FIDE World Cup

Next Chess World Cup: 2027

Next edition

Fourth quarter of 2027, dates and host not announced

Players

224 in the Open, 128 in the Women's World Cup

Format

9-round Swiss in pools, then a 16-player knockout

Length

19 days

Prize funds

2.3 million US dollars Open, 1 million Women's

Candidates places

2 finalists from each event

2025 winners

Javokhir Sindarov, Divya Deshmukh

FIDE announced the new format on 13 July 2026, and the FIDE Council approved the regulations for both events at its meeting on 23 August 2026. The Open regulations and the Women's regulations place each event in the fourth quarter of 2027 but name no dates, country or city, and FIDE had not announced a host by 24 September 2026.

In recent cycles the host was named from a few months to almost a year ahead. FIDE named Russia for 2021 on 28 December 2020, and play began on 12 July 2021. The contract with Baku for 2023 was signed on 5 May 2023, less than 3 months before play began on 30 July. For 2025, FIDE named Batumi for the Women's World Cup on 23 August 2024, more than 10 months ahead, and India for the Open on 21 July 2025. It named Goa and the dates on 26 August, and round 1 began on 1 November.

The field is already filling. The 8 semifinalists of the 2025 events have places, and continental championships in 2026 have added more. The winners of the World Championship match in Geneva, the World Junior Championship in Caracas and the Total Chess pilot in Budapest each earn an Open place in November and December 2026.

How the FIDE World Cup works

The World Cup is part of the FIDE World Championship cycle. The world champion defends the title in a match against a challenger, the challenger comes from the Candidates Tournament, and the World Cup is one of the events that fill the Candidates. The Women's World Cup does the same job for the Women's Candidates.

In 2025, the World Cup was a straight knockout. In Goa, 206 players played 8 rounds of 2-game matches: 156 players started in round 1, and the top 50 seeds joined in round 2. A tied match went to faster tiebreak games, and the loser of each match went home. The Women's World Cup ran the same way in Batumi, with 107 players over 7 rounds.

From 2027, both events start with a Swiss stage, where nobody is knocked out. In a Swiss, each player meets opponents on similar scores, and the 9 rounds decide a ranking. Only the top 16 players of each event go on to the knockout, which keeps the classical 2-game matches.

The name Chess World Cup is also used for a different event: the chess tournament of the Esports World Cup. The Esports World Cup Foundation and Chess.com first staged it in Riyadh in 2025, with 10-minute games and a prize fund of 1.5 million US dollars. Magnus Carlsen won that edition, and he won again at Paris Expo in August 2026, beating Denis Lazavik in the final. The 2027 FIDE World Cup regulations do not list it among their qualification paths.

FIDE World Cup 2027 format

Stage 1 splits each field into pools of about equal strength. On the opening day, the players are ranked by rating and dealt into the pools in a snake order, so the top 4 seeds of the Open go to pools 1 to 4 and the next 4 go to pools 4 to 1. Each pool plays a 9-round Swiss over 5 days at 45 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.

Equal scores in a pool are split by Buchholz Cut 1, which adds up the scores of a player's opponents without the lowest one. Next come the full Buchholz, the average rating of the opponents without the lowest, the game between the tied players and a drawing of lots. The top 4 of each Open pool and the top 8 of each women's pool go through.

Stage 2 is a knockout for the last 16: 4 rounds of 2-game matches at 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, with 30 seconds added from move 1. A tied match goes to 2 games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds, then 2 at 5 minutes plus 3 seconds, then 2 at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds. If it is still level, one sudden-death game decides: the players bid clock time for the Black pieces, and a draw counts as a win for Black. Both events end with the final and a 2-game match for third place.

Players cannot agree a draw before Black's 30th move; an earlier draw needs a claim through the arbiter or a stalemate. A player who reaches the board more than 15 minutes after the start loses the game, and a shorter delay costs 500 US dollars in the Open and 300 US dollars in the Women's World Cup.

FIDE describes each event as 19 days long. In the approved schedule, players arrive on day 1, the games run from day 3 to day 21 and players leave on day 22, with a free day between the stages and another before the semifinals. The FIDE news of 13 July 2026 also mentioned 2 more rest days in the knockout, which the approved schedule does not show.

The prize funds are 2.3 million US dollars for the Open and 1 million for the Women's World Cup. FIDE says the combined total rises from 2.67 million US dollars in 2025 to 3.3 million. The Open winner gets 120,000 US dollars and the Women's winner 70,000. The smallest prize, 4,000 US dollars, goes to places 41 to 56 in each Open pool and 51 to 64 in each women's pool, so every player earns money.

Titles come with results too. Under the FIDE title rules for 2026, reaching the last 16 of the Open World Cup earns the grandmaster (GM) title, and qualifying for it through play earns the international master (IM) title. In the Women's World Cup, the winner earns the GM title, the other finalist the IM title, the last 8 the woman grandmaster (WGM) title, and qualifying through play the woman international master (WIM) title.

How players qualify for the World Cup 2027

The largest path runs through national federations. The top 100 federations in the final ranking of the Open section of the 2026 Chess Olympiad get 1 Open place each, with no more than 40 from one continent, and the top 50 in the women's section get 1 Women's place each. Each federation picks its player, normally from its Olympiad team, and announces the name between 1 and 15 July 2027.

The 91 continental places in the Open are split Africa 7, Americas 14, Asia 39 and Europe 31. Each continent gets 7, plus 1 for each of its players in the world top 8 juniors and in the top 55 of the January 2026 rating list. The 56 women's continental places are split Africa 6, Americas 8, Asia 25 and Europe 17. All continental championships and zonals, in 2026 or 2027, must finish by 1 June 2027.

As of 24 September 2026, the 4 Open semifinalists of 2025, Sindarov, Wei Yi, Andrey Esipenko and Nodirbek Yakubboev, have places, and so do the 4 women's semifinalists, Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy, Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi. The American Continental Championship in Oaxtepec, Mexico, from 1 to 11 June 2026, qualified Sam Shankland, Juan Carlos Obregón Rivero, Sandro Mareco and Alexandr Fier. The Asian Championship in Ulaanbaatar, from 28 May to 6 June 2026, qualified Kong Xiangrui, Xiao Tong, Zhamsaran Tsydypov and Savva Vetokhin, and India's Savitha Shri B won the women's section and a Women's World Cup place.

More places are settled before the end of 2026. The Olympiad in Samarkand ends on 27 September, and the US Chess Championship, which is the USA zonal this year, runs in Saint Louis from 9 to 21 October. The Total Chess pilot runs in Budapest in November, the World Junior Championship runs in Caracas from 17 to 28 November, and the Geneva match ends in December. In 2027, the Grand Swiss and the Women's Grand Swiss add 4 players each, and the FIDE Circuit leaders on 1 June 2027 take 6 Open and 4 Women's places. The July 2027 rating list then gives 8 Open and 5 Women's places to the highest-rated players who have not qualified.

World Cup places in the 2028 Candidates

The 2 finalists of the 2027 World Cup qualify for the 2028 Candidates Tournament, and the 2 finalists of the Women's World Cup for the 2028 Women's Candidates. In the 2025 cycle, the top 3 of each event qualified. FIDE published the 2028 paths on 14 July 2026, and the World Cup is one of 4 Open paths with 2 places each, next to the Grand Swiss, the Total Chess World Championship Tour and the FIDE Circuit.

The 2028 qualification rules cover finalists who cannot take the place. If one Open finalist is the world champion on 1 May 2027, or has already qualified when the World Cup starts, the place goes to the third-placed player, and after that to the best unqualified player on the FIDE Circuit. If both finalists are out, one place goes to the best unqualified World Cup finisher and one to the Circuit. If all 4 semifinalists have already qualified, the highest-rated quarterfinalist who has not qualified takes the World Cup place.

The World Cup has been a strong route in this cycle. Sindarov qualified for the 2026 Candidates by winning the 2025 World Cup, then won the Candidates, and he plays D Gukesh for the world title in Geneva.

FIDE World Cup 2025 results

The 2025 World Cup ran in Goa, India, from 1 to 26 November 2025, at the Resort Rio convention centre near Baga Beach in North Goa, with 206 players. Under the 2025 regulations, every match had 2 classical games at 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes, with 30 seconds added from move 1. Tied matches went to pairs of games at 15 plus 10, 10 plus 10, 5 plus 3 and 3 plus 2, then one sudden-death game.

Javokhir Sindarov beat Wei Yi in the final. Both classical games were drawn, and Sindarov won the rapid tiebreak 1.5-0.5 to become the youngest World Cup champion. He received 120,000 US dollars and the new Viswanathan Anand Trophy. Andrey Esipenko beat Nodirbek Yakubboev 2-0 in the classical match for third place, and Sindarov, Wei Yi and Esipenko took the 3 World Cup places in the 2026 Candidates.

The prize fund was 2 million US dollars. Players knocked out in rounds 1 to 6 received 3,500, 7,000, 11,000, 17,000, 25,000 and 35,000 US dollars, fourth place 50,000, third 60,000 and second 85,000.

Indian players at the Chess World Cup

India hosted the 2025 World Cup, and ESPN counted a record 24 Indian players, among them the top 3 seeds: D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa. World champion Gukesh lost to Frederik Svane in round 3, and Vidit Gujrathi lost to Sam Shankland in the round 3 tiebreaks. In round 4, Praggnanandhaa lost to Daniil Dubov, Karthik Venkataraman to Lê Quang Liêm and Pranav V to Nodirbek Yakubboev.

Earlier, in round 2, Diptayan Ghosh of Kolkata knocked out Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2573 against 2732 on rating, with a win as Black, and Pentala Harikrishna beat Arseniy Nesterov with a queen sacrifice straight from the opening. Harikrishna went on to the last 16, where José Martínez beat him. Arjun went furthest: he reached the quarterfinals and lost to Wei Yi.

India's best Open results are Viswanathan Anand's 2 titles, in Shenyang in 2000 and in Hyderabad in 2002, and R Praggnanandhaa's final in Baku in 2023, which he lost to Magnus Carlsen in the tiebreaks. In the Women's World Cup, Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy made 2025 an all-Indian final.

For 2027, Gukesh qualifies if he keeps his title in Geneva, because the winner of the 2026 World Championship match has a place. Divya, Humpy and Savitha Shri B are already in the Women's World Cup. Other Indian players can qualify through the Asian continental events, the FIDE Circuit, the rating list or India's Olympiad place.

FIDE Women's World Cup

The Women's World Cup began in 2021, when Alexandra Kosteniuk won in Sochi. It sends players to the Women's Candidates, whose winner plays the women's world champion; Vaishali Rameshbabu won the 2026 Women's Candidates and plays Ju Wenjun for the women's title.

The 2027 edition grows to 128 players, from 107 in 2025. The Swiss stage has 2 pools of 64, and the top 8 of each pool go through to the 16-player knockout. The prize fund rises to 1 million US dollars, with 70,000 for the winner, from 691,250 US dollars and a first prize of 50,000 in 2025.

The 2025 Women's World Cup ran in Batumi, Georgia, from 5 to 29 July 2025, at the Grand Bellagio Convention and Casino Hotel. In May 2025, FIDE raised the field from 103 to 107 players and the prize fund to 691,250 US dollars. The 2023 edition ran together with the Open World Cup in Baku.

FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 results

Divya Deshmukh beat Koneru Humpy in the first Women's World Cup final between 2 Indian players. Both classical games were drawn, and Divya won the 15 plus 10 tiebreak 1.5-0.5. She took 50,000 US dollars, a place in the 2026 Women's Candidates and, under FIDE rules, the grandmaster title.

In the semifinals, Divya beat former women's world champion Tan Zhongyi 1.5-0.5 in the classical games, and Humpy beat Lei Tingjie after a 6-game tiebreak. Tan then beat Lei 1.5-0.5 for third place, and Divya, Humpy and Tan qualified for the 2026 Women's Candidates.

India had 9 players in Batumi, according to ChessBase India, and its 4 seeds, Divya, Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali Rameshbabu, all reached the quarterfinals. Divya beat Harika there, and Tan beat Vaishali.

Chess World Cup winners since 2000

Viswanathan Anand won the World Cup in Shenyang, China, in 2000 and again in Hyderabad in 2002. Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia hosted 5 editions, and Anand and Levon Aronian are the only players with 2 titles.

Ding Liren lost the final twice, in 2017 and 2019, and Sergey Karjakin won in 2015 and lost the 2021 final to Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Magnus Carlsen won his first World Cup in Baku in 2023, beating Praggnanandhaa in the tiebreaks, and ESPN reported that he skipped the 2025 event. The 2023 Open and Women's events ran together in Baku from 29 July to 25 August 2023, and the top 3 of each event qualified for the 2024 Candidates tournaments, with Fabiano Caruana and Anna Muzychuk in third place.

Aleksandra Goryachkina lost the first Women's World Cup final to Kosteniuk in 2021 and won the 2023 edition, beating Nurgyul Salimova. Divya became the third champion in 2025.

Chess World Cup FAQ

Facts on this page were checked on 24 September 2026 against the FIDE regulations for the 2027 World Cup, the 2027 Women's World Cup and the 2025 World Cup, the FIDE 2028 qualification paths, FIDE reports, ESPN, ChessBase India, the Liquipedia World Cup pages and OlimpBase.