[UPDATE] FIDE corrects the players list, Hans Moke Niemann is in FIDE World Cup
After announcing the wild card positions, FIDE has published a massive update of the participants list for the World Cup 2025. The field is headed by the Indian top guns World Champion Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa, and Arjun Erigaisi, who will have as their main competitors Wesley So, Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Levon Aronian, etc (see the full list here)
The list is full of surprises, with the highest profile player missing being Alireza Firouzja who is the only player in top 10 who has not qualified and will skip the event. [UPDATE] Another notable name that was missing was that of Hans Moke Niemann. This came as a shock to many, as on multiple occasions Niemann has stated that he wants to be a World Champion. “I want to be in the chess world for a long time. I want to rise to number 1 classical player. I want to become a World Champion and stay World Champion for a very long time,” said Niemann in an interview an year ago. Now FIDE have corrected the list and Hans Moke Niemann is among the World Cup participants. The new change sees also another update: Leinier Dominguez is out! It seems that was the mishap in the initial list released, as by rating the spot of Niemann had the name of Dominguez instead.
Developing story, stay tuned for updates
More: Abhimanyu Mishra and Andy Woodward receive wild cards for the World Chess Cup 2025 / Faustino Oro may be with a GM norm at the World Cup / Divya Deshmukh gets the wild card for the FIDE World Cup 2025