Chess World Cup 2027

The Chess World Cup 2027, officially the FIDE World Cup 2027, will be a 224-player multi-stage chess tournament organised by the International Chess Federation that is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of 2027. It will be the 12th edition of the Chess World Cup. Javokhir Sindarov, the winner of the Chess World Cup 2025 will defend his title against the top players across the globe. The winner and runner-up of the Chess World Cup 2027 will earn the right to play in the Candidates Tournament 2028.

Format

Contrary to the each of the previous 11 World Cups organised by FIDE that took place in a fully knockout format, the 12th Chess World Cup will be a multi-stage event in which the first stage will be a group event based on swiss format, whereas the second stage will be based on knockout format. The changes in format were made on the recommendations of the FIDE Global Strategy Commission and was announced by FIDE via a press release on July 13, 2026.

Qualification

The following players qualify for the Chess World Cup via the spots mentioned next to their names.

1. Semifinalists of the 2025 Chess World Cup: Javokhir Sindarov (winner), Wei Yi (runner-up), Andrey Esipenko (third place) and Nodirbek Yakubboev (fourth place)
2. World Chess Champion: To be decided
3. World Junior (U20) Chess Champion: To be decided
4. World Senior (O50) Chess Champion: To be decided
5. Winner of Total Chess World Championship 2026: To be decided
6. Women's World Chess Champion: To be decided
7. FIDE Grand Swiss 2027: Top 4 finishers; To be decided
8. Continental Events: To be decided by the continent's chess federation (Distribution of qualification spots - 7 to Africa, 14 to Americas, 31 to Europe and 39 to Asia)
9. FIDE Circuit 2026-2027: Top 6 unqualified players as on 1 June 2027; To be decided
10. July 2027 FIDE Rating List: Top 8 unqualified players who have been active in the last 7 rating lists (ties broken by total number of rated games in last 7 rating lists, if tie persists, then drawing of lots take place); To be decided
11. 46th Chess Olympiad: Top 100 federations (no more than 1 team per federation, no more than 40 federations per continent); Continental federations were allowed to transfer upto 50% spots into continental championships, where Africa, Americas and Europe transferred 3, 4 and 10 spots respectively. The federation is allowed to nominate any player from its Olympiad team or any other player representing the federation only if all members of its Olympiad team are already qualified. This FIDE press release lists all qualifying federations.
12. Nomination by FIDE President: Timur Turlov, the incumbent FIDE President will nominate 4 players for the World Cup.
13. Nomination by organiser: The organiser nominates 2 players for the World Cup.

FIDE Circuit Leaderboard

 : Current leaders – set to qualify for 2027 World Cup (Next top leader if the current top player has already qualified through another route)

 : Player qualified for 2027 World Cup via another path

Top 10 Standings as of 22 October 2026

No.	Player	Points	Events	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1	Javokhir Sindarov	93.89	8	Tata Steel (M) 2nd – 18.75	Candidates 1st – 27.42	GCT Poland T 7th-9th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 3rd-4th – 8.53	Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid 1st – 11.30	Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz 1st – 9.28	GCT St. Louis 2nd – 9.94	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 8.67	Optional
2	Wesley So	93.11	8	GCT Poland 3rd – 8.25	GCT Romania T 3rd-4th – 8.53	Norway Chess 2nd – 18.92	Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid T 7th-15th – 0.66	Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz 2nd – 6.75	GCT St. Louis 3rd – 8.70	Sinquefield Cup 1st – 23.54	U.S. Championship 1st – 17.76	Optional
3	Fabiano Caruana	70.47	9	St. Louis Masters 2nd – 8.20	Candidates 3rd – 17.45	GCT Poland 2nd – 9.43	GCT Romania 2nd – 19.50	Naroditsky Memorial – Rapid T 17th-26th – 0.00	Naroditsky Memorial – Blitz T 20th-30th – 0.00	GCT St. Louis T 5th-7th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 5th-8th – 0.00	U.S. Championship 2nd – 15.89	Optional
4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	65.64	6	Tata Steel (M) 1st – 25.78	Prague (M) 1st – 23.14	TePe Sigeman T 3rd-4th – 7.25	UzChess Cup (M) 6th – 0.00	GCT Croatia 2nd – 9.47	Chennai Grand Masters T 4th-6th – 0.00	Optional
5	R Praggnanandhaa	64.65	7	Tata Steel (M) T 12th-13th – 0.00	Candidates 7th – 0.00	GCT Romania T 5th-9th – 0.00	Norway Chess 1st – 26.02	GCT Croatia T 3rd-4th – 3.90	GCT St. Louis 1st - 13.67	Sinquefield Cup 2nd – 21.06	Optional
6	Vincent Keymer	49.55	7	Tata Steel (M) T 3rd-5th – 14.06	Prague (M) T 7th-8th – 0.00	GCT Romania 1st – 26.82	Norway Chess 5th – 0.00	GCT Croatia 5th – 0.00	GCT St. Louis 9th – 0.00	Sinquefield Cup T 3rd-4th – 8.67	Optional
7	Haik M. Martirosyan	39.39	6	Aeroflot Open 4th – 5.14	Tashkent Open 1st – 8.19	European Individual Championship T 9th-23rd – 0.53	Sardinia 2nd – 10.34	Dole Open 2nd – 12.53	Rubinstein Memorial T 3rd-4th – 2.66	Optional
8	Arjun Erigaisi	36.34	4	Tata Steel (M) T 12th-13th – 0.00	TePe Sigeman 2nd – 17.61	UzChess Cup (M) T 4th-5th – 2.31	Chennai Grand Masters 3rd – 16.42	Optional
9	Alireza Firouzja	35.50	4	GCT Poland 5th – 0.00	Norway Chess 3rd – 0.00	GCT Croatia 1st – 10.58	Chennai Grand Masters 1st – 24.92	Optional
10	Ian Nepomniachtchi	32.48	4	Aeroflot Open 1st – 13.57	Sardinia 3rd – 9.65	UzChess Cup (M) 3rd – 9.26	Dole Open T 21st-43rd – 0.00	Optional

46th Chess Olympiad spots

Spots reserved for continental events

Continent	Continental Chess Federation	Number of spots reserved
Europe	European Chess Union	10
Americas	Confederation of Chess for the Americas	4
Africa	African Chess Confederation	3

Spots by Chess Federation

Rank	Federation	Note
1	Uzbekistan	2 players from the main team (Board 2: Javokhir Sindarov and Board 3: Nodirbek Yakubboev) have already qualified. The team must pick one of the remaining players (Board 1: Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Board 4: Shamsiddin Vokhidov or Reserve: Mukhiddin Madaminov, as of now) unless all of them qualify via other paths.
2	India
3	Germany
4	United States
5	Azerbaijan
6	Armenia
7	Hungary
8	China	1 team member from the team (Board 2: Wei Yi) has already qualified. The team must pick one of the remaining players (Board 1: Ding Liren, Board 3: Yu Yangyi, Board 4: Xu Xiangyu or Reserve: Kong Xiangrui, as of now) unless all of them qualify via other paths.
9	France
10	Spain
11	Ukraine
12	England
13	Turkey
14	Poland
15	Iran
16	Netherlands
17	Romania
19	Vietnam
20	Croatia
21	Czech Republic
22	Serbia
23	Argentina
24	Israel
25	Kazakhstan
26	Mongolia
27	Belarus
28	Georgia
29	Italy
30	Greece
31	Slovenia
32	Philippines
33	Peru
34	Bulgaria
35	Indonesia
36	North Macedonia
37	Singapore
38	Moldova
39	Denmark
40	Belgium
41	Chile
42	Canada
43	Portugal
44	Brazil
45	Montenegro
46	Switzerland
47	Latvia
52	Colombia
53	Cuba
55	Tajikistan
56	Australia
59	New Zealand
62	Kyrgyzstan
63	Ecuador
64	Turkmenistan
67	Bangladesh
68	Uruguay
69	Lebanon
70	South Korea
71	Chinese Taipei
72	Costa Rica
75	Bolivia
76	Mexico
77	Paraguay
78	Malaysia
79	Hong Kong
80	Algeria
81	Angola
82	South Africa
83	Jordan
84	Sri Lanka
85	United Arab Emirates
87	Madagascar
89	Syria
90	Libya
91	Uganda
92	Japan
93	Mozambique
94	Tunisia
95	Pakistan
98	Thailand
101	Myanmar
107	Nepal
108	Oman

Participants

The following players qualified are mentioned in order of their most recent FIDE Ratings.

Current rank	Player	Federation	Qualification path	(October 2026)
				FIDE Rating	World Rank
1	GM Javokhir Sindarov	Uzbekistan	1	2782	4
2	GM Wei Yi	China	1	2758	9
3	GM Nodirbek Yakubboev	Uzbekistan	1	2712	26
4	GM Andrey Esipenko	FIDE	1	2680	40

Prize fund

The tournament has a total prize fund of US$2,300,000, out of which a total of US$160,000 is awarded to those 208 who only participated in pool stage (US$40,000 each pool) and a total of US$70,000 is awarded to those 16 players who advanced to the second stage. The prize distribution for each stage is given below.

Schedule

Though the schedule of the event has not been declared yet, the following events will take place on the following days considering the day of arrivals the first day.

(TB refers to Tie-Breakers)

References