No ranking based seats! FIDE launches new qualification system for 2028 candidate chess tournaments

2026 Women’s Champion candidate Vaishali with her mother (FIDE Photo) The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has approved a new qualification system for the 2028 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament and the 2028 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. These events decide who will compete for the World Champion titles. The updated rules are designed to make qualifying more fair by rewarding players for great performances at major tournaments instead of relying solely on world rankings. The changes were proposed by FIDE’s Global Strategy Commission and aim to give players more ways to earn a place in the shortlists.One of the biggest updates is the addition of the 2026-2027 Total Chess World Championship Tour as a direct qualifying route. The top two players in the Tour rankings will earn spots in the 2028 Candidates Tournament.FIDE has also reduced the number of candidate slots available during the World Championship. Starting in 2027, only two finalists will qualify for both the Open and the Women’s World Cup, instead of three players as in previous cycles. Clear rules have also been put in place for substitutions if a qualified player is unable to attend.Another major change is the removal of the rating-based qualification slot. Instead, each place is now earned through performances at events such as the Grand Swiss, the World Cup, the Tour World Championship Total Chess, the Women’s Grand Prix and the FIDE Circuit. In addition, the FIDE Circuit will now award two qualifying places based on combined results in the 2026–2027 season instead of one place each year.

Qualification paths and the FIDE view

Eight players will participate in both the open and women’s candidate tournaments. Each event will have two qualifiers from the Grand Swiss, two from the World Cup, two from the Tour or Women’s Grand Prix and two from the FIDE circuit.“The qualification system for candidate tournaments is one of the cornerstones of the World Cup cycle and it is essential that it continues to evolve along with the game itself,” said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovic. “These changes have been carefully developed to make the qualification process more balanced, transparent and performance-based. “By introducing the Total Chess World Championship Tour as a new path, refining the allocation of places in the World Cup and putting more emphasis on results achieved during the cycle, we are ensuring that each candidate path rewards sustained excellence at the highest level of competition.”