10/15/2025 – In a surprising move, FIDE has officially approved a new world championship format: the Total Chess World Championship Tour, organized by Norway Chess. The Tour will determine a FIDE World Combined Champion across three disciplines – Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz – through four global events each year. With a $2.7 million annual prize pool, the series aims to find “The Total Chess Player” and bring faster, tech-enhanced formats to a wider audience. A pilot event launches in fall 2026, followed by the first full season in 2027. | Photo: FIDE
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.
€39.90
FIDE press release, 15 October 2025
The new championship, titled the Total Chess World Championship Tour, will consist of four events each year and crown a combined champion across three disciplines – Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz chess. "We expect this to become one of the most prestigious events in the entire chess Calendar," says Kjell Madland, CEOof Norway Chess and of the new championship.
Key Highlights:
A brand-new World Championship format in chess, organized by Norway Chess, has been officially approved by the International Chess Federation, FIDE.
The Total Chess World Championship Tour will crown an overall champion across three disciplines: Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz. The winner will be crowned FIDE World Combined Champion.
The tour will consist of four tournaments per year in various global cities.
Minimum $2.7M annual prize pool across the Tour ($750k per event for the first three events; $450k for the Finals), plus performance bonuses.
A pilot tournament is planned for fall 2026, with the first full championship season in 2027.
The initiative comes from the organizers of the prestigious Norway Chess tournament, and the official World Championship status agreement was signed with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in early October. The vision of the Total Chess World Championship Tour is to find the player who best masters the disciplines Fast Classic, Rapid and Blitz combined. Fast Classic is an innovation of classical chess, featuring a time limit as short as 45 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. This will receive rating as classical chess.
"We are looking for "The Total Chess Player" – a versatile, tactically intelligent, and technically skilled athlete who seamlessly adapts to multiple time controls," says Kjell Madland.
The tour will take place in various cities across the globe and during the final stop an overall winner will be crowned: the official FIDE World Combined Champion. A one-tournament pilot version will kick off during fall 2026, to test the new tour format, with the full official tournament to follow in 2027.
"We want to create an entertaining tournament using cutting-edge technology, innovative and engaging TV and streaming broadcasts, and faster formats to open up the sport of chess to a broader audience than ever before. We expect this to become one of the most prestigious events in the entire chess Calendar. We are very honored by the strong trust FIDE has shown in the project. From the very beginning, the federation has been an active and engaged partner — ensuring the project aligns with FIDE’s vision and standards. We want to thank them, and especially the FIDE President, for their close involvement and support," says Kjell Madland.
Prize Pool and Bonuses
The Total Chess World Championship Tour features a robust prize pool: a minimum of $750,000 for each of the first three events. The Finals, which crown the FIDE World Combined Champion, will award at least $450,000 to a four-player field. Additional performance bonuses will be available for the highest point total at each tournament and for the top overall score across the Tour.
"For the fans"
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich expresses strong support for the initiative.
"We are always looking for ways to innovate and push the boundaries of what chess can be. Although chess is already one of the most popular games in the world, its growth potential is still enormous. With the Total Chess World Championship Tour, we give players a new title to compete for, and the audience a faster tournament format, and we hope the tournament can captivate both the existing chess fans and new audiences," says FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich.
"We see this as a great addition to the traditional and prestigious World Chess Championship, where we crown the undisputed champion of classic chess. The championships will complement each other and offer even more excitement for the fans. This is not a short-term initiative, but a long-term agreement between FIDE and Norway Chess," he added.
Norway Chess is now inviting potential host cities, investors, and partners to engage in discussions about joining the Total Chess World Championship.
Founded in 2013, Norway Chess has quickly become a fixture on the elite chess calendar.
It’s regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious and innovative international chess tournaments.
The event helped professionalize chess, treating it as a modern sport and viable commercial product.
Norway Chess introduced the world’s first women’s tournament with prize money equal to the open sections.
Facts about FIDE:
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is the governing body of the sport of chess, and it regulates all international chess competitions.
It was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization in 1999.
Initially founded in 1924 in Paris under the motto "Gens una Sumus" (Latin for "We are one Family"), it was one of the very first International Sports Federations, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming, and Auto Racing.
It is now one of the largest, encompassing 201 countries as affiliate members, in the form of National Chess Federations.
9/19/2025 – Doha gets ready to welcome the participants of the world’s fastest chess tournament for a spectacular end to the year. FIDE today announced the regulations for the 2025 World Rapid and Blitz, which will be held from 25 to 30 December and feature a one million euro prize fund.
7/25/2025 – During the FIDE World Cup, the FIDE Council held an online meeting and decided to allow a "neutral team" featuring Russian players to participate in the upcoming Women’s Team World Championship. The European Chess Union (ECU) issued a statement protesting this decision.
For a long time the Scotch opening was considered harmless and rarely played. This changed in 1990 when Garry Kasparov successfully employed the Scotch opening in his World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov. But that was 25 years ago. Now, there is no need to panic if you want to play 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 and need a line against the Scotch. On this 60 Minutes renowned and successful coach Adrian Mikhalchishin gives simple practical tips how to neutralize and counter the Scotch.
This is beginning to get like boxing with it's 4 incompatible world championship organisers all distributing bouts and belts.
If everybody really wants to have more & more short lived world championship events & cycles, why not have a World Champion of the Week - I'm sure a system could be botched together ? Isn't the world chess calendar already sufficiently overloaded?
Petrosianic 10/17/2025 02:31
They're very catty about whether this is a tour, or a replacement for the World Championship. On the one hand it's "a new world championship format", and on the other it's just a "prestigious event". There's not a word here about Gukesh's title going away, but if it's not, it's completely misleading to call it "a new world championship format" at all.
Masquer 10/15/2025 09:41
You never know, it could be invitational, with hand-picked "participants"!
Derek McGill 10/15/2025 02:56
How will people compete in this ? zonal's / qualifying tournaments ?
arzi 10/15/2025 02:17
Is this new format supposed to get Carlsen back into the World Championship? Hopefully, Freestyle Chess won't be involved in this mess.
FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 with analyses by Giri, Blübaum and many others. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Sokolov and Blohberger. Training columns including ‘The Fortress’, ‘The Trap’, ‘Fundamental Endgame Knowledge’ and much more
In this video course experts examine the games of Steinitz. Let them show you which openings Steinitz chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
With the moves d4-Nf3-e3-Bd3 White aims for simple piece development and to slowly build up a devastating attack on the kingside!
€39.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
