India will host the 11th edition of the FIDE World Cup from October 30 to November 7, 2025, at Resort Rio in North Goa.
The event brings together 206 top players from around the world in a knockout format, making it one of the largest World Cups in chess history.
Reigning World Champion D. Gukesh headlines the tournament as the top seed, marking his first major appearance on home soil since clinching the world title. He leads a record 24-player Indian contingent, the highest ever in any FIDE World Cup.
The Indian lineup includes Praggnanandhaa R, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chithambaram, 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, and Vidit Gujrathi.
The tournament follows a two-game knockout format across eight rounds. Each round includes two classical games over two days, followed by a tiebreak on the third day if needed. The top 50 seeds receive a first-round bye, while players ranked 51–206 compete in the opening round using a “top-half vs reversed-lower-half” pairing system.
Time control for classical games is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one.
FIDE World Cup 2025 Schedule (IST):
- Nov 1–3: Round 1
- Nov 4–6: Round 2
- Nov 7–9: Round 3
- Nov 11–13: Round 4
- Nov 14–16: Round 5
- Nov 17–19: Quarterfinals
- Nov 21–23: Semifinals
- Nov 24–26: Finals All games begin at 3:00 PM IST.
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