The FIDE World Cup 2023 is underway from July 29 to August 25 in Baku, Azerbaijan, with 206 contestants in the open and 103 in the women's section in pursuit of three qualifying places (in each section) for the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament, which will take place next April in Toronto, Canada. With an unprecedented prize fund of $2.5 million, the largest prize fund for any chess tournament ever played, the stakes are higher than ever before. The star-studded lineup of the tournament features the current world number one Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the defending World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), players from the world top-10 Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Fabiano Caruana (USA), Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Wesley So (USA), as well as the local favorites – Azerbaijan's heavyweights and the top world players – the 2019 World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In the Women's section, all eyes are on Ju Wenjun (China), the reigning Women's World Champion, and the 2020 Candidate Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE). They will face tough competition from former women's world champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland, who won the inaugural Women's World Cup in 2021), Tan Zhongyi (China), Mariya Muzychuk, and Anna Ushenina (both Ukraine), as well as top players such as Humpy Konery (India), Katerina Lagno (FIDE), Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) and others.
