Champions Chess Tour 2025–2026
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Duration | 2 September 2025 – 27 May 2026 |
| Tournaments | 3 |
| Achievements (singles) | |
| Prize money leader |  Magnus Carlsen ($15,200) |
| Points leader | Magnus Carlsen (102) |
← 2025 | |
The Champions Chess Tour (CCT) 2025–2026 is a fast chess tournament circuit organized in 2025–2026 by Chess.com. The tour started on 2 September 2025 and will end on 27 May 2026. It involves three online chess tournaments, which will determine 12 qualifying players of the 2026 Esports World Cup and up to 64 of the Esports Nations Cup.[1][2]
The top three finishers in the Speed Chess Championship, top three finishers in the Chess.com Global Championship and top six players in the leaderboard not qualified from the prior two events, will qualify for the Esports World Cup, while the top player from each nation, up to 64 players, in the leaderboard will qualify for the Esports Nations Cup.
Tour points and prize money
The total prize pool for each tournament will be US$250,000, except for the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix which has prize pool of US$3,000 for each Titled Tuesday and US$30,000 for each of the three splits, also Tour points will be awarded for each Titled Tuesday result. It is distributed as follows:[3]
Titled Tuesday Grand Prix (TTGP)
Points will be based on placement within a given Titled Tuesday. Results beyond a player's top eight placements, within a split, will not count.[3]
| Titled Tuesday | Split | |||
| Finish | Points | Prize | Finish | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 10 | $1,000 | 1st | $5,000 |
| 2nd | 7 | $750 | 2nd | $3,000 |
| 3rd | 5 | $350 | 3rd | $2,500 |
| 4th | 4 | $250 | 4th | $1,500 |
| 5th | 3 | $150 | 5th | $1,000 |
| 6th | 2 | $100 | 6th | $750 |
| 7th | – | 7th | $500 | |
| 8th-10th | 1 | – | 8th | $350 |
| Top woman | – | $100 | 9th | $250 |
| Top 3 streamers | – | $100 (×3) | 10th | $150 |
Speed Chess Championship (SCC)
Prizes will be awarded to participants of each Match based on the winner of the Match, and the win percentage of each player in the Match. For prizes split by win percentage, such win percentage is determined by a player's total points accumulated in the Match divided by the number of games played in the Match.[4]
| Finish | Points | Prize | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Prize | Winner prize | Rest Split | ||
| 1st | QF | $50,000 | $25,000 | By win percentage |
| 2nd | QF | |||
| 3rd | QF | $15,000 | $7,500 | By win percentage |
| 4th | 100 | |||
| Semifinals | – | $30,000 | $15,000 | By win percentage |
| Quarterfinals (×4) | 50 | $15,000 | $7,500 | By win percentage |
| Round of 16 (×8) | 0 | $8,125 | $4,062.50 | By win percentage |
Chess.com Global Championship (CGC)
| Finish | Points | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | QF | $50,000 |
| 2nd | QF | $35,000 |
| 3rd | QF | $25,000 |
| 4th | 100 | $20,000 |
| 5th (×2) | 75 | $15,000 |
| 7th (×2) | 50 | $10,000 |
| 9th (×4) | 35 | $7,500 |
| 13th (×4) | 20 | $5,000 |
| Play-In (3rd) | 15 | $1,500 |
| Play-In (4th) | 10 | $1,000 |
| Play-In (5th) | 5 | $500 |
| Play-In (6th - 10th) | 3 | $200 |
| Play-In (11st-20th) | 2 | - |
| Play-In (21st - 30th) | 1 | - |
Tournament schedule and results
| Tournament | Dates | Prize | Winner | Second (or finalist) |
Third | Fourth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Titled Tuesday Grand Prix | |||||||
| Autumn Split | 2 Sep 2025 – 25 Nov 2025 | $3,000 (per Titled Tuesday) $30,000 (per Split) |
Magnus Carlsen
|
 Hikaru Nakamura
|
 Alireza Firouzja
|
 Denis Lazavik
| |
| Winter Split | 2 Dec 2025 – 24 Feb 2026 | ||||||
| Spring Split | 3 Mar 2026 – 26 May 2026 | ||||||
| Speed Chess Championship | 13 Oct 2025 – 9 Feb 2026 | $250,000 | Magnus Carlsen
|
Alireza Firouzja
|
Denis Lazavik
|
Hikaru Nakamura
| |
| Chess.com Global Championship | 14 Mar 2026 – 26 Apr 2026 | ||||||
Standings
Prize money is shown in US dollars. The top six finishers in leaderboard who did not qualify via Speed Chess and Chess.com Global Championships will qualify for the Esports World Cup. Upto 64 players will qualify for the 2026 Esports Nations Cup as well, with each nation's top player in the rankings qualifying; the Titled Tuesday Spring Split rankings will determine the remaining entrants if the leaderboard is insufficient for filling all 64 spots.[2][5]
'QF' denotes that the player has qualified from another path.
- : 2025 Esports World Cup champion – already qualified for 2026 Esports World Cup
- : Qualified for 2026 Esports World Cup from another path
- : Set to qualify for 2026 Esports World Cup and 2026 Esports Nations Cup from leaderboard rankings
- : Set to qualify for 2026 Esports World Cup from leaderboard rankings
- : Set to qualify for 2026 Esports Nations Cup from leaderboard rankings
| Pos | Name | Speed Chess Championship | Chess.com Global Championship | Titled Tuesday Grand Prix | Total | Prize money | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn Split | Winter Split | Spring Split | ||||||
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen
|
QF | 61 | 41 | Qualified | $97,863.40 | ||
| 2 | Alireza Firouzja
|
QF | 32 | 0 | Qualified | $59,106.94 | ||
| 3 | Denis Lazavik
|
QF | 24 | 18 | Qualified | $40,704.70 | ||
| 4 | Hikaru Nakamura
|
100 | 41 | 13 | 154 | $36,804.88 | ||
| 5 | Ian Nepomniachtchi
|
50 | 13 | 7 | 70 | $10,662.28 | ||
| 6 | Hans Moke Niemann
|
50 | 10 | 1 | 61 | $10,959.38 | ||
| 7 | Fabiano Caruana
|
50 | 3 | 6 | 59 | $9,197.29 | ||
| 8 | Wesley So
|
50 | 0 | 1 | 51 | $9,908.93 | ||
| 9 |  Jan-Krzysztof Duda
|
— | 20 | 30 | 50 | $5,050 | ||
| 10 |  Alexey Sarana
|
— | 21 | 19 | 40 | $3,700 | ||
| 11 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
|
— | 14 | 24 | 38 | $3,350 | ||
| 12 | Samuel Sevian
|
— | 0 | 28 | 28 | $2,450 | ||
| 13 | Dmitry Andreikin
|
— | 16 | 12 | 28 | $2,200 | ||
| 14 | Jeffery Xiong
|
— | 12 | 15 | 27 | $1,850 | ||
| 15 |  Vincent Keymer
|
0 | 6 | 19 | 25 | $3,787.50 | ||
| 16 |  Javokhir Sindarov
|
— | 1 | 20 | 21 | $2,000 | ||
| 17 |  Olexandr Bortnyk
|
— | 18 | 1 | 19 | $2,950 | ||
| 18 |  Parham Maghsoodloo
|
— | 11 | 7 | 18 | $1,400 | ||
| 19 |  Bogdan-Daniel Deac
|
— | 7 | 11 | 18 | $750 | ||
| 20 |  Arjun Erigaisi
|
0 | 1 | 15 | 16 | $3,241.07 | ||
| 21 | Pranesh M
|
— | 16 | 0 | 16 | $1,500 | ||
| 22 | Alexander Grischuk
|
— | 0 | 5 | 15 | $500 | ||
| 23 |  Haik Martirosyan
|
— | 0 | 14 | 14 | $1,150 | ||
| 24 | Andrey Esipenko
|
— | 9 | 4 | 13 | $850 | ||
| 25 | Sina Movahed
|
— | 0 | 10 | 10 | $850 | ||
| Pos | Name | Speed Chess Championship | Chess.com Global Championship | Titled Tuesday Grand Prix | Total | Prize money | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn Split | Winter Split | Spring Split | ||||||
| 26 |  Nikolas Theodorou
|
— | 1 | 9 | 10 | $600 | ||
| 27 | Andrew Tang
|
— | 6 | 4 | 10 | $600 | ||
| 28 | Vladislav Artemiev
|
— | 3 | 7 | 10 | $600 | ||
| 29 |  Renato Terry
|
— | 7 | 3 | 10 | $1,250 | ||
| 30 |  Lê Tuấn Minh
|
0 | 9 | 0 | 9 | $1,704.17 | ||
| 31 | David Paravyan
|
— | 9 | 0 | 9 | $750 | ||
| 32 | Aleksandr Shimanov
|
— | 5 | 3 | 8 | $600 | ||
| 33 |  José Martínez Alcántara
|
— | 7 | 0 | 7 | $1,951.36 | ||
| 34 | Matthias Blübaum
|
— | 1 | 6 | 7 | $1,050 | ||
| 35 | Rasmus Svane
|
— | 6 | 0 | 6 | $950 | ||
| 36 | Amin Tabatabaei
|
— | 4 | 2 | 6 | $250 | ||
| 37 | Vidit Gujrathi
|
— | 6 | 0 | 6 | $350 | ||
| 38 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov
|
— | 3 | 3 | 6 | $300 | ||
| 39 | Pranav V
|
— | 5 | 1 | 6 | $200 | ||
| 40 | Lê Quang Liêm
|
0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | $2,118.75 | ||
| 41 | Dau Khuong Duy
|
— | 5 | 0 | 5 | $350 | ||
| 42 |  Faustino Oro
|
— | 0 | 5 | 5 | $150 | ||
| 43 | Volodar Murzin
|
— | 3 | 2 | 5 | $150 | ||
| 44 | Kacper Drozdowski
|
— | 4 | 0 | 4 | $250 | ||
| 45 |  Xiao Tong
|
— | 4 | 0 | 4 | $250 | ||
| 46 |  Cristobal Henriquez Villagra
|
— | 0 | 4 | 4 | $150 | ||
| 47 | Jules Moussard
|
— | 4 | 0 | 4 | $250 | ||
| 48 | Bharath Subramaniyam
|
— | 1 | 3 | 4 | $150 | ||
| 49 |  Mahammad Muradli
|
— | 2 | 2 | 4 | $100 | ||
| 50 | Zbigniew Pakleza
|
— | 0 | 3 | 3 | $150 | ||
| 51 | Daniel Naroditsky
|
— | 3 | 0 | 3 | $150 | ||
| 52 | Rudik Makarian
|
— | 1 | 2 | 3 | $0 | ||
| 53 | Sergey Drygalov
|
— | 3 | 0 | 3 | $100 | ||
| 54 |  Rinat Jumabayev
|
— | 1 | 2 | 3 | $0 | ||
| 55 |  Anish Giri
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | $1,523.44 | ||
| 56 | Murad Ibrahimli
|
— | 2 | 0 | 2 | $100 | ||
| 57 |  Salem Saleh
|
— | 2 | 0 | 2 | $100 | ||
| 58 | Aravindh Chithambaram
|
— | 2 | 0 | 2 | $0 | ||
| 59 | Khagan Ahmad
|
— | 2 | 0 | 2 | $0 | ||
| 60 | Vasif Durarbayli
|
— | 0 | 2 | 2 | $100 | ||
| 61 | Martyn Kravtsiv
|
— | 1 | 1 | 2 | $0 | ||
| 62 | Aleksandar Inđić
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 63 | Anton Korobov
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 64 | Semen Puzyrevsky
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 65 | Zhamsaran Tsydypov
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 66 | Xue Haowen
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 67 | Sergei Zhigalko
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $100 | ||
| 68 | Felix-Antonio Ilinca
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 69 | Maksim Tsaruk
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 70 |  Vahap Şanal
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 71 | Benjamin Bok
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $400 | ||
| 72 | Artin Ashraf
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 73 | Nihal Sarin
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 74 | Allahverdi Hamidov
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 75 | Pablo Salinas Herrera
|
— | 1 | 0 | 1 | $0 | ||
| 76 | Marco Materia
|
— | 0 | 1 | 1 | $0 | ||
Tournaments details
Titled Tuesday Grand Prix
Each player’s best eight results are counted toward the Grand Prix standings, which are organized into three Splits.[6] Tiebreaks are decided by comparing players’ highest individual weekly finish among their counted results or the second-highest finish is compared, followed by the third, and so on until the tie is broken. If still tied then most number of Titled Tuesday events played would be considered. The top eight finishers in the Winter Split will qualify for Chess.com Global Championship.[7]
| Finish | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th-7th | 8th-10th | < 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 10 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Autumn Split (2 Sep 2025 – 25 Nov 2025)
| Pos | Name | Top finishes | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen
|
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 61 |
| 2 | Hikaru Nakamura
|
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 41 |
| 3 | Alireza Firouzja
|
1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 13 | 253 | 32 |
| 4 | Denis Lazavik
|
1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 24 |
| 5 | Alexey Sarana
|
1 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 24 | 27 | 30 | 21 |
| 6 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda
|
2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 13 | 21 | 20 |
| 7 | Olexandr Bortnyk
|
1 | 2 | 9 | 12 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 21 | 18 |
| 8 | Pranesh M
|
1 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 45 | 155 | 157 | 213 | 16 |
| 9 | Dmitry Andreikin
|
3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 16 |
| 10 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
|
2 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 14 | |||
Winter Split (3 Dec 2025 – 24 Feb 2026)
| Pos | Name | Top finishes | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen
|
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 41 |
| 2 | Jan-Krzysztof Duda
|
1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 23 | 30 |
| 3 | Samuel Sevian
|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 28 |
| 4 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
|
1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 79 | 134 | 137 | 154 | 24 |
| 5 | Javokhir Sindarov
|
1 | 1 | 20 | ||||||
| 6 | Vincent Keymer
|
1 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 23 | 18 | |||
| 7 | Alexey Sarana
|
3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 18 | 19 | 19 |
| 8 | Denis Lazavik
|
2 | 2 | 4 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 35 | 35 | 18 |
| 9 | Arjun Erigaisi
|
2 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 34 | 67 | 15 | ||
| 10 | Jeffery Xiong
|
3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 17 | 29 | 15 |
Spring Split (3 Mar 2026 – 26 May 2026)
| Pos | Name | Top finishes | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TBD | |||||||||
| 2 | TBD | |||||||||
| 3 | TBD | |||||||||
| 4 | TBD | |||||||||
| 5 | TBD | |||||||||
| 6 | TBD | |||||||||
| 7 | TBD | |||||||||
| 8 | TBD | |||||||||
| 9 | TBD | |||||||||
| 10 | TBD | |||||||||
Speed Chess Championship
| Round 1 | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen
| 14.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 16 | José Martínez Alcántara
| 8.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Magnus Carlsen
| 14.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fabiano Caruana
| 7.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | Fabiano Caruana
| 11 | |||||||||||||||||
| 9 | R Praggnanandhaa
| 10 | |||||||||||||||||
| Magnus Carlsen
| 17 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Denis Lazavik
| 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Arjun Erigaisi
| 9 | |||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Denis Lazavik
| 12 | |||||||||||||||||
| Denis Lazavik
| 15.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hans Niemann
| 9.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Hans Niemann
| 18 | |||||||||||||||||
| 13 | Ding Liren
| 6 | |||||||||||||||||
| Magnus Carlsen
| 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alireza Firouzja
| 12 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Alireza Firouzja
| 16 | |||||||||||||||||
| 11 | Lê Tuấn Minh
| 8 | |||||||||||||||||
| Alireza Firouzja
| 19 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Ian Nepomniachtchi
| 9 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Ian Nepomniachtchi
| 17.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| 14 | Anish Giri
| 10.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Alireza Firouzja
| 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Hikaru Nakamura
| 13 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Hikaru Nakamura
| 13.5 | Consolation | ||||||||||||||||
| 10 | Lê Quang Liêm
| 11.5 | |||||||||||||||||
| Hikaru Nakamura
| 11 | Denis Lazavik
| 13.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| Wesley So
| 10 | Hikaru Nakamura
| 12.5 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | Wesley So
| 14 | |||||||||||||||||
| 15 | Vincent Keymer
| 11 | |||||||||||||||||
Chess.com Global Championship
The Chess.com Global Championship Playoffs are a double-elimination knockout bracket with eight qualified players from the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix (TTGP) Winter Split, and the eight qualified players from the Play-Ins. Players will be seeded by TTGP rank, then Play-In winners draft their bracket position in the order they qualify in.[10]
Esports World Cup
The reigning Esports World Cup champion, Magnus Carlsen, will automatically qualify for the next edition. The top three finishers in the Speed Chess Championship, top three finishers in the Chess.com Global Championship and top six players in the leaderboard not qualified from the prior two events, will qualify for the Esports World Cup.[1]
Esports Nations Cup
The Esports Nations Cup is a nation-focused tournament. Sixty-four players will automatically qualify for the event. The top player from each nation in the leaderboard will qualify for the event. Should the leaderboard qualify less than sixty-four players, the results of the Titled Tuesday Grand Prix (TTGP) Spring Split will be used to fill all remaining spots.[2]
Notes
References
- ^ a b Chess.com staff (2025-08-21). "Esports World Cup Returns With Bigger, Year-Round Qualifying Cycle". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
- ^ a b c Morris, Joey (9 February 2026). "Chess announced for the Esports Nations Cup 2026". Esports Insider. Retrieved 10 February 2026.
- ^ a b "Chess.com Official 2026 Event Rulebook - Champions Chess Tour". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
- ^ "Chess.com Official 2026 Event Rulebook - Speed Chess Championship". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-02-06.
- ^ "Chess Joins Esports Nations Cup 2026 With 128-Player Field". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ^ "Titled Tuesday Grand Prix 2025-2026". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-02-12.
- ^ "Chess.com Official 2026 Event Rulebook - Titled Tuesday Grand Prix 2025-2026". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-01-29.
- ^ Titled Tuesday Grand Prix 2025-2026: Autumn Split
- ^ Titled Tuesday Grand Prix 2025-2026: Winter Split
- ^ Chess.com staff (2025-11-25). "Chess.com Global Championship Returns As Part Of Esports World Cup Qualification Cycle". Chess.com. Retrieved 2026-01-08.
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