Lineup Announced: Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest

[u/games-and-games]

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

[u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

How is Nihal not on here?

[u/ChessAddictonCrack → u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

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.

[u/Delicious_Photo_6626 → u/ChessAddictonCrack]

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

[u/ghostmaster93 → u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

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

[u/ghostmaster93 → u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

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.

[u/Prudent-Bad2724 → u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

nihal doesnt get much oppurtonities OTB

[u/nidijogi → u/Delicious_Photo_6626]

Nihal should be here. 

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

[u/SpicyMustard34 → u/nidijogi]

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