The FIDE World Cup took place in Goa, India, Sat 1st to Wed 26th Nov 2025. Players included: World Champion Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, Giri, So, Keymer, Wei Yi, Abdusattorov, Mamedyarov, Niemann, MVL, Nepomniachtchi, Le, Rapport, Aronian etc. It was a eight round knockout but the top 50 players only enter the competition in round 2 alongside the 78 winners of Round 1. The top three finishers qualified for the Candidates tournament although players such as Gukesh and Giri and Caruana didn't require this. The Women's World Cup event that regularly takes place alongside was instead held in July as a separate tournament which I think was better for both.
In the end the surprise winner was 20 year old Javokhir Sindarov who started as 16th seed beat 7th seed Wei Yi although they'd both qualified for the Candidates. Andrey Esipenko beat Nodirbek Yakubboev in the 3rd-4th playoff to take the final Candidates place.