There is also a Chessbase article from a few days ago that I read last night:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/world-cup ... youngsters
The FIDE Presidential picks (wildcards) are:
Faustino Oro (ARG)
Andy Woodward (USA)
Abhimanyu Mishra (USA)
Volodar Murzin (FID)
Kirill Alekseenko (AUT)
With one more to come.
Oro is one of 26 IMs and 18 more either untitled or with lower titles.
Michael Adams was one of the "80 federation spots selected according to the final standings of the 45th Chess Olympiad". He is in good company there, with those 'FN' qualifiers including Harikrishna, Maghsoodloo, Leko and so on.
Nikita Vitiugov was one of 20 qualifying via "European Championships 2024".
The Women's Chess World Cup 2025 was held earlier this year (women only), but this open event (simply the Chess World Cup 2025) is open to all, with the Women's World Champion replacement being a woman (Divya Deshmukh) who is a grandmaster. At 154 she is the highest ranked woman in the event as far as I can see (from scanning the list upwards). I am unable to confirm the gender of all of the lesser known players lower down the list, but at first glance many appear to be the highest rated players (or "youngest IMs") from their countries (invariably male), so I cannot immediately see any other women. It looks like being 205 men and 1 woman (unless the organisers nominate another woman)? Maybe one of the consequences of having a separate Women's World Cup. More female participation, but in a separate event.
Is it possible that Oro (at 11 years old) is the youngest ever participant in a chess World Cup? He hasn't been trailed as such, but maybe no-one has bothered to check yet. Given the wildcards and organiser nominees and obscure players at the tail end of these competitions, it will take some careful research to establish an age profile for all World Cup contestants ever (there are 10 previous editions to check, plus three Women's World Cups as well).
The Chessbase article does report:
There is one more invitation place to be decided before the World Cup starts in November.
I think, although not explicitly stated, this must refer to the "Maurizzi/Grebnev match winner" (currently listed at 204 in the FIDE list, but will slot in higher up when decided). I wonder if the (Indian) organisers will pick a high-rated GM who missed out but might want to play or if they will go for another couple of Indian rising superstars? The current world top three (Carlsen, Caruana, Nakamura) all declined their spots. Am slightly puzzled as to why Firouzja declined his spot (this would have been his last chance to qualify for the Candidates, but maybe he felt he did not need it, which might explain his rapid exit from the Grand Swiss after his near-miss there). Anand also declined his spot. As did Domínguez.
So the highest-rated players from the current live 2700 list (the world top 32) that are not qualified for the World Cup 2025 are:
Ding Liren (2734)
Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2729)
Veselin Topalov (2717)
Dmitry Andreikin (2710)
I am not going to go down the full current top 100 list, but you get players like Wang Hao and David Howell who are not qualified for this. Other non-qualifiers include Radjabov and Svidler. Oh how times change. (Some may be commentators, of course, but appear simply to not have had good enough results to qualify.)
Fun fact (from 10 years ago): Veselin Topalov only ever played in one World Cup, the 2015 edition (in other editions, he either was already qualified for the Candidates or declined to play for other reasons). He was the top seed in 2015, but was knocked out in the fourth round by Peter Svidler.