&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "FIDE World Cup 2025: Here's all you need to know about Chess's biggest carnival - Indians participating, venue and more")
Chess’s third biggest carnival is all set for an exhilarating action as top grandmasters across the globe gather in India’s Goa to earn the right to be called world champions. With eyes set on the prize, there will be a host of names who will look to give their best shot in the tournament, which will start on Friday (Oct 31). So ahead of the tournament, here’s all you need to know about the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, including live streaming, participants and other key details.
What is FIDE Chess World Cup’s significance?
While the World Cup remains an important tournament in every other sport, its significance in Chess is a little different. Although still an important tournament, it is third in the pyramid when it comes to its importance. The Chess World Cup lies below the Candidates tournament and the World Championship. It takes place every two years and the top three players from the tournament qualify for the Candidates tournament, which is a qualifier for the World Championship match.
Where is the venue?
The venue of this year’s FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 is North Goa’s Resort Rio, which will host all the matches.
What's the format?
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The Chess World Cup 2025 is an eight-round, single-elimination knockout tournament. Each match consists of two classical games played under standard time controls. If the scores are tied, players will play tiebreakers with faster time controls on the third day.
The top 50 seeded players get a bye to the second round and the rest are paired based on their seeding. The final round will include matches to determine the third and fourth place finish and the final.
As mentioned above, the top three will make it to the Candidates tournament next year.
Who are the Indians in the tournament?
A total of 24 Indians will feature in the World Cup and the top three seeds are also Indian - Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa. Gukesh was given the top seed because he's the current world champion.
The other Indians in the draw are are Vidit Gujrathi, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Karthikeyan Murali, Pranav V., Raunak Sadhwani, Pranesh M., Leon Luke Mendonca, S.L. Narayanan, P. Iniyan, Karthik Venkataraman, Diptayan Ghosh, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Raja Rithvik R, Aronyak Ghosh, M.R. Lalith Babu, Divya Deshmukh, Himal Gusain, Harshavardhan G. B., Neelash Saha.
Divya, who won the Women's World Cup earlier this year, is the only woman in the field. She accepted the wildcard after Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and women's World No. 1 Hou Yifan decided against taking part.
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Who are the favourites to win the World Cup?
Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Vincent Keymer are some of the strongest players in the tournament and big favourites to win the title. Praggnanandhaa, in fact, made it to the final last time before losing to Magnus Carlsen.
Who are the big players missing?
Carlsen, who won the World Cup last time, will be absent along with other top players like Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Ding Liren and Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Who were the previous winners?
2023 - Magnus Carlsen
2021 - Jan-Krzysztof Duda
2019 - Teimour Radjabov
2017 - Levon Arnian
2015 - Sergey Karjakin
2013 - Vladimir Kramnik
2011 - Peter Svidler
2009 - Boris Gelfand
2007 - Gata Kamsky
2005 - Levon Aronian
What is the event schedule?
Round 1- Nov. 1-3
Round 2 - Nov. 4-6
Round 3 - Nov. 7-9
Round 4 - Nov. 11-13
Round 5 - Nov. 14-16
Quarterfinals - Nov. 17-19
Semifinals - Nov. 21-23
Finals - Nov. 24-26
All matches will start at 3 pm IST.
Where will the matches be held?
The matches will be shown LIVE on FIDE's YouTube channel.
