The 11th iteration of the official FIDE Chess World Cup is set to take place in India’s coastal city of Goa from October 30 to November 7, 2025. A record number of 24 Indians will participate in the biennial event, which offers Candidates’ spots.
The tournament top seed is Indian chess sensation and reigning World Champion, D. Gukesh.
The other Indian players are: Praggnanandhaa R (courtesy of being World Cup 2023 second place finisher), Arjun Erigaisi (as per rating list in June 2025), Aravindh Chithambaram (June 2025 rating list), Nihal Sarin, Harikrishna Pentala, Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca, Iniyan Pa, Pranav V, Raja Rithvik R, Narayanan SL, Pranesh M, Harshavardhan GB, Karthikeyan Murali, Idani Pouya, Karthik Venkataraman, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Neelash Saha, Diptayan Ghosh, Aromyak Ghosh, Himal Gusain, Lalit Babu MR (all via continental spots) and Vidit Gujrathi (via Chess Olympiad spot).
The FIDE World Cup 2025 will feature 206 players competing in a head-to-head, two-game knockout format over eight rounds. Each round spans three days: two classical games (between two players) on the first two days, followed by tie-breaks on the third day, if necessary.
In the first round, the top 50 players receive byes, while players seeded from 51 to 206 compete, with pairings based on the principle of the top half versus the reversed lower half.
The FIDE World Cup is the event that offers the top three finishers direct qualification for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, which determines the challenger for the World Chess Championship.
The FIDE World Cup will be held at Resort Rio in North Goa.
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FIDE World Cup 2025: Full Schedule
November 1, 2025: Round 1 Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 2, 2025: Round 1 Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 3, 2025: Round 1 Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 4, 2025: Round 2 Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 5, 2025: Round 2 Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 6, 2025: Round 2 Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 7, 2025: Round 3 Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 8, 2025: Round 3 Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 9, 2025: Round 3 Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 11, 2025: Round 4 Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 12, 2025: Round 4 Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 13, 2025: Round 4 Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 14, 2025: Round 5 Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 15, 2025: Round 5 Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 16, 2025: Round 5 Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 17, 2025: Quarterfinals Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 18, 2025: Quarterfinals Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 19, 2025: Quarterfinals Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 21, 2025: Semifinals Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 22, 2025: Semifinals Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 23, 2025: Semifinals Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
November 24, 2025: Finals Game 1 – 3:00 PM IST
November 25, 2025: Finals Game 2 – 3:00 PM IST
November 26, 2025: Finals Tiebreaks – 3:00 PM IST
