The announcement of the Total Chess World Championship Tour has been receiving mixed reactions. It has received backing from the likes of Magnus Carlsen and others. But has also been criticised by GMs like Hikaru Nakamura. Organised by Norway Chess and officially approved by FIDE, the tour will consist of Fast Classical (45 minutes + 30-second increment), Rapid and Blitz, and each season will have four events and a minimum annual prize pool of USD 2.7 million. A pilot event has been set for 2026, and we will have a full c'ship season in 2027.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Nakamura slammed the naming of the tour. "The naming of this tour is just bizarre to me. As someone who tends to look at things from the outside versus the inside these days, calling it the Total Chess World Championship Tour sounds really really clunky to me. It does not sound catchy at all."
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"The thing that stands out to me about this is I do not understand the purpose of this because we already have the Grand Chess Tour, which has regular classical chess, rapid and blitz events like the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, the SuperBet in Zagreb, Croatia. So, to me, on the surface, I don’t understand the purpose of this at all. FIDE is involved with this which is also never a good sign.
"I don’t understand this. What exactly is going on here? We’re now going to count 45-minute chess as classical chess. I would have understood the notion of trying to maybe have games with one-hour counting as classical chess, but counting games in 45 minutes as classical chess, I’m really confused. I’m not going to lie. I’m actually really confused by this. Because to me, 45-minute chess is not classical chess. I don’t think it ever will be or it ever should be. This feels like a lot of fluff and trying to start something. It actually in some ways reminds me a little bit of freestyle. It feels like total fluff," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"I don’t understand this. What exactly is going on here? We’re now going to count 45-minute chess as classical chess. I would have understood the notion of trying to maybe have games with one-hour counting as classical chess, but counting games in 45 minutes as classical chess, I’m really confused. I’m not going to lie. I’m actually really confused by this. Because to me, 45-minute chess is not classical chess. I don’t think it ever will be or it ever should be. This feels like a lot of fluff and trying to start something. It actually in some ways reminds me a little bit of freestyle. It feels like total fluff," he added.
{{/usCountry}}Backing the tournament, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky retweeted Vidit Gujrathi's explanation on X. Sutovsky wrote, "Really funny, and to the point. But given a choice - would you prefer less confusing titles and less events/opportunities/funding? The status of official FIDE World Championship (Cup) brings in public attention, sponsors, hosting cities, etc. All these are multi-million events. I am ready to take the heat but deliver something major for players - and chess community in general. In the ideal world, it all could be streamlined. Working on it."