The Top Chess Prizewinners In 2025, And How Much They Won
GM Magnus Carlsen may have given up the world championship years ago, but he is still the best player in the world. He proved it in several ways in 2025, not the least of which was a bank account that continued to swell. A quarter-million here, another hundred K there, and in the end, Carlsen won almost $1.5 million worth of prizes last year from his tournament performances alone. But he wasn't the only player to earn some cash from his chess in 2025, even if just two players won even half as much prize money this year.
Welcome to our annual recap of prize winnings of the past year! Your annual reminder is below:
Prizes are tracked for major individual international tournaments, generally with a first-place prize of $10,000 or more. The figures thus do NOT include any of the following: appearance fees, streaming revenue, coaching income, sponsorships, royalties, government grants, national championships, team events, or small tournaments. Prize winnings are but one part of the chess ecosystem!
Top Winners
While Carlsen was the only player to earn seven figures in prize winnings this year, it was also a good year for players from the United States, as GMs Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, and Hikaru Nakamura took the next three spots. Caruana won the Grand Chess Tour Finals, did well in several other events, and accumulated nearly $900,000 in prizes; Aronian won two Freestyle Grand Slam events for over half of his more than $750,000 in winnings, in what was his best year in the four years we've done this series; and Nakamura was successful in the Freestyle Grand Slam and Esports World Cup while also winning the Comet Open for a total of nearly $600,000.
In a virtual tie for fifth place, GMs Alireza Firouzja and Vincent Keymer both won a hair over $450,000. Rounding out the top 10 were GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov.
$100,000 Club
In all, 26 players reached six figures in 2025. This was a sizeable increase from the 17 players last year, thanks to the return of odd-years-only, large-field events like the FIDE World Cup and Grand Swiss, the introduction of chess into the Esports World Cup, and the full year of the Freestyle Grand Slam series.
| Rk | Player | Total Prizes | Events Played | Best Prize |
| 1 | GM Magnus Carlsen | $1,455,276 | 16 | $250,000 |
| 2 | GM Fabiano Caruana | $889,598 | 19 | $150,000 |
| 3 | GM Levon Aronian | $751,881 | 15 | $200,000 |
| 4 | GM Hikaru Nakamura | $588,911 | 11 | $145,000 |
| 5 | GM Alireza Firouzja | $455,047 | 14 | $190,000 |
| 6 | GM Vincent Keymer | $452,439 | 10 | $200,000 |
| 7 | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | $439,567 | 14 | $100,000 |
| 8 | GM Arjun Erigaisi | $431,214 | 16 | $115,000 |
| 9 | GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov | $361,811 | 16 | $85,000 |
| 10 | GM Javokhir Sindarov | $349,955 | 11 | $120,000 |
| 11 | GM Ju Wenjun | $342,203 | 4 | $300,000 |
| 12 | GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | $317,122 | 14 | $77,667 |
| 13 | GM Tan Zhongyi | $281,480 | 7 | $200,000 |
| 14 | GM Hans Niemann | $234,994 | 6 | $140,000 |
| 15 | GM Anish Giri | $207,252 | 9 | $90,000 |
| 16 | GM Wesley So | $206,644 | 11 | $77,667 |
| 17 | GM Gukesh Dommaraju | $202,292 | 13 | $63,000 |
| 18 | GM Andrey Esipenko | $194,664 | 8 | $65,000 |
| 19 | GM Wei Yi | $173,867 | 5 | $85,000 |
| 20 | GM Anna Muzychuk | $166,143 | 8 | $69,222 |
| 21 | GM Ian Nepomniachtchi | $159,768 | 10 | $85,000 |
| 22 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | $153,008 | 10 | $65,000 |
| 23 | GM Nihal Sarin | $150,194 | 8 | $85,000 |
| 24 | GM Zhu Jiner | $146,580 | 8 | $33,742 |
| 25 | GM Humpy Koneru | $134,480 | 7 | $35,000 |
| 26 | GM Vladislav Artemiev | $116,839 | 7 | $50,000 |
Five women made the list this year, a new record. They were: Women's World Champion GM Ju Wenjun and her challenger, GM Tan Zhongyi, as well as GMs Humpy Koneru (for the second straight year), Zhu Jiner, and Anna Muzychuk.
Tan Zhongyi accepts a draw and Ju Wenjun becomes only the 4th woman in history to win the Women's World Chess Championship 5 times! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆#JuTan pic.twitter.com/33jUwEgtOu
— chess24 (@chess24com) April 16, 2025
World Champion GM Gukesh Dommaraju returned to the six-figure club, but last year's World Championship runner-up GM Ding Liren did not play much this year, only earning $6,000 in the Chess.com Classic, the second leg of the Champions Chess Tour.
All-Time Update
Carlsen already led GM Viswanathan Anand in all-time winnings, and this year he doubled his lead from over one million to closer to three. It's hard to imagine him getting caught in the next decade, with everyone else in the top five retired from regular competitive chess—although the next two players on the list, Anand and GM Garry Kasparov, played a match in Saint Louis in October, which we've counted here, bringing Kasparov's lifetime total above $8,000,000. After them, Carlsen has won almost three times as much in prizes in his career as sixth-place Caruana... which would be a lot to make up with just a two-year age difference. And the youngest player on the list, Gukesh, is more than $10 million behind Carlsen.
Caruana should still be able to break into the top five in 2026, with a chance at reaching five million in career prize winnings. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi is also four-fifths of the way to that mark, but has a much tougher road: farther away mathematically and, unlike Caruana, on the outside looking in for the 2026 Candidates. For that reason, ninth-place Nakamura has a better chance than Nepomniachtchi at getting halfway to eight figures lifetime next year, although he would likely need to become the world champion to do it. Both Nakamura and Aronian passed GM Bobby Fischer in 2025, who finally fell out of the top 10 as a result.
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the only player to join the All-Time Million Dollar Club this year, but next year could be the year for several players. Keymer, Arjun, Abdusattorov, and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu would all reach seven figures if they match their 2025 prize totals in 2026.
Here is the complete list of all-time tournament prize millionaires through December 31, 2025. Note: This list has not been adjusted for inflation.
| Rk | Player | Lifetime Total | 2025 Total |
| 1 | GM Magnus Carlsen | $12,232,249 | $1,455,276 |
| 2 | GM Viswanathan Anand | $9,551,844 | $66,000 |
| 3 | GM Garry Kasparov | $8,045,979 | $78,000 |
| 4 | GM Anatoly Karpov | $5,989,480 | $0 |
| 5 | GM Vladimir Kramnik | $4,775,825 | $0 |
| 6 | GM Fabiano Caruana | $4,519,910 | $889,598 |
| 7 | GM Ian Nepomniachtchi | $4,269,684 | $159,768 |
| 8 | GM Levon Aronian | $3,838,988 | $751,881 |
| 9 | GM Hikaru Nakamura | $3,734,480 | $588,911 |
| 10 | GM Ding Liren | $3,527,654 | $6,000 |
| 11 | GM Bobby Fischer | $3,519,559 | $0 |
| 12 | GM Veselin Topalov | $3,314,916 | $7,000 |
| 13 | GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | $2,981,227 | $439,567 |
| 14 | GM Wesley So | $2,726,112 | $206,644 |
| 15 | GM Sergey Karjakin | $2,233,112 | $0 |
| 16 | GM Boris Gelfand | $2,209,498 | $0 |
| 17 | GM Alexander Grischuk | $2,047,211 | $13,964 |
| 18 | GM Alireza Firouzja | $1,992,151 | $455,047 |
| 19 | GM Gukesh Dommaraju | $1,931,906 | $202,292 |
| 20 | GM Boris Spassky | $1,790,722 | $0 |
| 21 | GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | $1,781,988 | $38,639 |
| 22 | GM Anish Giri | $1,633,864 | $207,252 |
| 23 | GM Nigel Short | $1,408,506 | $0 |
| 24 | GM Ju Wenjun | $1,383,225 | $342,203 |
| 25 | GM Peter Svidler | $1,310,735 | $0 |
| 26 | GM Peter Leko | $1,198,743 | $17,000 |
| 27 | GM Vasyl Ivanchuk | $1,163,228 | $10,063 |
| 28 | GM Teimour Radjabov | $1,117,290 | $6,275 |
| 29 | GM Gata Kamsky | $1,115,402 | $0 |
| 30 | GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | $1,113,704 | $153,008 |
| 31 | GM Michael Adams | $1,079,271 | $11,000 |
Top Events of 2025
Below are all of this year's major events, along with the first-place prize winner and amount. The single largest prize awarded in 2025 came in the Women's World Championship. The largest total prize fund, however, belonged to the $2 million FIDE World Cup, followed by the $1.5 million Esports World Cup Finals (although the FIDE World Cup was split between 206 players, versus just 16 players in the Esports World Cup).
| Tournament/Series | Ended | Winner | Prize | Note |
| Women's World Championship | Apr. 21 | Ju Wenjun | $300,000 | |
| Esports World Cup | Aug. 3 | Carlsen | $250,000 | |
| Freestyle Weissenhaus | Feb. 14 | Keymer | $200,000 | |
| Freestyle Paris | Apr. 14 | Carlsen | $200,000 | |
| Freestyle Las Vegas | Jul. 20 | Aronian | $200,000 | |
| Freestyle South Africa | Dec. 11 | Aronian | $200,000 | |
| Clutch Chess Showdown | Oct. 29 | Carlsen | $170,000 | |
| Grand Chess Tour Final | Oct. 2 | Caruana | $150,000 | |
| FIDE World Cup | Nov. 27 | Sindarov | $120,000 | |
| Freestyle Grand Slam (overall) | Dec. 11 | Carlsen | $100,000 | |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Sep. 15 | Giri | $90,000 | |
| World Rapid Championship | Dec. 28 | Carlsen | $82,394 | Converted from Euros |
| World Blitz Championship | Dec. 30 | Carlsen | $82,360 | Converted from Euros |
| Clutch Chess Legends | Oct. 11 | Kasparov | $78,000 | |
| Grand Chess Tour Bucharest | May 17 | Praggnanandhaa R. | $77,667 | |
| Sinquefield Cup | Aug. 29 | So | $77,667 | |
| Norway Chess | Jun. 6 | Carlsen | $69,222 | Converted from Norwegian kroner |
| Norway Chess Women's | Jun. 6 | A. Muzychuk | $69,222 | Converted from Norwegian kroner |
| Grenke Masters | Apr. 21 | Carlsen | $63,000 | Converted from Euros |
| Women's World Cup | Jul. 28 | Divya D. | $50,000 | |
| Women's World Blitz | Dec. 30 | Assaubayeva | $47,063 | Converted from Euros |
| Comet Open | Oct. 12 | Nakamura | $45,000 | |
| Grand Chess Tour Warsaw | May 1 | Fedoseev | $40,000 | |
| Grand Chess Tour Zagreb | Jul. 6 | Carlsen | $40,000 | |
| Grand Chess Tour St. Louis | Aug. 16 | Aronian | $40,000 | |
| Women's Grand Swiss | Sep. 15 | Vaishali R. | $35,000 | |
| Women's World Rapid | Dec. 28 | Goryachkina | $33,742 | Converted from Euros |
| London Classic | Dec. 5 | Abdusattorov | $33,326 | Converted from British pounds |
| Chennai Masters | Aug. 25 | Keymer | $29,175 | Converted from Indian rupees |
| Chessable Masters | Feb. 21 | Carlsen | $25,000 | |
| Chess.com Classic | May 23 | Carlsen | $25,000 | |
| Titled Tuesday | Dec. 30 | Carlsen | $23,300 | Total of all 52 tournaments |
| Uzchess Cup | Jun. 21 | Praggnanandhaa R. | $20,000 | |
| Women's Grand Prix India | Apr. 25 | Humpy Koneru | $17,573 | Converted from Euros |
| Women's Grand Prix Cyprus | Mar. 25 | A. Muzychuk | $16,776 | Converted from Euros |
| Women's Grand Prix Austria | May 16 | A. Muzychuk | $15,500 | Converted from Euros |
| Sharjah Masters | May 25 | Giri | $15,000 | |
| Women's Grand Prix Monaco | Feb. 27 | Humpy K. | $14,403 | Converted from Euros |
| Biel Chess Festival | Jul. 25 | Fedoseev | $12,054 | Converted from Swiss francs |
Conclusion
With the Candidates Tournament and likely the World Championship returning in 2026, it could be another big year in tournament prizes. Will Carlsen win the most money again, or will the champion catch him, like Gukesh did in 2024? How many new members will join the millionaire club?
Which 2025 prize winner's amount surprised you the most? The least? Who will win the most prize money in 2026? Let us know what you think in the comments!
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Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.
