The FIDE World Cup 2025 was held from November 1 to 27 in Goa, India, with qualification for the next Candidates Tournament at stake. The event featured 206 of the world's top chess players and a prize pool of $2 million, among the highest recorded in the game, let alone being the most for any competition this year.
After almost a month of action, Grandmaster Javokhir Sindarov, from Uzbekistan, clinched the title, beating Chinese GM Wei Yi 1.5-0.5 in tiebreaks in the final. As a result, he became the youngest ever World Cup winner while also taking home $120,000 in winnings.
Javokhir Sindarov and Wei Yi also booked their spots at the next edition of the Candidates Tournament, where the challenger to world champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju will be decided. Joining the top two in this prestigious event is Russia's GM, Andrey Esipenko, who beat Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev in the third-place match.
The FIDE World Cup 2025 reached 64,776 Peak Viewers (PV) during the Quarterfinals tiebreaks. It also accumulated 2.7 million Hours Watched (HW), putting it among the year's four most-watched competitions and only the fifth to pass the 2 million watch hours mark.
This prominent chess event has been part of the FIDE World Championship cycle since 2005, taking place every two years. The 2025 editions saw the top 50 seeds receive a bye in round one. The matches consisted of two classical games, followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks if needed.
Among those who livestreamed the action, star Russian chess influencer and Grandmaster Sergey "Crestbook" Shipov was the most-watched and popular community streamer. YouTube maintained its reign as the platform of choice for viewers to catch the action by a healthy margin, although the official chess24 Twitch channel continues to grow in reach with each event.
Highest prize pools events in chess
| # | Event name | Prize Pool* |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2024 FIDE World Championship | $2,500,000
|
| 2 | FIDE World Championship 2021
|
$2 259 000
|
| 3 | FIDE World Championship 2023
|
$2,225,500
|
| 4 | FIDE World Chess Cup 2025
|
$2 000 000
|
| 5 | FIDE World Cup 2021
|
$1 890 000
|
*as per Chesswatch database
The details for the next Candidates Tournament are not official yet, but FIDE is sure to reveal information soon, now that one of the main events in the current cycle has concluded. Chesswatch will ensure to update readers with any announcements regarding this prestigious competition on its news section.
