Total Chess World Championship Tour
The Total Chess World Championship Tour, organized by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE, is an annual series of chess tournaments among top players combining the most popular time controls – fast classical, rapid, and blitz. It is foreseen that each year three tournaments will be played and the players with the best combined score will qualify for the Grand Final to determine the FIDE World Combined Champion.
The first event, the Total Chess World Championship 2026, will be a pilot event played in a single leg while the tour, in true sense, will start from 2027.[1]
Qualified players
[edit]The following players, qualified from the path mentioned against them, are qualified (or will qualify) for the pilot event.
| Seed | Path/Title | Player | Rating | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (June 2026) | |||||
| 1 | Reigning World Chess Champion |  Gukesh Dommaraju[3] |
2732 | 19 | |
| 2 | Reigning Women's World Chess Champion |  Ju Wenjun[4] |
2559 | 269 | |
| 3 | All the 3 medalists of World Rapid Championship 2025 | Gold |  Magnus Carlsen[5] |
2841 | 1 |
| 4 | Silver |  Vladislav Artemiev[6] |
2641 | 77 | |
| 5 | Bronze | Arjun Erigaisi[7] |
2761 | 8 | |
| 6 | Both finalists of World Blitz Championship 2025 | Silver |  Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
2777 | 5 |
| 7 | Replacement for Magnus Carlsen |  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
2721 | 25 | |
| 8 | Top 9 Players in Classical FIDE Rating list
(as on January 1, 2026) |
#2 |  |
2792 | 3 |
| 9 | #3 | |
2792 | 2 | |
| 10 | #4 |  |
2767 | 6 | |
| 11 | #6 |  |
2764 | 7 | |
| 12 | #7 | Alireza Firouzja |
2744 | 11 | |
| 13 | #8 | R. Praggnanandhaa |
2735 | 16 | |
| 14 | #9 | |
2753 | 10 | |
| 15 | Replacement for Magnus Carlsen | |
2753 | 9 | |
| 16 | Replacement #13 | Viswanathan Anand |
2739 | 13 | |
| 17 | Winner of Candidates Tournament 2026
(or World Champion Challenger) |
Javokhir Sindarov |
2777 | 4 | |
| 18 | Winner of Women's Candidates Tournament 2026
(or Women's World Champion Challenger) |
Vaishali Rameshbabu |
2496 | 615 | |
| 19 | Top 3 Players in Standard FIDE Rating list
(as on June 1, 2026) |
#12 | |
2742 | 12 |
| 20 | #14 |  |
2739 | 14 | |
| 21 | #15 | |
2738 | 15 | |
| 22 | FIDE Circuit 2026-2027
(Open circuit, including only open tournaments) |
To be declared on 1 September 2026 | |||
| 23 | |||||
| 24 | |||||
References
[edit]- ↑ "Norway Chess - Regulations". norwaychess.no. Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ↑ "World Rapid and Blitz Champions to Qualify for Total Chess World Championship Tour – International Chess Federation". Retrieved 2025-12-31.
- ↑ McGourty (Colin_McGourty), Colin (2024-12-12). "18-Year-Old Gukesh Becomes Youngest-Ever Undisputed Chess World Champion". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
- ↑ McGourty (Colin_McGourty), Colin (2025-04-16). "Ju Wenjun Wins 5th Women's World Chess Championship". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
- ↑ Levin (AnthonyLevin), Anthony (2025-12-28). "Carlsen, Goryachkina Win 2025 World Rapid Championships". Chess.com. Retrieved 2025-12-29.
- ↑ "Artemyev became the silver medalist of the World Rapid Chess Championship". Izvestia.
- ↑ "Arjun Erigaisi snatches historic bronze at World Rapid Championship, Magnus Carlsen takes home gold". The Indian Express. 2025-12-29. Retrieved 2025-12-29.