The World Chess Championship 2026 will be a chess match to determine the new World Chess Champion. It will be played between the defending champion Gukesh Dommaraju and a challenger, who will be the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2026.
Candidates Tournament
The challenger will qualify by winning the Candidates Tournament 2026.
The eight players to qualify to the Candidates Tournament will be:[1][2]
Qualification and alternative qualification paths for the Candidates Tournament 2026
Unlike any other Candidates Tournaments, and any FIDE World Championship cycle (except 1999–2004 during the split-title period), there is no automatic spot for the runner-up of the previous Championship (Ding Liren).[f] To compensate, the 2024 championship will be considered an eligible tournament for the FIDE Circuit, with the runner-up obtaining special bonus points for the 2025 FIDE Circuit based on the score.[1]
Notes
^If the winner is already World Champion in January 2025 or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 2nd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists.[2]
^If any of these players is already World Champion in January 2025, has already qualified when the 2025 World Cup begins, or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 4th place in the 2025 World Cup; the 2nd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists.[2]
^If any of these players is already World Champion in January 2025, has already qualified by an above path when the 2025 Grand Swiss begins, or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 3rd place in the 2025 Grand Swiss; the 2nd place in the 2024 FIDE Circuit; the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists.[2]
^If the winner is already World Champion in January 2025, has already qualified by an above path, or withdraws, then the replacement is selected in order of priority as: the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 ranking lists.[2]
^Provided the player has played at least 40 games rated for the February 2025 through January 2026 standard rating lists, including at least 15 in any of the six consecutive lists from August 2025 to January 2026. If two players have the same average rating, the one with the higher performance rating over the rated games qualifies. If the player with the highest average rating over this period is already World Champion in January 2025 or has already qualified by an above path, the replacement will be selected in order of priority as: the 2nd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the 3rd place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit; the player with the lowest sum of places in the 2024 and 2025 rating lists. If the highest-rated player withdraws, the replacement will be the second-highest-rated player averaged across the same period and subject to the same criteria, unless that player is already World Champion or has already qualified by another path, in which case he is replaced in the same order of priority as before.[2]
^The runners-up in all FIDE World Championships (from 1948) until 1993 qualified for the next Candidates Tournament. The 1996 runner-up (Kamsky) was offered seeding into a later round in the 1998 Championship. The runners-up in all Championships since 2004 were automatically seeded into late stages of the next cycle: Adams (2004), Anand and Svidler (2005) earned qualification to the next Championship, Topalov (2006 and 2010) a place in the Candidates Matches 2009 and 2011, respectively, and Kramnik (2007) a rematch against Anand.
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