 1	Knockout 2	Knockout 3	Knockout 4	Knockout 5	Knockout 6
1st	30	20	16	12	9	6
2nd	24	18	14	11	8	5
3rd	22	17	13	10	7	4
4th	20	16	12	9	6	3

Players

The players qualify for this tournament by holding ex-officio titles, by winning or being ranked in eligible tournaments (as mentioned below), by being on top of classical FIDE rankings or the eligible tournaments in FIDE Circuit. The table below shows seed number accredited to the eligible players. The players who wish not to play or qualify via more than one path leaving another vacant will be replaced via replacement rules as shown below.

Qualified players

The table below lists all the qualified players for the pilot event.

Path/Title	Player		Rating	Rank
			(October 2026)
Reigning World Chess Champion	Gukesh Dommaraju		2710	28
Reigning Women's World Chess Champion	Ju Wenjun		2553	292
Medalists of World Rapid Championship 2025	Gold	Magnus Carlsen	2823	1
	Silver	Vladislav Artemiev	2653	63
	Bronze	Arjun Erigaisi	2746	12
Both finalists of World Blitz Championship 2025	Silver	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2780	5
	Replacement for Carlsen	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2717	23
Top 9 Players in Classical FIDE Rating list (as on January 1, 2026)	#3	Fabiano Caruana	2784	3
	#4	Vincent Keymer	2761	8
	#6	Anish Giri	2752	11
	#7	Alireza Firouzja	2757	10
	#8	R. Praggnanandhaa	2763	7
	Replacement for Carlsen	Wesley So	2770	6
	#14	Richárd Rapport	2711	27
	#19	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2710	29
	#20	Levon Aronian	2725	19
Winner of Candidates Tournament 2026	Javokhir Sindarov		2782	4
Women's Candidates Tournament 2026	Winner	Vaishali Rameshbabu	2452	995
	Runner up (Replacement for Ju Wenjun)	Bibisara Assaubayeva	2532	385
Top 3 Players in Standard FIDE Rating list (as on June 1, 2026)	#12	Hans Niemann	2717	22
	#14	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2741	13
	#18	Lê Quang Liêm	2732	16
FIDE Open Circuit 2026-2027 (as on September 1, 2026) (Open circuit, including only open tournaments)	#1	Haik M. Martirosyan	2661	54
	#2	Andrew Hong	2609	135
	#3	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2719	21
FIDE Circuit 2026-2027 (as on September 1, 2026) (Full circuit, replacement for World Champion and Winner of Candidates)	#13	Jorden van Foreest	2716	24
	#15	Abhimanyu Mishra	2636	85

FIDE Rating Qualification Leaderboard

Top 9 players in the FIDE Standard Rating list as of 1 January 2026 and Top 3 players as of 1 June 2026 not already qualified shall be invited to play the Total Chess World Championship 2026.

•  : Qualifiers – Qualified for Pilot tournament via this path (Next top leaders if any current top players have already qualified through other routes)
•  : Player already qualified for Pilot tournament via another path
•   Player qualified through another path after the path closed
•   Player qualified but not attending

Top 20 Standings of FIDE Standard Rating List as of 1 June 2026

Rank	Player	Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen	2841
2	Fabiano Caruana	2792
3	Hikaru Nakamura	2792
4	Javokhir Sindarov	2777
5	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2777
6	Vincent Keymer	2767
7	Anish Giri	2764
8	Arjun Erigaisi	2761
9	Wesley So	2753
10	Wei Yi	2753
11	Alireza Firouzja	2744
12	Hans Moke Niemann	2742
13	Viswanathan Anand	2739
14	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2739
15	Ding Liren	2738
16	R Praggnanandhaa	2735
17	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2733
18	Leinier Domínguez	2732
19	Gukesh Dommaraju	2732
20	Lê Quang Liêm	2731

FIDE Open Circuit Leaderboard

Top 3 players leading in the FIDE Open Circuit not yet qualified for the championship shall qualify for the Total Chess World Championship 2026. The Open Circuit ranking is a subset of the FIDE Circuit which "include[s] only tournaments with more than 50 participants and is intended to highlight performances in large open events."

•  : Qualifiers – Qualified for Pilot tournament via this path (Next top leaders if any current top players have already qualified through other routes)
•  : Player already qualified for Pilot tournament via another path

Top 5 Standings as of 1 September 2026

No.	Player	Points	Events	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9-12
1	Haik M. Martirosyan	36.73	5	Aeroflot Open 4th – 5.14	Tashkent Open 1st – 8.19	European Individual Championship T 9th-23rd – 0.53	Sardinia 2nd – 10.34	Dole Open 2nd – 12.53	Optional
2	Andrew Hong	30.03	8	St. Louis Masters T 4th-8th – 4.10	Grenke Open 4th – 3.39	Menorca Open 64th – 0.00	Aktobe Open 1st – 12.56	Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid T 3rd-6th – 6.54	Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz T 14th-19th – 0.00	Dole Open T 9th-20th – 0.00	Kanizsa Open 5th – 3.44	Optional
3	Ian Nepomniachtchi	23.22	3	Aeroflot Open 1st – 13.57	Sardinia 3rd – 9.65	Dole Open T 21st-43rd – 0.00	Optional
4	Javokhir Sindarov	20.58	2	Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid 1st – 11.30	Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz 1st – 9.28	Optional
5	Amin Tabatabaei	17.06	2	Reykjavik Open 1st – 10.79	Dole Open 6th – 6.27	Optional

Schedule

Stage	Round	Date	Time (CET)
Opening Ceremony		Tuesday, 10 November	4:00 pm
Press conference			4:30 pm
Blitz Swiss Stage	Round 1		6:00 pm
	Round 2		6:15 pm
	Round 3		6:30 pm
	Round 4		6:45 pm
	Round 5		7:00 pm
	Round 6		7:15 pm
	Round 7		7:30 pm
	Round 8		7:45 pm
	Round 9		8:00 pm
Group Stage (Fast classical)	Round 1	Wednesday, 11 November	3:00 pm
	Round 2		6:30 pm
	Round 3	Thursday, 12 November	3:00 pm
	Round 4		6:30 pm
	Round 5	Friday, 13 November	3:00 pm
	Round 6		6:30 pm
	Round 7	Saturday, 14 November	3:00 pm
	Round 8		6:30 pm
	Round 9	Sunday, 15 November	3:00 pm
	Round 10		6:30 pm
Rest day		Monday, 16 November	-
Knockout Stage (Semifinals)	Blitz 1	Tuesday, 17 November	3:00 pm
	Blitz 2		3:15 pm
	Blitz 3		3:30 pm
	Blitz 4		3:45 pm
	Rapid 1		4:15 pm
	Rapid 2		5:30 pm
	Fast Classical 1		6:45 pm
	Blitz 5	Wednesday, 18 November	3:00 pm
	Blitz 6		3:15 pm
	Blitz 7		3:30 pm
	Blitz 8		3:45 pm
	Rapid 3		4:15 pm
	Rapid 4		5:30 pm
	Fast Classical 2		6:45 pm
Knockout Stage (Finals)	Blitz 1	Thursday, 19 November	3:00 pm
	Blitz 2		3:15 pm
	Blitz 3		3:30 pm
	Blitz 4		3:45 pm
	Rapid 1		4:15 pm
	Rapid 2		5:30 pm
	Fast Classical 1		6:45 pm
	Blitz 5	Friday, 20 November	3:00 pm
	Blitz 6		3:15 pm
	Blitz 7		3:30 pm
	Blitz 8		3:45 pm
	Rapid 3		4:15 pm
	Rapid 4		5:30 pm
	Fast Classical 2		6:45 pm

Prize fund and qualification for winners and top scorers

Apart from the FIDE World Combined Champion title, there are other qualifications and prize money for winners and top scorers as mentioned below.

Qualification for the Candidates Tournament 2028

The two highest ranked players in the tour (which includes the pilot event combining the three time formats and three events in 2027) who have not already qualified for the candidates will qualify to play in the 2028 Candidates Tournament.

Qualification for the Total Chess World Championship 2027

The Combined World Chess Champion shall qualify for the Total Chess World Championship Tour.

Prize money

The following prize money is awarded for the following ranks respectively. Prize money between tied players is divided equally between each player tied.

Rank	Prize (in US$)
1st	80,000
2nd	50,000
3rd	45,000
4th	40,000
5th	38,000
6th	36,000
7th	34,000
8th	32,000
9th	30,000
10th	28,000
11th	26,000
12th	24,000
13th	22,000
14th	20,000
15th	19,000
16th	18,000
17th	17,000
18th	16,000
19th	15,000
20th	14,000
21st	13,000
22nd	12,000
23rd	11,000
24th	10,000

References

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