FIDE Sends Out RSVP As New Magnus-friendly Total World Championship Takes Shape
It's really taking shape now: preparations for the new GM Magnus Carlsen-approved version of the chess World Championship stepped up a notch this week as FIDE revealed the names of who has qualified.
The 2026 Total Chess World Championship Tour, or “Total Chess 2026 Pilot”, is set to feature 16 players in its first edition starting in October. Invites are being sent out to all of them.
This is the event announced to a great fanfare by FIDE and Norway Chess before Christmas and which, they hope, will become a key part of the wider World Championship cycle.
It also appears to be a fairly obvious move to heal FIDE's rift with Carlsen and bring world-number-one back into the FIDE fold. Will it work? That remains to be seen.
Carlsen is invited, of course, because this event likely wouldn't be happening without him turning his back on the classical World Championship.
He will be joined by the current World Champion, GM Gukesh D, and the Women’s World Champion GM Ju Wenjun.
Both qualify by right, according to the regulations drawn up by FIDE and Norway Chess.
What follows is a stellar list of invitees containing some of the great entertainers in elite chess right now—practically all the names you would expect to be there. Overall, it looks like the event will be enthralling, whatever your take on whether it's necessary. Let's hope the invitees all formally accept.
FIDE has made clear the 2026 event is officially a pilot, testing the full concept, format, and regulations of the Total Chess World Championship Tour. The inaugural full Tour season, with the official crowning of the first Total Chess World Champion, will start in 2027.
The pilot tournament is scheduled to take place from October 3 to 15, 2026. The host destinations will be announced at a later date.
Formal invitations to the qualified players will be sent out in the coming days and within the next week.
Based on the qualification criteria approved by FIDE, the group already includes the top 13 players in the January classical rating list, the Women’s World Champion, plus additional elite qualifiers from the World Rapid and World Blitz Championships.
FIDE, strangely, described this as "a more than respectable line-up" for the 2026 pilot.
FIDE's List Of Qualifiers
1–2. World Champions
3–5. World Rapid Championship 2025 (three places)
The three medallists of the 2025 World Rapid Championship have earned the right to be invited:
6–7. World Blitz Championship 2025 (two places)
The two qualifiers from the 2025 World Blitz Championship are:
- GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (qualified via the lowest average sum of placements)
8–16. Top-9 Rated Players (January 2026 list, with replacements)
Based on the classical rating list as of 1 January 2026, and applying the agreed replacement rules (to account for players already qualified via World Championships and World Rapid/Blitz), the following players have earned the right to receive an invitation via rating:
- GM Hikaru Nakamura
- GM Fabiano Caruana
- GM Vincent Keymer
- GM Anish Giri
- GM Alireza Firouzja
- GM Praggnanandhaa R
- GM Wei Yi
Two further places are filled according to the replacement criteria:
- GM Wesley So – first replacement (lowest average sum of placements)
- GM Viswanathan Anand – first replacement according to rating
A star-studded field and the road ahead
In summary, the right to receive an invitation to the 2026 Total Chess pilot tournament has currently been granted to 16 chess players, comprising:
- The top 13 players in the January classical rating list
- GM Vladislav Artemiev
- GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and
- The Women’s World Champion, GM Ju Wenjun
The next two players who will earn the right to receive invitations will become known in April 2026, following the conclusion of the FIDE Candidates Tournament and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament, whose winners will also qualify for the Tour.
The 2026 pilot tournament will be held from October 3–15, 2026, with destinations/locations to be announced later. The inaugural full Total Chess World Championship Tour season will then launch in 2027.
Regulations of the Total Chess World Championship Tour
FIDE and Norway Chess are also announcing that the official Regulations of the Total Chess World Championship Tour have now been published. They define in detail:
- The full qualification system
- Event structure and scoring system across Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz
- Tie-break and replacement rules
- Prize fund distribution and tour standings
The regulations can be found here:
fide.com/wp-content/uploads/Total-Chess-WCT-Regulations.pdf