The FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 starts on October 31st.

Hans Niemann is currently seeded 19th in the tournament by rating (Gukesh D, as the reigning world champion, is always seeded first, but his rating will also likely be higher than Hans Niemann's) if all invitees were to participate.

The 18 players currently seeded higher than him in the preliminary list are: Gukesh, Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi, Adbusattorov, Firouzja, Wei Yi, Giri, Mamedyarov, So, Anand, Nepomniachtchi, Aronian, Fedoseev, Dominguez, and MVL.

Certain players, like Magnus Carlsen or Viswanathan Anand, are unlikely to participate. Many other top players have declined World Cup invitations in the past. This question is about how many will do so (and also based on possible rating changes before the event, most notably that Niemann will play the US Chess Championship).