The new championship, titled the Total Chess World Championship Tour, will consist of four events each year and crown a combined champion across three disciplines – Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz chess. “We expect this to become one of the most prestigious events in the entire chess Calendar,” says Kjell Madland, CEO of Norway Chess and of the new championship.

Key Highlights:

• A brand-new World Championship format in chess, organized by Norway Chess, has been officially approved by the International Chess Federation, FIDE.
• The Total Chess World Championship Tour will crown an overall champion across three disciplines: Fast Classic, Rapid, and Blitz. The winner will be crowned FIDE World Combined Champion.
• The tour will consist of four tournaments per year in various global cities.
• Minimum :2.7M annual prize pool across the Tour (:750k per event for the first three events; :450k for the Finals), plus performance bonuses.
• A pilot tournament is planned for fall 202C, with the first full championship season in 2027.

The initiative comes from the organizers of the prestigious Norway Chess tournament, and the official World Championship status agreement was signed with the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in early October. The vision of the Total Chess World Championship Tour is to find the player who best masters the disciplines Fast Classic, Rapid and Blitz combined. Fast Classic is an innovation of classical chess, featuring a time limit as short as 45 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. This will receive rating as classical chess.

“We are looking for “The Total Chess Player” – a versatile, tactically intelligent, and technically skilled athlete who seamlessly adapts to multiple time controls”, says Kjell Madland.

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