2025 FIDE Circuit: Early Leaders
After the conclusion of significant tournaments such as Tata Steel Masters, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) has released the current leaderboard of the 2025 FIDE Circuit, which is currently led by Former World Champion Ding Liren.
Ding got a jump-start in the 2025 FIDE Circuit having collected a ginormous 40.64 from his title match against Gukesh. For now, this is the most circuit points any player has registered from a single event. About 15 points behind Ding is Praggnanandhaa with 25 points. Pragg added another jewel to his cabinet with his victory at the prestigious Tata Steel Masters 2025. The Indian prodigy outstrips his compatriot and the reigning World Champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, by almost 3 points owing to his victory over Gukesh in their tiebreak match-up in Wijk. Gukesh’s position on the leaderboard, however, stands irrelevant since the World Champion doesn’t participate in the 2026 Candidates.
Also with a fair performance in Wijk aan Zee, Nodirbek Abdusattorov collected 18.42 points. The Uzbek is in for the run yet again being in contention the previous year.
It should be noted that the tweaks made by FIDE in the points system of the Circuit seem to have worked for now, with the winner of Tata Steel Masters amounting to a significant 25 points while 11.27 for the Challengers. Many top players have expressed dissatisfaction with the methods of calculation in the previous years which awarded the winner of the Masters section 20 while as much as 15 points for the Challengers. As more tournaments are carried out without any observed anomalies, the cohesion of the new system will be established further.
Notable absentees include Arjun Erigaisi who missed out on the 2024 Circuit spot by a hair to Fabiano Caruana. Arjun had a subpar outing at Tata Steel which resulted in him collecting no points from the strong event. How will he fair out in future tournaments like Norway Chess? Is Praggnanandhaa going to write the new Indian fairy tale with the FIDE circuit? Will Ding capitalize on his early lead and try to qualify for the WC again? We will find the answers as the exciting chess in the coming year unfolds.
Photo credit: International Chess Federation (FIDE)
Official website: www.fide.com
