The group stage of the international Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot tournament begins today, November 11, in Budapest, Hungary, with Azerbaijani grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov among the participants.
As reported by İdman.Biz, Mamedyarov will face Armenia's Haik Martirosyan in his opening encounter. The players will contest two games with reversed colors during the day. The first game is scheduled for 18:00 Baku time, followed by the second at 21:30. Mamedyarov will play with the black pieces in the opening game and switch to white in the second.
Following the draw, the Azerbaijani grandmaster was placed in Group C alongside Norway's Magnus Carlsen, the 16th world chess champion and current world No. 1, Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi, American prodigy Abhimanyu Mishra and Armenia's Haik Martirosyan.
The complete group lineups are as follows:
Group A: Alireza Firouzja (France), Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands), Andrew Hong (USA), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Levon Aronian (USA), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan).
Group B: Vladislav Artemiev (Russia), Richard Rapport (Hungary), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (India), Vincent Keymer (Germany), Fabiano Caruana (USA), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam).
Group C: Anish Giri (Netherlands), Haik Martirosyan (Armenia), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), Abhimanyu Mishra (USA), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Magnus Carlsen (Norway).
Group D: Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), Hans Niemann (USA), Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan), Wesley So (USA), Arjun Erigaisi (India), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France).
The Budapest competition is part of the new Total Chess World Championship Tour, developed by the organizers of Norway Chess with the support of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Its distinctive feature is the combination of three chess disciplines — Fast Classic, rapid and blitz — within a single competition.
The tournament, running from November 10 to 20, serves as a pilot event to test the new format ahead of the full international tour scheduled to launch in 2027. The project aims to establish a FIDE world champion in combined chess.
A total of 24 players have been divided into four groups of six. The group stage will take place from November 11 to 15 in a double round-robin format, with each participant playing two games against every opponent for a total of ten games.
The time control is 45 minutes with a 30-second increment per move. Players receive three points for a victory, one for a draw and none for a defeat.
The four group winners will advance to the top playoff bracket to compete for the main trophy. The remaining participants will also continue in the competition, being distributed across five additional brackets according to their final group positions.
The playoff stage will feature matches combining all three disciplines. Each head-to-head contest will last two days, with four blitz games, two rapid games and one Fast Classic game scheduled per day. If necessary, an Armageddon game will determine the winner. The semifinals are scheduled for November 17–18, followed by the finals on November 19–20.
On November 10, the participants competed in a separate nine-round Swiss-system blitz tournament. Its results will serve as a tiebreaker in the group stage and help determine playoff seeding.
Mamedyarov collected 3.5 points and finished 20th among the 24 participants. Magnus Carlsen won the blitz event with seven points, followed by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with 6.5 and Levon Aronian with six.
The tournament features a total prize fund of $650,000, with the overall winner set to receive $80,000. Prize money will be awarded to all 24 participants.
