Photo: WR Chess Masters | Lennart Ootes

Wesley So came out on top of the FIDE Circuit Leaderboard in February, edging out the former leader Anish Giri to second place. His tally of 30.8 points is a sum of two solid results (two fourth places) in the two strongest tournaments of the year so far. Levon Aronian (pictured below) soared to third place following his excellent performance at the WR Chess Masters.

Photo: WR Chess Masters | Lennart Ootes

Another two beneficiaries of this event are Gukesh D and Ian Nepomiachtchi, who tied for first place and broke into the top 10 in the race.

As you can see, the top quartet consists exclusively of the players who did well in two points-heavy events in January and February: Tata Steel Masters and WR Chess Masters. Most likely, it will be the case in this race for the spot in the Candidates.

Photo: St-Louis Chess Club | Austin Fuller

The second tournament that came towards the FIDE Circuit leaderboard in February was the traditional Capelle la Grande in France. Its winner Sethuraman, S.P. (pictured above) picked up 6.5 points, while the runner-up Harsha Bharathakoti earned 5.5 points. Both made their way into the top 20.

FIDE Circuit race top 10 as of February 28, 2023

You can find FIDE Circuit overall standings on ratings.fide.com/circuit.phtml 

At the end of 2022, FIDE Council approved a major reform of the qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament – the event that decides the challenger for the World Championship match.

One of the paths is the newly created FIDE Circuit (Path D). The player accumulating the most points during 2023 in eligible tournaments qualifies for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The final score is calculated as the sum of the player’s five highest results.