The championship included several rounds with different time controls, organizational forms and access requirements.
First qualifying round
The first qualifying round was open to all interested chess players without a title and was played online via the chess server chess.com. Each of 32 groups played a Swiss-system tournament with 9 rounds and a time control of 10 minutes for the entire game plus an increment of 2 seconds per move. The top 5 players from each group qualified for the second qualifying round, for a total of 160 players.
Second qualifying round
The second qualifying round was open to the 160 qualifiers from the first qualifying round as well as all FIDE title holders. Each of 12 groups played a Swiss-system tournament with 8 rounds, also with a time control of 10 minutes plus 2 seconds increment. The top 7 players from each group qualified for the third qualifying round, for a total of 84 players.
Third qualifying round
The 84 qualifiers from the second qualifying round were divided into 6 groups of 14 players each. Each group was supplemented by two invited chess players. Each group of 16 players played a single-elimination tournament. In each round of the tournament, the two players played a “minimatch” consisting of two games with opposite color assignments. In case of a tie, another minimatch with shorter time control was played, and another one with even shorter time control if the tie persisted. If there was still no decisive result after the third minimatch, the pairing was decided by an Armageddon game. While the first two qualifying rounds brought a number of surprises, the winners of the third qualifying round were all near the top of the FIDE world rankings in standard chess. Nevertheless, some prominent players were knocked out, including Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk and Leinier Domínguez. The following 6 players qualified for the quarterfinals:
The quarterfinals were played from October 4 to 6. The first day saw matches between pairs of players. On the second day, the four losers played each other in pairs in a sort of repechage. On the third day, the winners of the first two days played each other in pairs. The three winners qualified for the semifinals: Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Each match of the quarterfinals consisted of two “slow” rapid games, two “fast” rapid games and 2 blitz games. The games were weighted differently: 3 points for each slow rapid game, 2 points for each fast rapid game and 1 point for each blitz game. Only one match was tied after the 6 games, the one between Alireza Firouzja and Ian Nepomniachtchi on the first day. Ian Nepomniachtchi won the deciding Armageddon game.
Day 1
Day 2 (repechage)
Day 3
The matches between Caruana and Nakamura and between Nepomniachtchi and Firouzja ended when a player won by reaching 6½ points. The match between So and Fedoseev was also already decided after the third game with 6½:1½ points in favour of So. Nevertheless, the two players decided to play the remaining three games, even though they were no longer relevant for the qualification for the semifinals.
Semifinals and finals
The semifinals and the finals took place from October 27 to November 2. In the semifinals, the three qualifiers from the quarterfinals were joined by the world champion in standard chess and the unofficial world champion in Chess960, Magnus Carlsen. The schedule was as follows:
Semifinals
Wesley So won the semifinal match against Ian Nepomniachtchi by reaching a score of 13-5 in the third fast rapid game. Magnus Carlsen won the semifinal match against Fabiano Caruana by reaching a score of 12½-7½ in the last fast rapid game. Thus, Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen qualified for the final, while Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana played for third place.
Finals
The bracket below shows the first-place match between Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So as well as the third-place match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana. The matches took place concurrently. So won the world championship by defeating Carlsen 13½-2½. Nepomniachtchi beat Caruana 12½-5½ to win the consolation match for third place.
