Assaubayeva to face Carlsen for new FIDE World Combined Champion title
Kazakh chess player Bibisara Assaubayeva will compete against Magnus Carlsen and other leading players at the inaugural Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest from November 10 to 21, Qazinform News Agency reports.
The tournament, conceptualized by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE, will bring together 24 elite players to compete for the inaugural FIDE World Combined Champion title in Fast Classic, Rapid and Blitz.
Eighteen players have been confirmed so far. The field includes world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Bibisara Assaubayeva, Vincent Keymer, Wesley So, Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa R, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Richard Rapport, Hans Moke Niemann, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Haik Martirosyan, Vladislav Artemiev and India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu. The remaining six participants will be announced in September.
Assaubayeva is ranked fifth among women in the August 2026 FIDE standard rankings.
The competition will begin with a group stage featuring four groups of six players. Each group will play a double round-robin over five days, with 10 Fast Classical games per player. Victories will be worth three points and draws one point.
The knockout stage will test players in all three formats: four Blitz games, two Rapid games and one Fast Classical game. The four highest-ranked players across the Tour will qualify for the Grand Final, where the semifinals and championship match will determine the inaugural FIDE World Combined Champion. Tied knockout matches will be decided by Armageddon.
Carlsen said he was looking forward to playing in Budapest and trying the new format.
The Budapest event will serve as a pilot for the Total Chess World Championship Tour, which will feature four premier tournaments in different global cities beginning in 2027.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Kazakhstan’s three-time world blitz chess champion Bibisara Assaubayeva had won bronze at the prestigious 2026 Cairns Cup in the U.S.
