This year, India will host the FIDE World Cup. The top players in the world will compete for the coveted title and slots in the 2026 FIDE Candidates competition during the competition, which is set for October 30 to November 27, 2025.

As stated in the release, the event’s host city will be announced soon. Up to 206 athletes will compete in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament for the coveted championship and qualifying berths. The participants will fight in a knockout system, meaning that the winner of each round will be eliminated.

Format of the Championship

The FIDE website states that 206 players will compete in the 2025 World Cup using a knockout format, which is a dynamic and unpredictable system in which the loser of each round is eliminated. Since 2021, the event has had a single-elimination structure, although it has utilised a variety of formats over the years. Each round lasts three days, with two traditional games on the first two days and, if needed, tie-breaks on the third. Players seeded 51–206 compete in the first round, with the top half vs the inverted bottom half serving as the basis for pairings. The top 50 players are given byes.

Qualification rules

There are several ways for players to get into the 2025 World Cup.  These include automatic berths for the top four finishers from the 2023 FIDE World Cup, the 2024 World Junior U-20 Champion, and the current World Champion and Women’s World Champion as of June 1, 2025.

A sizable portion of spots 80 total are awarded through continental competitions. Africa is allotted three seats, followed by the Americas (12), Asia (35), and Europe (30). General qualifiers, elite junior players, and players ranked in the top 60 on their continent are all included in these totals.

A significant step for India

In the past, India has played home to important events including as the FIDE World Junior U20 Championships 2024, the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2025 fifth leg, the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2022, and Tata Steel Chess India. India’s hosting of the 2025 FIDE World Cup represents yet another significant achievement.  The CEO of FIDE, Emil Sutovsky, has also expressed his enthusiasm over the news.

“We are overjoyed to be hosting the FIDE World Cup 2025 in India, a nation that has a strong chess culture and support.  Indian chess fans have always been incredibly enthusiastic, and we expect local chess enthusiasts to be very interested in the tournament, both in person and virtually. FIDE is dedicated to hosting a number of side events, including tournament players and chess greats, to improve the experience,” he said.

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