Total Chess Rating Puts Carlsen at 2830, 51 Points Clear

Total Chess has proposed a Total Chess Rating, a single figure that folds a player’s classical, rapid and blitz FIDE ratings into one number on the familiar Elo scale. It was announced on 14 October, and the first ranking covers 100 players using FIDE ratings as of 1 October 2026.

Magnus Carlsen tops it on 2830, with Hikaru Nakamura on 2779 and Nodirbek Abdusattorov on 2774. That is a 51-point gap between first and second, which on the Elo scale is a large one.

What the number is, and isn’t

The Total Chess Rating sits outside FIDE’s official lists and will not change anyone’s classical, rapid or blitz rating. FIDE has agreed to observe the system during its pilot, after talks in a working group with Norway Chess.

The formula was developed by Dr Mehmet Mars Seven of King’s College London with Norway Chess. According to Seven, the idea came from Norway Chess CEO Kjell Madland, who wanted an easy way to compare players across formats.

Why not just average?

Elo is logarithmic, so the method converts each of the three ratings into a measure of playing strength, averages those, and converts back. The three formats carry equal weight, but the nonlinear step lets stronger individual ratings pull the total up a little more.

Carlsen is the worked example. His 1 October ratings were 2823 classical, 2801 rapid and 2860 blitz.

The plain average is 2828; the formula gives 2830. The difference is small for him, but it shows the direction of the effect.

A reader who wants to see how the three inputs compare on the FIDE Top 100 can check the open list directly, and the FIDE Women’s Top 25 covers the women’s side. The new ranking is built from those same published ratings, though it reorders players by a blended figure rather than classical alone.

For background on what an Elo gap predicts, see our explainer on what a chess rating measures.

The top ten

Alireza Firouzja is fourth on 2765 and Javokhir Sindarov fifth on 2753. Arjun Erigaisi, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu complete the top ten.

Some of the shifts are instructive. Sindarov (2782 classical) and Caruana (2784) have two of the highest classical ratings in the table, yet land fifth and ninth because their rapid and blitz numbers are lower. Nepomniachtchi’s classical 2719 is the lowest of the ten, but 2748 rapid and 2765 blitz lift him to seventh.

Nakamura and Abdusattorov show the opposite pattern: modest rapid ratings (2738 and 2704) are offset by blitz figures of 2800 and 2819. Whether equal weighting is the right choice is exactly the kind of question the consultation is meant to test. One could argue that a combined title should reward blitz skill this much; others may not.

Tied to the new tour

The rating arrives alongside the Total Chess World Championship Tour, built by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE, which aims to crown a FIDE World Combined Champion across fast classic, rapid and blitz. Erling Haaland joined as a strategic investor in Norway Chess through Chess Mates, a company set up with businessman Morten Borge.

A 24-player pilot runs in Budapest from 10 to 21 November, with Carlsen, Caruana, So, Vincent Keymer, Abdusattorov, Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa among the field. It starts with four groups of six playing double round-robins at 45 minutes plus 30 seconds per move.

The knockout stage mixes four blitz games, two rapid games and one fast classic game per match, with weighted scoring. The first full season is planned for 2027, with four tournaments.

Fast classic games will count toward FIDE classical ratings, so they will feed the classical component of the Total Chess Rating too. For the basics of the three formats, see how time controls work.

Feedback window

Comments submitted by 6 November can be considered before Budapest, and consultation stays open until 24 December 2026. Total Chess plans to publish its review, including any significant changes to the calculation, in early 2027. Feedback goes to Dr Seven at mehmet.mars.seven@kcl.ac.uk, copied to info@totalchess.com.