Chess World Cup facts for kids

The FIDE World Cup is a very important chess competition. It is organized by FIDE, which is the main international group that manages chess around the world. This tournament brings together many of the best chess players to compete for a special title and a chance to play for the World Chess Championship.

The History of the FIDE World Cup

The FIDE World Cup has changed its rules and how it is played over the years. Here are the main ways it has been organized:

• In 2000 and 2002, it started with 24 players divided into four groups. The best players from these groups then moved on to a knockout stage.
• From 2005 to 2019, it became a bigger event with 128 players. It was a knockout tournament held every two years. This version was also a way for players to qualify for the World Chess Championship.
• Since the 2021 tournament, even more players have joined, reaching 206. Some players get a "bye" in the first round, meaning they don't have to play. After the first round, it works like the previous knockout system.

Other Chess World Cups in History

Before FIDE started its World Cup, another group called the Grandmasters Association (GMA) held their own "GMA World Cup" in 1988 and 1989. These tournaments featured top grandmasters. Each round was a large round-robin event. However, the GMA stopped organizing these tournaments in the early 1990s.

Early FIDE World Cups (2000-2002)

In 2000 and 2002, FIDE organized its "First Chess World Cup" and "Second Chess World Cup." These were big tournaments. However, they were not directly connected to deciding the World Chess Champion. Viswanathan Anand from India won both the 2000 and 2002 events.

Champions of the Early Cups

Year	Dates	Host City	Players	Winner	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
2000	1–13 Sep	Shenyang, China	24	Viswanathan Anand	Evgeny Bareev	Boris Gelfand, Gilberto Milos
2002	9–22 Oct	Hyderabad, India	24	Viswanathan Anand	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	Alexander Beliavsky, Alexey Dreev

Both of these early tournaments began with players in groups. The top two players from each group then moved into a knockout stage with eight players.

The Modern FIDE World Cup (2005-Present)

Since 2005, a different FIDE World Cup has been held. This event is a key part of the journey to become the World Chess Champion. It takes place every two years. It is a knockout tournament with many players, similar to some past FIDE World Championships.

Many of these tournaments were held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. FIDE often chooses cities to host the World Cup that also want to host the Chess Olympiad.

The Chess World Cup 2005 helped ten players qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The Candidates Tournament is where players compete to earn the right to challenge the reigning World Chess Champion. Since 2005, each World Cup has helped between one and three players reach the Candidates Tournament.

Two players who qualified through the World Cup, Boris Gelfand (in 2009) and Sergey Karjakin (in 2015), later won the Candidates Tournament. They then played in the World Championship match in 2012 and 2016.

How the Modern Tournament Works

From 2005 to 2019, 128 players competed in seven knockout rounds. Each round involved "mini-matches" of two games. If the score was tied, players would play faster games called rapid and then blitz tiebreaks to decide the winner.

Since 2021, the World Cup has grown to include 206 players. There are now eight knockout rounds. Fifty players get a "bye" and automatically move to the second round. The final match usually has four games before any tiebreaks. An extra rest day is often added before the semi-finals and the final.

This tournament is quite long, lasting about 26 days. It tests the players' endurance and focus. Many players try to win their matches without needing tiebreaks to save energy.

Champions of the Modern Era

"Qual." shows how many players from that World Cup qualified for the Candidates Tournament. These players are highlighted in green. For example, in 2015, the top two players qualified for the 2016 Candidates Tournament.

Year	Dates	Host City	Players	Qual.	Winner	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
2005	27 Nov – 17 Dec	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	10	Levon Aronian	Ruslan Ponomariov	Étienne Bacrot	Alexander Grischuk
2007	24 Nov – 16 Dec	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	1	Gata Kamsky	Alexei Shirov	Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin
2009	20 Nov – 14 Dec	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	1	Boris Gelfand	Ruslan Ponomariov	Sergey Karjakin and Vladimir Malakhov
2011	26 Aug – 21 Sep	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	3	Peter Svidler	Alexander Grischuk	Vassily Ivanchuk	Ruslan Ponomariov
2013	10 Aug – 4 Sep	Tromsø, Norway	128	2	Vladimir Kramnik	Dmitry Andreikin	Evgeny Tomashevsky and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2015	10 Sep – 5 Oct	Baku, Azerbaijan	128	2	Sergey Karjakin	Peter Svidler	Anish Giri and Pavel Eljanov
2017	2–27 Sep	Tbilisi, Georgia	128	2	Levon Aronian	Ding Liren	Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2019	9 Sep – 4 Oct	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	2	Teimour Radjabov	Ding Liren	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	Yu Yangyi
2021	12 Jul – 6 Aug	Sochi, Russia	206	2	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	Sergey Karjakin	Magnus Carlsen	Vladimir Fedoseev
2023	29 Jul – 25 Aug	Baku, Azerbaijan	206	3	Magnus Carlsen	R Praggnanandhaa	Fabiano Caruana	Nijat Abasov
2025	31 Oct – 27 Nov	Goa, India	206	3	Javokhir Sindarov	Wei Yi	Andrey Esipenko	Nodirbek Yakubboev

In 2021, Sergey Karjakin qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament through the World Cup. However, he was later unable to participate in the Candidates Tournament. In 2023, the top three players were meant to qualify. But since Magnus Carlsen chose not to play in the Candidates, the fourth-place player, Nijat Abasov, also qualified. Javokhir Sindarov won the 2025 FIDE World Cup.

All tournaments since 2005 have used the single-elimination knockout format, as explained above.

See also

In Spanish: Copa del Mundo de Ajedrez para niños

• Women's Chess World Cup
• Women's World Chess Championship, which used a similar knockout format in the past.
• FIDE Grand Prix, another way for players to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.