Goa to host Chess World Cup 2025 as showpiece event returns to India after 23 years

A large field of 206 players will feature in the knockout tournament with a $2 million prize money from which the top three will qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, the winner of which will take on Gukesh, India’s reigning FIDE world champion.

Gukesh is in as the world champion while five-time world champion Carlsen, R Praggnanandhaa, Fabiano Caruano and Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov are seeded from the 2023 World Cup. China’s women’s FIDE world champion, Ju Wenjun and the 2024 world junior champion, Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan are also in the list released by FIDE.

Among the 13 players from the June FIDE list are Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi and VR Aravindh Chithambaram. Nihal Sarin, SL Narayanan and Vidit Gujrathi are also in the field. Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, a two-time winner of the World Cup (2000, 2002), including when it was last held in India (Hyderabad, 2002), is among the qualifiers for the event.