Twenty-four of the world's best players will participate in the Budapest pilot, competing in Blitz, Rapid and Fast Classic, a shortened form of classical chess.
A Blitz tournament to begin (10 November)
The event begins on 10 November with a nine-round Swiss-system Blitz tournament (3+2) featuring all 24 players. But this Blitz tournament is not really that important. Or perhaps it is. Its main purpose is as a tiebreak: if players finish level on points in the group stage that follows the Blitz tournament, their placing in the Blitz tournament will decide the order. The result will also have an impact on the knockout stage that follows the Blitz tournament and the group stage.
The group stage (11 to 15 November)
In the group stage, the 24 participants are divided into four groups of six players. In each group, everyone plays everyone else twice, once with white and once with black. The games are played in "Fast Classic" mode: 45 minutes for the whole game plus 30 seconds per move. A win is worth three points, a draw one point and a loss no points. If players finish level on points, their placing in the Blitz tournament on the first day is used as the tiebreak.
The group stage determines whether a player still has a chance of winning the tournament in the knockout stage. After the group stage, the players are distributed into six separate knockout competitions according to their finishing positions: the four group winners play for the overall tournament victory and places 1 to 4. The four runners-up play for places 5 to 8, while the four sixth-placed players compete for places 21 to 24. In this way, all 24 players remain involved until the end of the tournament, but only four can fight for tournament victory after the group stage.
The Budapest tournament has a strong field | Image: Total Chess Instagram
Knockout matches (17 and 18 November)
The semifinals of the knockout competitions are scheduled for 17 and 18 November. Each knockout match consists of two mini-matches played on consecutive days. Each mini-match consists of seven games: four Blitz games (3+2), two Rapid games (15+10) and one Fast Classic game (45+30).
The games, however, are scored differently:
Discipline
Win
Draw
Loss
Blitz
1 point
0.5 points
0 points
Rapid
4 points
2 points
0 points
Fast Classic
8 points
4 points
0 points
A total of 20 points are therefore available each day. Whoever has more points after the seven games wins the mini-match. A mini-match can also end in a draw.
Vincent Keymer is also taking part | Photo: Total Chess
But things become more complicated on day two, because the score is reset to zero. In other words, whoever scores more points on a given day wins that day's match, and if one player wins both daily matches, that player advances to the final. If one of the two daily matches ends in a draw, the result of the other day decides the overall match. But if each player wins one of the two matches, or if both matches end in draws, then the winner is not decided - as one might naively assume - by who scored more points over the 14 games. Instead, the overall contest is decided by an Armageddon game. A player can therefore win the first mini-match 16-4 and lose the second 9-11. Despite having scored 25-15 overall, that player still has to play Armageddon. Perhaps not much consolation, but at least the player with the higher overall score gets to choose the colour in the Armageddon. If the overall scores are equal, however, colour choice is determined by a bidding procedure.
Final (19 and 20 November)
The winners of the semifinals play for overall victory on the final two days of the tournament, 19 and 20 November. At the same time, the remaining places are decided in the other five knockout competitions. The Total Chess world champion, however, will not be crowned until next year.
That is because the Budapest tournament is a pilot event for the Total Chess World Championship Tour, which begins in 2027. No world champion will be determined here, and no points will be awarded towards the future Tour standings either. The top three finishers will, however, earn a place in the first Tour event of 2027, provided they have not already qualified by another route. There is also a total prize fund of US$650,000, with the winner receiving $80,000.
But how exactly will the new world champion be determined?
The format of the pilot tournament may be complicated, but the regulations of the Total Chess Championship are even more complicated. Unlike the classical World Championship, the title is not decided in a single match, but through a series of tournaments followed by a final event.
At present, the Total Chess World Championship Tour consists of three tournaments, each featuring 24 players. The 24 players can qualify through various routes. These include strong results in previous Total Chess events, major FIDE tournaments, the world rankings and organiser wildcards. The participants in the three events will not necessarily be the same.
In each of the three tournaments, players receive Tour points according to their finishing positions. These points are added together. There are also bonus points for repeated tournament victories. The player with the most points after the three tournaments wins the overall Tour standings and receives the "Golden Rook" award - but that does not make him world champion. The world champion is only determined in the final event, in which the four most successful players on the Tour face one another.
But because a normal knockout competition with semifinals and a final apparently seemed too simple, the organisers came up with another twist: the two semifinal winners play for the World Championship, and this contest lasts four days and consists of two sections of two days each, known as "Races".
That means the final consists of four matches in total, each once again featuring seven games: one Fast Classic game, two Rapid games and four Blitz games. But the four matches are divided into two sets of two, and these two-match sections have been given the attractive name "Race". If one player wins both "Races", he becomes world champion. If each player wins only one "Race", however, the title is again not decided by the overall number of points scored across the four matches. Instead, two Blitz games decide the title. If there is still no winner after those Blitz games, there is another Armageddon game – and whoever wins that Armageddon game becomes the "FIDE World Combined Champion 2027".
But the "Total Chess Championship" is not only about this title. A strong performance in the "Total Chess Championship" can also help a player in the classical World Championship cycle, because FIDE has adjusted the qualification system for the 2028 Candidates accordingly. The top two players in the overall standings of the 2026–2027 Total Chess World Championship Tour will earn places in the 2028 Candidates Tournament. What matters here, however, is the Tour standings and not, as one might again naively assume, the result of the final.
In theory, the winner of the final – the "Total Chess Champion" - could fail to qualify for the Candidates Tournament because he finished "only" third in the overall Tour standings after the three tournaments, before producing a great performance in the final.
The organisers have announced that individual rules for the final event may still be adjusted based on the experience gained from the Budapest pilot tournament. Looking at the complicated regulations, however, it is difficult to know whether that is a threat or a promise.
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