Overview
- The championships are scheduled for December 25–31 at Qatar University, with Rapid on December 26–28 and Blitz on December 29–30, and a €1,000,000 prize fund.
- FIDE lists 233 registrations for the Blitz Open and 230 for the Rapid, with more than 360 confirmed participants overall.
- Magnus Carlsen announced on X that he will play in Doha, joking about wearing “tighter jeans” after exiting last year’s Rapid before later sharing the Blitz title.
- World champion Gukesh D is confirmed to compete and leads a 41-player Indian contingent across the open events.
- A deep field includes Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa R, with 131 entries in the women’s championships.