2024 FIDE Circuit

The 2024 FIDE Circuit is a system comprising the top chess tournaments in 2024, which serves as a qualification path for the Candidates Tournament 2026. Players receive points based on their performance and the strength of the tournament. A player's final Circuit score is the sum of their seven best results of the year. The winner of the Circuit qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2026.

Tournament eligibility
A FIDE-rated individual standard tournament is eligible for the Circuit if it meets the following criteria:
 * 1) Finish between 1 January 2024 and 15 December 2024.
 * 2) Has at least 8 players.
 * 3) Has at least 7 rounds (4 rounds for knockout events).
 * 4) The 8 highest-rated players have an average standard rating of at least 2550 at the start of tournament. This average is referred to as TAR (tournament average rating).
 * 5) Players represent at least 3 national federations.
 * 6) Not more than 50% of the 20 highest-rated players (or all players if fewer than 20) represent one federation.

The Circuit also includes the following tournaments:
 * The World Chess Championship 2024.
 * National Championships that meet points 1 to 4 in above criteria.
 * World Rapid Championship.
 * World Blitz Championship.
 * Continental Rapid Championships.
 * Continental Blitz Championships.
 * Other Rapid and Blitz tournaments that meet the above criteria, except that the TAR must be at least 2700.

Event points
Circuit points obtained by a player from a tournament are calculated as follows:
 * $$P = B \times k \times w$$

where:
 * $$P$$ - Points obtained by player from the tournament
 * $$B$$ - Basic points
 * $$k$$ - Tournament strength factor, calculated as $$k = (TAR-2500) / 100$$
 * $$w$$ - Tournament weighting
 * 1.0 - Standard classical tournaments
 * 0.8 - World Rapid Championships
 * 0.6 - World Blitz Championships and other Rapid tournaments
 * 0.5 - Mixed Rapid & Blitz tournaments
 * 0.4 - Blitz tournaments

Basic points
Basic points for a tournament are awarded depending on the tournament format:
 * Swiss-system: Top 8 (within top half of ranking), ties included.
 * Round-robin: Top 3 with ties (with the exception of the Candidates Tournament 2024 where points are awarded to all players).
 * Knockout: Third round or later, up to 8 players.

Points are awarded as follows:
 * If the tournament is won outright, basic points for 1st place would be 11 points. Otherwise, 10 basic points would be used for calculation.
 * For tied positions, basic points are calculated as 50% of points for final ranking as determined by tournament's tie-break rules, plus 50% of the sum of basic points assigned for the tied places divided by the number of tied players. If no tie-break rule is applied, basic points are 100% shared equally among all tied players.
 * For round-robin tournaments (other than Candidates), 4th and below are worth zero points for tied players calculation.

FIDE World Championship points
For World Chess Championship 2024, the winner will get points calculated as 1st place basic points multipled by the strength factor, but with its TAR value using winner's performance rating instead.

Player's total and ranking
A player's point total for the ranking is the sum of their best 7 tournaments with the following criteria:
 * If player has 6 or more tournaments to count:
 * No more than 5 tournaments with participation of less than 50 players can be counted.
 * No more than 2 rapid/blitz tournaments can be counted.
 * If player has 5 tournaments or less:
 * No more than 4 tournaments with participation of less than 50 players can be counted.
 * No more than 1 rapid/blitz tournament can be counted.

Tournaments that could be included in player's results are as follows:
 * Official FIDE tournaments.
 * National Championships.
 * Other eligible tournaments, counting all tournaments with minimum TAR of 2650 and up to two lower tournaments per host country.

Tournaments
Eligible tournaments as of 26 June 2024.

Ranking
At the end of 2024, the best player in the Circuit will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026, provided that they have played 5 eligible tournaments, including at least 4 in standard time controls. The current leader is marked in green. "(M)" denotes the Masters section of tournaments while "(Ch)" – Challenger section.