Total Chess announced 18 of the 24 participants for the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot. The tournament will take place from November 10 to 21 at the Anantara New York Palace Hotel in Budapest, Hungary.

Participants:

  • 🇳🇴 Magnus Carlsen
  • 🇺🇸 Fabiano Caruana
  • 🇩🇪 Vincent Keymer
  • 🇺🇸 Wesley So
  • 🇳🇱 Anish Giri
  • 🇺🇿 Nodirbek Abdusattorov
  • 🇮🇳 Arjun Erigaisi
  • 🇫🇷 Alireza Firouzja
  • 🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R
  • 🇵🇱 Jan-Krzysztof Duda
  • 🇭🇺 Richard Rapport
  • 🇺🇸 Hans Moke Niemann
  • 🇷🇺 Ian Nepomniachtchi
  • 🇫🇷 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
  • 🇦🇲 Haik M. Martirosyan
  • 🇷🇺 Vladislav Artemiev
  • 🇰🇿 Bibisara Assaubayeva
  • 🇮🇳 Vaishali Rameshbabu

The tournament will feature 3 stages in the Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz time controls. The winner will be determined by the combined results from all three stages.

The event in Budapest will serve as the pilot event for the new Total Chess World Championship Tour. Results from the pilot tournament will count toward the overall standings of the 2026-2027 tour. The top 2 players from the overall tour standings will qualify for the 2028 Candidates Tournament.

The Total Chess World Championship Tour is a new series created by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE combining Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz disciplines. The Tour aims to crown a unified World Combined Champion across all time controls. The main events of the first edition of the tour will begin in March 2027.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE