‘India is quickly becoming the beating heart of modern chess, and its role as an economic power is more and more visible.’
IMAGE: Goa to host the 2025 World Corporate Chess Championship with FIDE. Photograph: World Corporate/FIDE
Goa will host the 2025 World Corporate Chess Championship alongside the FIDE World Cup 2025 slated during October-November, said the International Chess Federation or FIDE.
FIDE has opened the registration for gthe World Corporate Chess Championship 2025 which will be held in three stages.
According to FIDE the title-winning corporate will be crowned ‘The Smartest Company in the World’.
‘The championship will unfold across three stages; online qualifiers, online knockout matches, and the over-the-board finals in Goa, India, held alongside the prestigious FIDE World Cup 2025,’ FIDE said.
The tournament will once again highlight how certain principles of chess such as strategy, adaptability and calculated decision-making, mirror the challenges of the business world.
By bringing employees, executives, and business owners together over the chessboard, FIDE aims to create a global platform for corporate pride, networking, and competition.
‘The World Corporate Chess Championship has grown from a novel idea into a global showcase, mixing serious business with serious chess. In 2021 due to the pandemic it was held entirely online, but in New York 2024, teams from top companies around the world — Google, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, UBS, to name a few, competed in this event on the most iconic stage,’ FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky said.
In 2025, FIDE is aligning the chess and corporate world even tighter, staging the final stage of the event in Goa, alongside the FIDE World Cup.
‘India is quickly becoming the beating heart of modern chess, and its role as an economic power is more and more visible — this double-stage event reflects the momentum,’ Sutovsky said.
According to FIDE, teams representing any legally recognised company can participate in the event.
Each team consists of four players and a captain, who may also be a player.
Eligible participants include employees and board members who have been with the company since March 1, 2025, as well as business owners holding more than 10% of the company’s shares. Companies may register more than one team.
The 2025 edition will be played in three stages:
Online Qualifiers (Lichess.org, October 11 to 12)
Online Knockout (Lichess.org, October 18)
Finals (Over-the-board, Goa, November 14 to 16)
The Online Knockout will be played as two-match duels with the same 10+3 time control. In the event of a tie, a sudden death game will decide the winner. Eight teams will advance to the finals.
The finals in Goa will feature the eight knockout winners plus invited and wild card teams, for a maximum of 16 teams. They will begin with a group stage before progressing to semi-finals and a final.
The entry fee is €500 per team, and multiple teams per company are allowed.
Last year’s edition, held in New York, saw 64 teams representing 46 companies from 26 countries across four continents competing in the online qualifying stage. Chessify won the title in 2024.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
