IM Pranesh M is the early leader of the FIDE Circuit. The 16-year old from India emerged as the winner of the 2022/2023 Rilton Cup and picked up 6.8 circuit points to grab the top position in the leaderboard. IM Kaan Kucuksari (Sweden) and GM Nikita Meshkovs (Latvia) finished a full point behind the winner with the former taking second place thanks to better tiebreaks.
Consequently, the top finishers of the 2022/2023 Rilton Cup are leading the FIDE Circuit race. FIDE Circuit race top 10 after the Rilton Cup:
1
Pranesh M
2475
IND
6.76
2
Kucuksari, Kaan
2487
SWE
5.24
3
Meshkovs, Nikita
2576
LAT
4.90
4
Urkedal, Frode Olav
2536
NOR
3.55
5
Galperin, Platon
2534
UKR
3.21
6
Gorshtein, Ido
2498
ISR
2.87
7
Sokolovsky, Yahli
2431
ISR
2.54
8
Raja Rithvik R
2459
IND
0.73
9
Parkhov, Yair
2467
ISR
0.06
10
Souleidis, Georgios
2410
GRE
0.06
.
In the end of 2022, FIDE Council approved a major reform of the qualification paths to the Candidates Tournament – the event that decides the challenger for the World Championship match. One of the paths is the newly created FIDE Circuit (Path D). The player accumulating the most points during 2023 in eligible tournaments qualifies for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. The final score is calculated as the sum of the player’s five highest results.