Chess World Cup 2025


The Chess World Cup 2025 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Goa, India, from 31 October to 27 November 2025. It was the 11th edition of the Chess World Cup. Javokhir Sindarov won the tournament, becoming at age 19 the youngest World Cup winner to date. The winner, runner-up, and third-place finisher earned the right to play in the Candidates Tournament 2026.

Format

The tournament is an eight-round knockout event, with the top 50 seeds given a bye into the second round. The losers of the two semi-finals play a match for third place. The players who finish first, second, and third qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026, a tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2026.
Each round consists of classical time limit games on the first two days, plus tie-breaks on the third day if they are required. The time limits are as follows:
  • The two classical games have a time limit of 90 minutes each side for the first 40 moves, then 30 extra minutes for the rest of the game, + 30 seconds increment per move starting from move [|1].
  • If the match is tied 1–1 after the two classical games, two rapid games are played with 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
  • If the match is tied 2–2, two rapid games of 10 minutes + 10 seconds increment are played.
  • If the match is tied 3–3, two blitz games of 5 minutes + 3 seconds increment are played.
  • If the match is tied 4–4, two blitz games of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment are played.
  • If the match is tied 5–5, a single sudden death armageddon game is played. White has 4 minutes + 2 seconds increment. Each player bids for Black's starting time + 2 seconds increment, and the player who submits the lowest time wins the bid and plays with Black. If both players make the same bid, a drawing of lots shall determine the colours. If the armageddon game results in a draw, Black wins the match.

    Schedule

Each round lasts three days: two for classical time control games and a third, if necessary, for tie-breaks. Rounds 1 to 3 run from 1 to 9 November; 10 November is a rest day; Rounds 4 to 6 run from 11 to 19 November; 20 November is a rest day; Rounds 7 and 8 run from 21 to 26 November.

Prize money

The total prize fund is US$2,000,000, with the first prize of US$120,000.

Qualification

The following players qualified for the World Cup:
Afghanistan and Chinese Taipei did not nominate a player, and two additional Presidential Nominees were invited instead. Pakistan had nominated a player but declined to participate later, Leon Luke Mendonca, a reserved Presidential Nominee was invited to the tournament instead.

Participants

The participants are seeded by their FIDE rating of October 2025, except for Gukesh Dommaraju, who is seeded first as the reigning World Chess Champion. Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh was the only woman; the remaining 205 participants were all male.
The table is collapsed by default and can be sorted on any column.
Click on the section number of a player to go to their draw section.
Rating is the October 2025 standard FIDE rating.
SeedSectionNameFederationTitleRatingBornQualificationFIDE Profile
11Gukesh DIndia

Replacements

The following are the players from the list of qualifiers who declined to play, and their replacements:
  • , 2839 →, 2755
  • , 2789 →, 2729
  • , 2816 →, 2716
  • , 2762 →, 2724
  • , 2743 →, 2720
  • , 2738 →, 2738
  • , 2564 →, 2498

    Round 1–4

Pairings were published on the official FIDE website on 4 October.

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Section 9

Section 10

Section 11

Section 12

Section 13

Section 14

Section 15

Section 16

Round 5–8

Third place

Final