2025 FIDE World Cup Preview: So, Niemann, Aronian Top List of 12 Americans in Goa

The 2025 FIDE World Cup begins Saturday, Nov. 1 in Goa, India. Of the 206 participants, 12 Americans are making the trip to compete for a share of the $2,000,000 prize fund and one of three available spots for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. With GM Magnus Carlsen electing not to participate, we are guaranteed a new champion.

The tournament runs through most of the month, with the final tiebreaks and closing ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 26. The tournament is formatted as an eight-round knockout, with each round consisting of one classical game a day for two days and a third day reserved for rapid and blitz tiebreaks (if needed). The full schedule, including information about rest days, is here.

More information about tiebreaks can be found under Section 4.7 in the regulations, but the main thing to know is that, unlike the Women’s World Cup held earlier this year, the regulations call for what is functionally an Armageddon game (Black gets draw odds) even though it is still being called Sudden Death.

The one exception to the knockout format is in the semifinals, where the two players who lose their semifinal match will play a match for third place alongside the match for first place. With three spots for the Candidates up for grabs, this match is arguably higher stakes than the match for first!

For Round 1, the 50 highest-rated players receive a bye, while the remaining 156 players face off in elimination matches to earn one of the 78 remaining spots in Round 2. Nine Americans will receive this first-round bye: GMs Wesley So (fifth), Hans Niemann (10th), Levon Aronian (15th), Awonder Liang (21st), Samuel Sevian (23rd), Ray Robson (36th), Grigoriy Oparin (41st), Sam Shankland (46th), and Abhimanyu Mishra (50th).

In Round 1, GMs Jeffery Xiong (52nd), Andy Woodward (98th), and Kirk Ghazarian (144th) will face Chinese CM Yiheng Li, Indian IM Himal Gusain, and Montenegro’s GM Nikita Petrov, respectively.

When trying to follow the bracket, here are a few tips. First, note the link to a downloadable Excel sheet. It’s searchable!

Second, remember that each of the four top seeds are placed into different quadrants. Barring upsets, everyone’s path to the semifinals will run through exactly one of GMs Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, or Anish Giri.

Third, “bracket math” should work out so, beginning with Round 2, the seed numbers of the projected (i.e., no upsets) players should equal the number of remaining players plus one. For example, top-seeded Gukesh will play the winner of the match between players seeded 128th and 129th, and 1+128=129. 50th-seeded Mishra will be due (barring an upset) the 79th-seeded player (Emirati GM Salem Saleh). This can be a useful way to situate a player’s potential path based on their overall seeding.

Some possible early-round pairings include: Niemann versus English GM Michael Adams or Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov in Round 3, Aronian – Mishra in Round 3, Woodward against Austrian GM Kirill Alekseenko in Round 2, and Shankland against legendary Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk in Round 2.

Stay tuned to Chess Life Online for annotated games and highlights from Goa, and follow US Chess on X for more regular updates. Round 1 begins at 4:30 a.m. CDT on Saturday, Nov. 1 and, due to the time change, all subsequent rounds will begin at 3:30 a.m. CST. Follow the games on Chess.com and Lichess.