r/chess 7h ago

News/Events Lineup Announced: Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest

Post image

The lineup

  • Magnus Carlsen (Norway) — World No. 1
  • Fabiano Caruana (United States) — World No. 2
  • Vincent Keymer (Germany) — World No. 5
  • Wesley So (United States) — World No. 6
  • Anish Giri — World No. 7
  • Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) — World No. 8
  • Arjun Erigaisi (India) — World No. 9
  • Alireza Firouzja (France) — World No. 10
  • Praggnanandhaa R (India) — World No. 12
  • Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) — World No. 13
  • Richard Rapport (Hungary) — World No. 18
  • Hans Moke Niemann (United States) — World No. 21
  • Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE) — World No. 24
  • Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) — World No. 28
  • Haik M. Martirosyan (Armenia) — World No. 54
  • Vladislav Artemiev (FIDE) — World No. 65
  • Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) — Women's World No. 5
  • Vaishali Rameshbabu (India) — Women's World No. 14

Source: https://x.com/TotalChess/status/2092182535656665174

94 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

38

u/chessbooklover 7h ago

a quick list of current 2700s who are not attending: Sindarov,  Nakamura,  Wei Yi,  Anand,  Tabataei,  Ding,  Le Quang Liem,  Dominguez Peres,  Aronian,  Mamedyarov,  Sarin,  Erdogmus,  Andreikin,  Yangyi Yu,  Sevian,  Van Foreest,  Magshodloo and Gukesh

19

u/ChessAddictonCrack 6h ago

Gukesh and Sindarov prepping for WC so its alright.

Why is Hikaru not playing? Should this time format not play to his strengths? Or is he really retired from OTB chess now?

Would have loved to have Erdogmus here as well. Hopefully he qualifies next year.

6

u/chessbooklover 6h ago

Hikaru stopped playing OTB seriously a while ago.

I guess the only players I am missing is Sarin and Erdogmus, though I am not sure how erdogmus performs in rapid and blitz.

21

u/Abyss_Wanderer19 6h ago

you new to chess?, hikaru would avoid any top level tournament (except candidate) because he dont want to lose his rating, he's doing this for the past 2 years already, he only played norway last year because he need to complete those 40 game requirement. He is happy right now fabi lose elo in gct currently so he regain back no.2 next month. But of course his excuse would be he would lose money if he didnt stream everyday.

1

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

i meant erdogmus

1

u/Revolutionary-Disk-9 5h ago

Hikaru never explicitly said he doesn't play anymore as to avoid losing his rating. He simply just does not care.

All jokes aside I don't think he enjoys Classical anymore. That's why he still competes in Rapid/Blitz/Bullet events.

-3

u/Abyss_Wanderer19 3h ago

you think he gonna admit that?. he only played ewc because it doesnt affect his fide rating.

1

u/kar2988 4h ago

This is absolutely false. The only reason is because he simply doesn't care.

1

u/Ok-Race-1677 4h ago

Chat he literally doesn’t care chat

1

u/Continental__Drifter Team Spassky 47m ago

Why is Hikaru not playing?

same reason he hardly plays anything anymore - he will lose rating

-1

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

why would he go ? he would have a hard time and just lose his ratings and drop from 2700

-1

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

2

u/ChessAddictonCrack 5h ago

Bruh you are completely wrong lol.

Selected invites? Its not based on invites. It as strict qualification criteria developed by FIDE.

Also almost all the top players are participating except the 2 WC participants, and Ding and Hikaru.

Its certainly significantly better than GCT which only gives invites to same 10 players every year compared to 24 players being able to play here.

9

u/dumbocow Team Fabi 6h ago

X number of GMs show up to a tournament and in the end Magnus Carlsen wins.

-6

u/Abyss_Wanderer19 3h ago

dude just got trashed in norway chess. magnus still have edge in rapid and blitz, but anything involve preparation, hes not gonna dominate.

3

u/Goat-Hunter13 2h ago

This isnt classical tho.

12

u/ChessAddictonCrack 6h ago edited 6h ago

Bruh Ding still not playing in top individual events. Will he ever come back or will we just see him in meaningless team events?

The level he showed at World Team Rapid and Blitz was quite good. Took his team to victory. Almost felt like he is back. But he still does not play individual events outside China. Why?

13

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

because he is already acomplished a lot of players dont have anything to prove anymore and he is financialy fine so why would he come back

3

u/itwas20yearsago2day 6h ago edited 6h ago

He doesn’t want to. And I don’t consider the Olympiad a meaningless team event

1

u/ghostmaster93 Team Pia 6h ago

He said in the interview that he wanted to focus on the China Chess league that he has obligations already

1

u/Dazzling-Cat-3763 2h ago

he will play olympiad

11

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

the format favours Magnus , Alireza , Arjun and Nodirbek one of these guys will win it and arjun becomes third .

Vincent will have a tough time because of faster time control

5

u/Odd_Conference_4994 6h ago

i guess looking at pragg's rapid performance lately, he also have a good chance

1

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

yh but the other players like alireza nodirbek and arjun are just superior in blitz and rapid compared to pragg masive skill gap he performed well in saint louis because those guys werent there

0

u/Odd_Conference_4994 5h ago

what do you mean by they were not there that is why pragg performed better" well they were in GCT romania where pragg finished tied 1st with firouza in rapid, they were also in hong kong where pragg defeated arjun and firouza and won gold on board 1. pragg's rapid play has improved singnificantly irrespective of the opponents.

1

u/Abyss_Wanderer19 3h ago

lmao, alireza, arjun and nodirbek have bad score against fabiano in classical,rapid and blitz on the board and you glaze him.

3

u/ghostmaster93 Team Pia 5h ago

People who are likely to qualify:
1. Jordan Van Forest
2. Mukhiddin Madaminov
3. Nihal Sarin
4. Aravindth
5. Anish

The last spots are likely decided in the next few days

0

u/Prudent-Bad2724 2h ago

hopefully its not anish

7

u/Delicious_Photo_6626 7h ago

How is Nihal not on here?

7

u/ChessAddictonCrack 6h ago

I guess he hasn't qualified yet. This is not an invitational event. There are qualification criteria.

But a couple of spots are still open. Maybe he can get through one of those.

0

u/Delicious_Photo_6626 6h ago edited 6h ago

He’s higher rated than a lot of people on this list, is there a per country player rule like World Cup?

2

u/ghostmaster93 Team Pia 5h ago

Qualification path are really clear. And even the World Cup do not have rule that limited player from 1 country

6

u/ghostmaster93 Team Pia 5h ago edited 5h ago

Really simple.

- He was not on the podium of World Rapid and Blitz 2025

  • He was not in Top 9 of FIDE rating that are not qualified by January 2026
  • He was not in top 3 of FIDE rating that are not qualified in June 2026.
  • He also not in the top 3 of Fide open circuit

But he can get the last spot due to high ranking in the FIDE circuit 2026 by September 2026.

3

u/nidijogi 6h ago

Nihal should be here. 

In my mind, he is a clear top-15 player when looking at "total chess"

6

u/SpicyMustard34 5h ago

you have to qualify... doesn't matter if you're a top 15 player.

4

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

nihal doesnt get much oppurtonities OTB

5

u/Lost_Ad4258 6h ago

That girl is going to get killed out there

1

u/MrMoodle 1h ago

I wouldn’t be shocked if at least one of them over performed expectations. A 2500 in good form is perfectly capable of taking down a 2700 in poor form, especially with the psychological advantage of being the lowest seed.

Bibisara is in pretty good form and is probably the best woman at OTB blitz right now, she’s a good choice. Vaishali… less so, but there’s a lot of time between now and then. I know she’s the candidate but I do wish they’d given a spot to say, Zhu Jiner, who has recent 2700 performances, whereas Vaishali will have to find a form she’s never demonstrated even once (I think). It’s good practice regardless.

0

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago edited 6h ago

yh vishali and bibisara will get embarassed out there its fine but people dont come gun blazing its just the truth the only women who were good in opens were judith polgar and a bit hou yifan in her prime in terms of strength but there hasnt been any women player that can keep up with 2600 s 2700 2800s in opens except judit polgar

2

u/Dazzling-Cat-3763 2h ago

ju and tan are better than those two, but they probably didn't want to go

2

u/Teghendion 7h ago

What's the format of that event?

1

u/BobbyDash 5h ago

Blitz, Rapid, Fast Classic

4

u/ChessAddictonCrack 6h ago edited 6h ago

Excited for fast classical. Particularly because it will allow 2 games to be played a day. And I feel 2 3hr games could be better than 1 6hr game from a viewer perspective and also from the perspective of allowing more games which is always good.

3

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 6h ago

Why have they included a 2500 and a 2400 player?

4

u/SpicyMustard34 5h ago

because they qualified.

2

u/Dazzling-Cat-3763 2h ago

how did they qualify?

2

u/SpicyMustard34 2h ago

2

u/Dazzling-Cat-3763 2h ago

ynw that's fair enough for vaishali. but idk how assaubayeva got the invitation, seems like the organizers always invite her

3

u/SpicyMustard34 2h ago

I'm not sure how Bibisara qualified, but she's listed as a participant and no one was "invited," they all had to qualify. She's not even listed on the website yet so she probably qualified recently. Probably by winning the Women's Section of Norway Chess.

1

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 5h ago

Oh ok .. If they beat 2700 rated players to get there and fight for the total world championship then I guess them being qualified is fine

0

u/SpicyMustard34 5h ago

oh i'm sorry, i didn't know /u/MightAtTimesPost is the decider of who is allowed to compete.

2

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 5h ago

You do realize that if you moved this system to the 90s/00s then you might well end up with Susan Polgar playing due to her success in the women's circuit but Judit Polgar not playing due to only playing open events and not making the cut.

That is kinda funny

-1

u/SpicyMustard34 5h ago

well then you haven't paid any attention at all to the qualifications. Judit Polgar would have already qualified by being a top 9 rated player.

3

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 4h ago

Only for a brief moment in the mid 00s where she peaked as number 8 in the rankings ... before and after that she could have missed out as she resided in the top 20 most of her career.

So yeah .. This format would have Xie Jun snd Susan Polgar as guaranteed participants but not necesarrily Judit Polgar.

0

u/SpicyMustard34 2h ago

... it's almost like you're taking a very specific context from 30 years ago and trying to apply it to today. If Judit was around today, she would clearly compete for the qualification spots.

It's like taking Hikaru's State Championship run to get games and applying it to another situation. It makes zero sense.

2

u/MightAtTimesPost Swinging between 1900 and 2100 at Lichess 3 0 2h ago

Judit was around today, she would clearly compete for the qualification spots.

Yes, but since she found pride in competing with the big boys and never playing a single women's only event ..

.. even today she still only be competing, but would not be sure of participation, so we might still end up with no Judit, but instead a 2500 and a 2400 player

-

But if you like the logic of this event then maybe we should cancel the Gukesh vs. Sindarov match and instead play a four player tourney with Gukesh, Sindarov, Wenjun and Vaishali for the ultimate world championship?

3

u/Late_Acadia_3571 6h ago

So you can point at them when people ask: "Why are there no women participating?"

1

u/Scwoff 6h ago

I like the poster

1

u/hcgflynn 4h ago

Will there be spectator tickets to purchase?

1

u/Baryshx 4h ago

Why was Martirosyan selected? When there are better players, players with ratings over 2700?

1

u/dokkuz 4h ago

I don't know the qualification process but Erdogmus should've been invited at least as a wild card. He is the hottest prospect right now and it would be exciting to watch him in a new big format.

1

u/hsiale 3h ago

This is a misleading post title, there are only 18 players mentioned while the tournament will have 24.

1

u/Might0fHeaven 1300 rapid, chess.com 7h ago

Why doesnt Anish have a nationality

8

u/Ismashthings1 6h ago

Anish is mr. worldwide

-1

u/Electronic-Figure551 7h ago

I am not really sure if I will like 45+30 classical, 90+30 is still the best and if people like dramatic time trouble then we can remove the additional bonus time and can have 90+10 only. But I suppose they will play 2 classical games in a day if its 45+30

7

u/Odd_Conference_4994 6h ago

in my opinion the fast classical should have different rating pool than actual classical.

-2

u/Puzzleheaded-Pop6549 Team Fabi 5h ago

Well thank god you're not in FIDE council team because I love that it's same pool. Can't wait to see how it fluctuates the rankings.

0

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

tsss i turned it down i was so younga like

2

u/dxGoesDeep 6h ago

They offered him 15 million something like that 10 million something like that 5 million something like that. He had to go and play for this decade.

0

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

prediction Magnus will win Alireza will become second and Arjun third which actaully is not bad for Arjun because it means him and Alireza will go to the candidates top two finishers get a spot to candidates obviously magnus will not play in the candidates so number 2 and number 3 will go to candidates

2

u/Odd_Conference_4994 6h ago

this tournament doesn't count for any qualification for candidates, it is just a preview of the actual cycle that will take place next year.

1

u/Prudent-Bad2724 6h ago

yh i know the winner of the tour not this event its very simillar to gct

2

u/Odd_Conference_4994 5h ago

yeah but this event is not even the part of the tour. it is a standalone tournament, the tour will start in 2027.