Total Chess, the big new pilot event for a jazzy revamped version of the World Championship, has the star attraction in chess, GM Magnus Carlsen. It has so far eight of the world's top 10.
What it doesn't have—at least yet—is Carlsen's nemesis GM Hikaru Nakamura or the reigning classical World Champion, India's GM Gukesh D.
Organisers have announced the first 18 players for the inaugural Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest from November 10 to 21.
Carlsen heads a field that also includes GM Fabiano Caruana, German number-one GM Vincent Keymer, new Sinquefield Cup winner GM Wesley So, Dutch number-one GM Anish Giri, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM Alireza Firouzja. Six more players will be announced in September.
The new FIDE-approved format, developed by Norway Chess, combines Fast Classic, rapid and blitz and is intended eventually to crown a FIDE World Combined Champion. The Budapest event is a pilot before a four-stop global tour launches in 2027.
Carlsen, whose career since relinquishing the classical World Championship has increasingly stretched across different formats, appears happy to give it a go.
"I look forward to playing the Total Chess World Championship in Budapest this year,” the world number one said in a press release. "It's always interesting to try out new formats."
Nakamura is a notable omission. The world number three had qualified for an invitation through the rating pathway but has previously been dismissive of the concept, describing it as "total fluff."
Gukesh's absence is rather easier to explain—as is that of his World Championship challenger GM Javokhir Sindarov.
Total Chess finishes on November 21. Their World Championship match in Geneva begins just four days later, on November 25.
It is another example of just how congested elite chess has become. Total Chess had already been moved from October to avoid a clash with the US Championship, only for its new dates to butt almost directly against the biggest classical event of the year.
The organisers are nevertheless talking big. Total Chess CEO Kjell Madland said Budapest is "far more than another elite tournament" and the first step towards a global championship spanning the game's different formats.
The concept is designed to find, in the organisers' words, the “world's most complete chess player”, with players tested across Fast Classic, rapid and blitz.
Carlsen wants to find out. Nakamura, so far, doesn't. And Gukesh has another World Championship to worry about.