Chess 

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm will compete in the Total Chess World Championship, to be held next month in Budapest, Hungary.

The tournament is a new FIDE-approved global title event that brings fast classical, rapid and blitz chess together in a single world championship. Its pilot edition will be held in Budapest from November 10 to 20, before a full tour begins in 2027.

It aims to identify the world’s strongest all-format player, create qualification pathways for future Candidates cycles and broaden chess’s appeal to spectators by integrating faster formats into a unified championship.

Kjell Madland, CEO of the Total Chess World Championship Tour, said: “The addition of these six exceptional players makes an already outstanding field even stronger. Their experience, personalities and different approaches to the game reflect exactly what Total Chess is about.

“It brings the very best of chess together across formats and creates a championship that can engage a new generation of fans. Budapest is an important first step as we build towards the global tour in 2027.”

Organisers have announced a 24-player field, with Liêm among the final six grandmasters confirmed for the event. Eighteen players have Elo ratings above 2,700, including five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway; world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana of the United States; inaugural Fischer Random World Chess Champion Wesley So of the Philippines; world No. 6 Vincent Keymer of Germany; and Alireza Firouzja of France, the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2,800.

The field also includes two female players: reigning Women’s World Blitz Champion Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan, and Vaishali Rameshbabu of India, a two-time winner of the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss Tournament.

Liêm, with an Elo rating of 2,732, is ranked 18th in the field.

The players will be divided into four groups of six at the Anantara New York Palace Budapest Hotel.

Each group will play a double round-robin format, with players contesting 10 fast classical games. A nine-round Swiss-system blitz tournament before the main competition will determine tie-break rankings.

Following the group stage, players will advance to knockout brackets according to their finishing positions.

The four highest-ranked players across the Tour will qualify for the Grand Final, where the semi-finals and championship match will determine the inaugural FIDE World Combined Champion. — VNS