FIDE Circuit 2024

[Mick Norris]

website

FIDE Circuit 2024 is one of the paths to qualify for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026. One player who would achieve the highest results during 2024 in eligible tournaments gets the spot in the FIDE Candidates.

Each player has to play in a minimum of five eligible tournaments, including at least four with a standard time control.

The final score is calculated as the sum of the player’s up to seven highest scores.

Caruana currently has 130.42 points, just ahead of Erigaisi on 124.40

If wiki is to be believed they have both met the qualifying criteria

I reckon that winning the World Rapid outright would give 25.49 points and the World Blitz 19.12 points (might be wrong, this may change e.g. if Gukesh doesn't play the points available may drop slightly)

Erigaisi's 2 lowest counting scores are 14.00 and 15.81, so he has scope to increase his score a bit, but would need the Rapid (not sure if joint first and a win on tiebreak would be enough) to overtake Caruana (whose lowest scores are 13.92 and 15.92)

[Paul Cooksey]

If I understand the rules here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Che ... nship_2026 if not claimed the rating slot goes to the second place in the 2024 circuit. So second might well be important too.

[Mick Norris]

It appears the 2025 FIDE Circuit is more important as far as the rating spot is concerned

Provided the player has played at least 40 games rated for the February 2025 through January 2026 standard rating lists, including at least 15 in any of the six consecutive lists from August 2025 to January 2026. If two players have the same average rating, the one with the higher performance rating over the rated games qualifies. If the player with the highest average rating over this period is already World Champion in January 2025 or has already qualified by an above path, the replacement will be selected in order of priority as: the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 rating lists

However, if 1 of the top 3 at the World Cup has already qualified, it might matter

If any of these players is already World Champion in January 2025, has already qualified when the 2025 World Cup begins, or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 4th place in the 2025 World Cup; the 2nd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists

Similarly, if 1 of the top 2 in the Grand Swiss, we have

If any of these players is already World Champion in January 2025, has already qualified by an above path when the 2025 Grand Swiss begins, or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 3rd place in the 2025 Grand Swiss; the 2nd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists

Caruana appears to be making a big effort to qualify early

[Mick Norris]

Changes proposed to the FIDE Circuit 2025

[Mick Norris]

Caruana wins to qualify for the 2026 Candidates

[Paul Cooksey]

He deserves a FIDE award for making a slightly ropey system look good because it had a worthy winner. Perhaps it should be named after Topalov.