Chess World Cup facts for kids

The FIDE World Cup is a big chess competition. It's put on by FIDE, which is like the world's main chess organization. Since 2005, it has been a huge tournament where 128 players compete. It's a "knockout" style, meaning if you lose, you're out! This tournament is super important because it helps players qualify for the World Chess Championship. From 2021, even more players joined, making it 206!

Early FIDE World Cups (2000–2002)

FIDE first held its "Chess World Cup" in 2000 and again in 2002. These were major tournaments, but they weren't directly connected to the main World Chess Championship. A famous player from India, Viswanathan Anand, won both of these early events.

Past Winners (2000-2002)

Year	Host City	Winner	Runner-up
2000	Shenyang, China	Viswanathan Anand	Evgeny Bareev
2002	Hyderabad, India	Viswanathan Anand	Rustam Kasimdzhanov

These tournaments started with players in small groups. The best players from each group then moved on to a knockout stage.

The Modern FIDE World Cup (2005–Present)

Since 2005, the FIDE World Cup has become a key part of the journey to becoming World Chess Champion. This exciting event happens every two years. It's a big knockout tournament with 128 players, similar to how some past World Championships were played.

The tournament was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, several times. Now, FIDE often chooses cities that also want to host the Chess Olympiad. This means the World Cup can be a warm-up event for even bigger chess competitions.

The Chess World Cup 2005 helped ten players get a spot in the Candidates Tournament. The Candidates Tournament is where players battle it out to decide who will challenge the current World Champion. Since 2005, the World Cup has helped between one and three players qualify for this important tournament.

Some players who did well in the World Cup went on to play for the World Championship title! For example, Boris Gelfand in 2009 and Sergey Karjakin in 2015 both won the Candidates Tournament after their World Cup success.

How the Tournament Works

Since 2005, the World Cup has 128 players. They play in 7 rounds of "mini-matches." Each mini-match usually has two games. If players are tied after these games, they play faster games called "rapid" chess, then even faster "blitz" games to decide a winner.

The final match is usually longer, with four games before any tiebreaks. There are also rest days to help players recover.

Some people say the tournament is very long, lasting about 26 days. Players can get tired, which makes it even harder! It's often said that surviving the World Cup is a big challenge, but the best players usually have a better chance.

World Cup Winners and Qualifiers

The "Qual." column shows how many players from that World Cup earned a spot in the important Candidates Tournament. These players are marked with a green background.

Year	Host City	Players	Qual.	Winner	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place
2005	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	10	Levon Aronian	Ruslan Ponomariov	Étienne Bacrot	Alexander Grischuk
2007	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	1	Gata Kamsky	Alexei Shirov	Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin
2009	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	1	Boris Gelfand	Ruslan Ponomariov	Sergey Karjakin and Vladimir Malakhov
2011	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	3	Peter Svidler	Alexander Grischuk	Vassily Ivanchuk	Ruslan Ponomariov
2013	Tromsø, Norway	128	2	Vladimir Kramnik	Dmitry Andreikin	Evgeny Tomashevsky and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2015	Baku, Azerbaijan	128	2	Sergey Karjakin	Peter Svidler	Anish Giri and Pavel Eljanov
2017	Tbilisi, Georgia	128	2	Levon Aronian	Ding Liren	Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2019	Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia	128	2	Teimour Radjabov	Ding Liren	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	Yu Yangyi
2021	Sochi, Russia	206	2	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	Sergey Karjakin	Magnus Carlsen	Vladimir Fedoseev
2023	Baku, Azerbaijan	206	3	Magnus Carlsen	Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa	Fabiano Caruana	Nijat Abasov

See also

• Women's Chess World Cup
• FIDE Grand Prix, another way to qualify for the Candidates Tournament