Home Chess 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss: 13 Conclusions

2025 FIDE Grand Swiss: 13 Conclusions

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GMs Anish Giri and Vaishali Rameshbabu topped the tables of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and 2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, but the 172 players in 11 rounds brought countless stories. We got the surprise Candidates qualification for 32nd seed GM Matthias Bluebaum, a tournament to forget for World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, star roles for teenage talents such as GMs Abhimanyu Mishra and Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, and much more. 

Let’s get to the conclusions.  

  1. Giri Is Back Where He Belongs!
  2. Bluebaum Defies Odds As 1st German Candidate Since Huebner
  3. Vaishali Brings Indian Success, Lagno Shows Class
  4. The Candidates Tournaments Are Shaping Up
  5. The Grand Swiss Isn’t Gukesh’s Event
  6. U.S. And Turkish Kids Star
  7. Mishra Leads The Unbeaten Streaks
  8. The Veterans Are Still Going Strong
  9. Divya, Goryachkina’s Open Experiment Pays Off
  10. Liang, Nihal Set To Cross 2700 Officially
  11. Grand Swiss Was A Great Event But The Time Control Is Loooong
  12. We Should Stop Spoiling Final Results, Or Rethink Delays
  13. Tiebreaks Were Fair But Playoffs Could Be Added

1. Giri Is Back Where He Belongs!

The 31-year-old Giri has been a mainstay of top-level chess since he burst onto the scene by beating GM Magnus Carlsen as a 16-year-old in Wijk aan Zee in 2011. He played the FIDE Candidates Tournament in 2016, a remarkable 14 draws that didn’t reflect how double-edged many of the games had been, and in the pandemic-affected 2020/21, when he was the player to push winner GM Ian Nepomniachtchi hardest in the second half. The Dutchman missed the last two Candidates, however, and had dropped as low as world number-23 earlier this year, so a comeback was called for.

Arjun congratulates Giri on his success. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

That’s just what we got in Samarkand, with Giri posting an unbeaten +5 score to take clear first place, win the $90,000 top prize, and climb to number-seven on the live rating list.

2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Prize Winners






















































Rank Seed Name FED Rating Score TB Prize ($)
1 7 Anish Giri 2746 8.0 2668 90,000
2 32 Matthias Bluebaum 2671 7.5 2695 62,333
3 4 Alireza Firouzja 2754 7.5 2684 62,333
4 5 Vincent Keymer 2751 7.5 2668 62,333
5 86 Abhimanyu Mishra 2611 7.0 2731 15,280
6 2 Arjun Erigaisi 2771 7.0 2687 15,280
7 108 Andy Woodward 2557 7.0 2686 15,280
8 12 Hans Moke Niemann 2733 7.0 2668 15,280
9 20 Nihal Sarin 2693 7.0 2666 15,280
10 6 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2748 7.0 2663 15,280
11 19 Awonder Liang 2698 7.0 2659 15,280
12 17 Richard Rapport 2711 7.0 2657 15,280
13 10 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2741 7.0 2649 15,280
14 28 Nodirbek Yakubboev 2681 7.0 2645 15,280
15 16 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2712 7.0 2640 15,280
16 11 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2738 7.0 2637 15,280
17 15 Yu Yangyi 2714 7.0 2634 15,280
18 22 Samuel Sevian 2692 7.0 2633 15,280
19 25 Andrey Esipenko 2687 7.0 2630 15,280
20 43 Shant Sargsyan 2653 6.5 2693 6,471
21 82 Alexei Shirov 2616 6.5 2685 6,471
22 96 Pranav Venkatesh 2596 6.5 2679 6,471
23 23 Jorden van Foreest 2692 6.5 2655 6,471
24 14 Javokhir Sindarov 2722 6.5 2639 6,471
25 42 Ivan Saric 2655 6.5 2627 6,471
26 18 Pentala Harikrishna 2704 6.5 2617 6,471
27 21 Parham Maghsoodloo 2692 6.0 2701 3,062
28 52 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 2646 6.0 2701 3,062
29 87 Marc’Andria Maurizzi 2610 6.0 2701 3,062
30 72 Aram Hakobyan 2625 6.0 2684 3,062
31 53 Nikolas Theodorou 2646 6.0 2683 3,062
32 90 Alexandr Predke 2609 6.0 2676 3,062
33 59 Jeffery Xiong 2640 6.0 2676 3,062
34 91 Vasyl Ivanchuk 2608 6.0 2668 3,062
35 1 Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu 2785 6.0 2666 3,062
36 31 Amin Tabatabaei 2673 6.0 2663 3,062
37 104 Aditya Mittal 2589 6.0 2657 3,062
38 109 Ihor Samunenkov 2550 6.0 2654 3,062
39 99 Narayanan S L 2591 6.0 2650 3,062
40 46 Rauf Mamedov 2651 6.0 2650 3,062
41 3 Gukesh Dommaraju 2767 6.0 2647 3,062
42 9 Ian Nepomniachtchi 2742 6.0 2646 3,062
43 39 Grigoriy Oparin 2660 6.0 2637 3,062
44 13 Vladimir Fedoseev 2731 6.0 2634 3,062
45 24 Daniil Dubov 2691 6.0 2616 3,062
46 33 Volodar Murzin 2670 6.0 2611 3,062
47 41 Alexander Grischuk 2657 6.0 2610 3,062
48 40 Raunak Sadhwani 2658 6.0 2607 3,062
49 48 Nils Grandelius 2648 6.0 2601 3,062
50 55 Shamsiddin Vokhidov 2645 6.0 2592 3,062

After beating Dutch colleague GM Jorden van Foreest in round nine, Giri gave a memorable interview:

If you’re a player like me, not really good, then I need to believe in miracles! People can become world champion, Gukesh became world champion, and you see sometimes he has bad tournaments like here. I also sometimes have bad tournaments, so why can’t I become world champion? I’m praying, hoping to get lucky, doing my best. 

After the tournament was over Giri told Take Take Take it was “like a fairy tale,” explaining:

I was only one of the people. I was never a favorite, I was never leading, only sharing the lead with a bad tiebreak… I’ve been working towards that, I’ve been dreaming about it for so long, that to say that I’m shocked that it happened would be an overstatement, but I’m extremely happy about it!  

Giri has his boarding card. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The seventh seed will relish the challenge of preparing for the Candidates and notes he now has a better idea of what to do than in 2020/21, when AlphaZero and Leela Chess Zero had overturned our understanding of chess and everything was still in flux. 

2. Bluebaum Defies Odds As 1st German Candidate Since Huebner

If you’d said before the event that we were going to get the first German qualifier for the Candidates since GM Robert Hubner in 1991, everyone would assume that it would be the German number-one and fifth seed, GM Vincent Keymer. Instead, it’s the German number-two and 32nd seed Bluebaum who took the Candidates spot on tiebreaks after tying for second with Keymer and GM Alireza Firouzja.

It was good to see the German stars in good spirits at the closing ceremony. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Bluebaum is a two-time European Champion, in 2022 and 2025, but nothing in the 28-year-old’s career could match scoring +4 and defeating the world numbers four and five GMs Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Arjun Erigaisi.

Both Indian stars over-pressed, with Giri commenting, “Sometimes the fire, sometimes the ice wins!”

Bluebaum admitted that before the tournament his goal was only to finish in the top half, while the key game would be the penultimate round, when he was losing against Keymer. A loss would have extinguished his chances while Keymer would be very close to Candidates qualification—instead Bluebaum got to execute the one trick in the position and save the game. Speaking midway through the final round, when the Candidates wasn’t 100 percent confirmed, he commented:

Before the tournament I thought it would be completely impossible for me so now I just have to wait. It would be a great chance for me. I’m already 28 so I’m not all that young anymore, at least in chess terms, so it would be great to manage it and just play there once and see what happens, but I still have to wait. 

The record of surprise qualifiers via the Grand Swiss in the Candidates isn’t good, with the likes of GMs Vidit Gujrathi, Wang Hao, and Kirill Alekseenko all struggling, but Bluebaum’s live rating has climbed to a career-best 2693.2 and the Grand Swiss was good practice. While his rivals Keymer and Firouzja faced only two 2700 players, and in total the Grand Swiss had fewer than ten 2700-vs.-2700 clashes, Bluebaum faced five such players. 

3. Vaishali Brings Indian Success, Lagno Shows Class

Vaishali, her mother, and her brother Praggnanandhaa. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The Indian men didn’t give too much for the new chess superpower to celebrate, but that was made up for by Vaishali, who pulled off the impressive feat of winning the tournament for the second time in a row.

2025 FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss Prize Winners



























Rank Seed Name FED Rating Score TB Prize ($)
1 13 Vaishali Rameshbabu 2452 8.0 2434 35,500
2 4 Kateryna Lagno 2505 8.0 2433 35,500
3 3 Bibisara Assaubayeva 2505 7.5 2425 21,333
4 2 Tan Zhongyi 2531 7.5 2423 21,333
5 21 Song Yuxin 2409 7.5 2411 21,333
6 33 Ulviyya Fataliyeva 2385 7.0 2461 12,333
7 44 Irina Krush 2366 7.0 2419 12,333
8 6 Mariya Muzychuk 2484 7.0 2404 12,333
9 42 Guo Qi 2371 6.5 2436 4,625
10 30 Olga Girya 2386 6.5 2430 4,625
11 31 Mai Narva 2386 6.5 2429 4,625
12 1 Anna Muzychuk 2535 6.5 2417 4,625
13 15 Stavroula Tsolakidou 2445 6.5 2409 4,625
14 10 Harika Dronavalli 2467 6.5 2401 4,625
15 9 Alexandra Kosteniuk 2472 6.5 2391 4,625
16 14 Lu Miaoyi 2449 6.5 2376 4,625
17 48 Khanim Balajayeva 2331 6.0 2439 3,000
18 23 Elina Danielian 2405 6.0 2421 3,000
19 46 Meruert Kamalidenova 2349 6.0 2414 3,000
20 11 Carissa Yip 2458 6.0 2399 3,000
21 8 Leya Garifullina 2477 6.0 2381 3,000
22 20 Anna Ushenina 2409 6.0 2372 3,000
23 17 Lela Javakhishvili 2434 6.0 2343 3,000

Congratulations followed from the Indian Prime Minister.

Comparing the results in 2023 and now, Vaishali commented:

Both Grand Swiss victories are very special. Last time I was unbeaten and it was very convincing play right from the very beginning. I also secured a spot with one round to spare the last time, but this year I had to fight till the last round.

Vaishali lost one game, to GM Bibisara Assaubayeva, had one fortunate win, over GM Mariya Muzychuk, but scored another five smooth wins to finish on +5, in a tournament she came into on the back of losing the last seven games in a row in the Chennai Grand Masters. Streaks are a feature of Vaishali’s chess, with the Indian 24-year-old losing four games in a row before winning five in a row to share second in the 2024 Women’s Candidates Tournament.

The 35-year-old GM Kateryna Lagno, meanwhile, finished unbeaten on +5 to take a deserved Candidates spot.

Kateryna Lagno with the runners-up trophy. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

She’s played the last three Candidates in 2019 (third), 2022/23 (lost in Quarterfinals), and 2024 (sixth) and will be hoping to do better next year—the classical world championship title is the only thing missing on her resume!  

4. The Candidates Tournaments Are Shaping Up

With four more players qualified to the 2026 Candidates Tournaments, which will decide the challengers for GM Ju Wenjun and Gukesh, the situation looks as follows.

The currently qualified players for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournaments. Image: FIDE.

The Women’s field is almost set, with only the FIDE Women’s Events 2024-25 still to be decided. That series is similar to the FIDE Circuit but only features top FIDE events. The top-seven players on the leaderboard are already in the Candidates, so GM Bibisara Assaubayeva is favorite to take that spot, with only the Women’s World Rapid and Blitz Championships remaining.

FIDE Women’s Events 2024-25 Leaderboard

The top-seven players are already qualified for the Candidates. Image: FIDE.

If Assaubayeva does qualify, will be fitting, since she beat Vaishali and should have beaten Lagno in Samarkand, although if she’d won a winning position against GM Anna Muzychuk in the final round she would have significantly boosted her score.

Third place in Samarkand earned a place on the podium but no Candidates spot, which may be why Firouzja skipped the ceremony. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

For the Open, meanwhile, the majority of places are still to be decided. The remaining five spots will go to the top-three in the FIDE World Cup that takes place November 1-26 in Goa, India, while the rating spot will almost certainly go to GM Hikaru Nakamura, who has 11 more games to play after winning the Iowa State Championship.

The final spot goes to the FIDE Circuit, which is still being dominated by Praggnanandhaa. His pursuers, including Keymer and GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, may have hoped for the Indian star to qualify via the Grand Swiss, though in the case of Giri he can’t complain since he no longer needs the Circuit—despite scoring the year’s second-best score!

The FIDE Circuit has been shaken up by the FIDE Grand Swiss. Image: FIDE.

With Bluebaum also out of that race, the Circuit remains a good chance for Keymer and Abdusattorov, but likely only if Praggnanandhaa reaches the final three of the World Cup. 

5. The Grand Swiss Isn’t Gukesh’s Event

Gukesh had no need to play the Grand Swiss, part of the cycle to decide his challenger, but called it a “great tournament” in the opening press conference and said, “It’s an opportunity for me to play in a different format and prove myself.” In the end, the tournament turned into an ordeal for the Indian 19-year-old, who despite a good start and finish lost three games in a row, including to two fellow teenagers, and had shaky positions in a couple more games.

Playing highly motivated opponents with little to lose can be tough. As 16-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra noted after beating GM Gata Kamsky‘s record as the youngest player ever to beat a reigning world champion in classical chess:

One thing I was counting on before the game is that there’s a lot more pressure on him to perform than me for this game. If I lose, I lose three points. OK, sure, take my rating, it’s no problem, but if I win, it’s a lot more grand!

Mishra’s win in round five was the start of a downward spiral for Gukesh. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Surprisingly, however, the Grand Swiss has always been a tricky event for Gukesh, who has performed well below expectations except in his first try as a 13-year-old.

Gukesh At The FIDE Grand Swiss








Year Age Rating Wins Draws Losses Score Final Position Performance
2019 13 2520 3 6 2 6/11 48th 2683
2021 15 2640 2 6 3 5/11 75th 2591
2023 17 2758 2 6 3 5/11 81st 2578
2025 19 2767 4 4 3 6/11 41st 2668

This year’s performance cost the world champion a spot in the top 10.

Gukesh dropped out of the top 10. Image: 2700chess.

It’s not a general pattern that top players struggle, with fellow top-seeds Arjun, Firouzja, Keymer, Abdusattorov, and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov all outperforming their ratings despite missing out on a Candidates spot.

Some did struggle, however. Top-seed Praggnanandhaa, who has the safety cushion of qualifying via the FIDE Circuit, lost 14 rating points and two-time world championship challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi lost 10, despite losing only one game, in the last round, while arguably the year’s top performer, GM Levon Aronian, lost 22 rating points after losing to prodigies Erdogmus and GM Andy Woodward. The Armenian-U.S. star had no excuses for what he called “one of the worst events I’ve played in.” He commented:

I heavily underestimated a lot of players and I kept on pushing or just playing fast, trying to put my opponents under pressure, which was disrespectful towards the game of chess and my opponents.

That brings us neatly to the next point.

6. U.S. And Turkish Kids Star


Andy Woodward and Abhimanyu Mishra represent a new generation of U.S. chess. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The Grand Swiss is a perfect chance for young stars to face off against the world’s best, and they took it in the most remarkable fashion. The 16-year-old Mishra and 15-year-old Woodward went into the final round with a chance of qualifying for the Candidates, and in Mishra’s case it was far from an outside chance—if he’d beaten Vidit he would have taken Bluebaum’s spot, since he had the best tiebreak of anyone in Samarkand! 

Mishra’s astonishing tournament featured playing eight 2700 stars, the tournament winners, and beating the world champion, with his 2828 performance second only to Giri’s 2838. Perhaps for the first time since he set the record as the world’s youngest ever grandmaster at the age of 12, we got a clear indication that Mishra could reach the very top.

Woodward, meanwhile, announced himself on the world stage with wins over Aronian and GM Parham Maghsoodloo, who had been the standout player of the first half of the event before falling away badly. 

If the future looks bright for the United States, the same very much goes for Turkey.

Erdogmus was the youngest player in Samarkand and is the highest rated 14-year-old in chess history. He never looked out of place and dazzled early on as he confidently held a draw against Gukesh and then in round four played what, now that the event is over, we can safely call the Game of the Tournament, capped off by a brilliant queen sacrifice against another talented youngster, 18-year-old Indian GM Aditya Mittal. The 16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel ultimately scored half a point less, but he did gain the bragging rights of beating the world champion!

Another noteworthy teenager was 15-year-old Chinese IM Lu Miaoyi, the youngest player in the Women’s tournament, who finished in a tie for ninth place after bouncing back from a tough start.

7. Mishra Leads The Unbeaten Streaks

Even if the speed of their growth surprises us, there’s nothing unusual about prodigies scoring big wins and proving they’re underrated. What is shocking, however, is that Mishra has combined his rise with a 67-game unbeaten streak in classical chess, a mark reached in the last decade by GMs Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at the height of their powers, while in 2018-20 Carlsen made it to 125 games.








Player Unbeaten Streak (Games)
Abhimanyu Mishra 67
Daniil Dubov 56
Volodar Murzin 44
Anish Giri 36

Giri stands out on the table of unbeaten streaks, while those of GMs Daniil Dubov and GM Volodar Murzin are underwhelming—both players won a single game and lost rating points.

One big streak to fall was that of U.S. GM Sam Sevian, who reached 43 games.

It was a fine tournament for Sevian, who won the preceding game and the two that followed.   

8. The Veterans Are Still Going Strong

It wasn’t Ivanchuk’s best game, but his marathon escape against Vidit was a thriller. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Three 50-year-olds competed in the Grand Swiss, and while 57-year-old GM Boris Gelfand had a tough tournament, losing three games after a winning start against GM Baadur Jobava, things went better for 56-year-old GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and 53-year-old GM Alexei Shirov

Shirov’s unbeaten +2 gave him 21st place. Good performances in the Grand Swiss are a habit for Shirov, who in 2021 finished eighth and earned a spot in the since discontinued FIDE Grand Prix.

Ivanchuk commented, “I’m happy that I’m still an active player and in quite good shape, so I can play against strong players—it’s good for me!”

9. Divya, Goryachkina’s Open Experiment Pays Off

Since they’d both already qualified for the Women’s Candidates, GMs Divya Deshmukh and Aleksandra Goryachkina decided to take on the challenge of playing in the open section, something GM Tan Zhongyi also said she might have done if she’d realized it was an option! Playing against the world’s best can be a poisoned chalice, of course, but both players did well, defeating well-known grandmasters—and in fact posting exactly the same performance rating! 

African number-one Bassem Amin was one of the players to fall to Divya. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Divya had no GM norms going into the recent Women’s World Cup, which she ended with both the World Cup and Grandmaster titles, and now immediately after it she’s posted a GM-norm level performance.    

10. Liang, Nihal Set To Cross 2700 Officially

For elite-level grandmasters, crossing a 2700 Elo rating is a big deal, and both GMs Awonder Liang and Nihal Sarin had never quite managed to do it, at least on an official list. This time—if they don’t play more rated games in September—they’ve managed. Both players also went into the final round of the Grand Swiss with only their tiebreaks leaving them unable to reach the Candidates. 

Liang, who’s just graduated university and is planning to spend at least a couple of years on chess (“I have a sense that if I don’t play chess right now I might never really get the chance again”), said he had been 0-for-10 (not counting draws) in games where he could cross 2700. He joked:

Basically when I was 2695 I would be an amazing player, but at 2699 I’d instantly become 2300-strength. I think at some point it was a little bit just in my head…

Nihal, meanwhile, said, “I’m very happy with the performance,” but had some regrets, since he’d been winning against both Firouzja and Abdusattorov in rounds nine and ten, but only scored half a point total in the two games.

11. It Was A Great Event But The Time Control Is Loooong

In round five of the Grand Swiss, 14-year-old Erdogmus survived a 190-move, 8.5-hour game against Abdusattorov, though it’s not clear if either player fully recovered from that day! 

The game was an outlier, but not by much, since every day of the event brought extremely long games which were inevitable given the time format. While the Women’s section featured a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes, with a 30-second increment from move one (which, for instance, GM Antoaneta Stefanova said she’d like to see shortened!), the Open tournament added 50 minutes at move 40 and an additional 15 minutes at move 60. 

The extremely long time control, at a time when FIDE is planning to rate 45-minute games as classical, provoked mixed reactions. As we saw above, Mishra is a fan, but some wondered why the time control for a world championship qualifying event is so different from that of the match. GMs Ding Liren and Gukesh last year played with 120 minutes (no increment) before move 40, then 30 minutes more for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 41. Over an 80-move game, that means each player got 35 minutes more in the Grand Swiss, or one hour and 10 minutes extra between them.  

FIDE CEO and GM Emil Sutovsky explained the discrepancy as follows:

One player to object was Argentinian-born GM Alan Pichot, who now represents Spain. He wrote on X:

How easy it is to say that classical chess is more alive than ever when you’re in your home following the tournament and not here playing for two weeks and 10 hours a day of nerves, stress and pressure in order probably to win no prize. It’s ridiculous that a game lasts more than eight hours.

Sutovsky noted that the players will be asked for their opinion on changing the time control for future events.

12. We Should Stop Spoiling Final Results, Or Rethink Delays

All the games in Samarkand had a 15-minute “anti-cheating” delay in both the transmission of the moves and the live broadcasts with commentary. That was mainly no issue (for early rounds, the operators sometimes forgot to keep broadcasting games that had finished in the venue but not yet with the delay) but on the final day the winner of both the Women’s and Open events were announced the moment they were known—i.e., 15 minutes early for the whole online audience. 

The problem was that spoiled the result for anyone both watching the tournament and also following on social media—particularly significant for the Open event, where the all-important Arjun-Keymer game was still tense at the time.

If it was a one-off, it would be a case of accidents happen, but it’s been repeated at major events, including both the Candidates and Olympiad in 2024. It’s a hard problem to solve fully—unless a better way to handle anti-cheating is found that doesn’t interfere with the broadcast—but at least the official social feeds not sharing the results would help.  

13. Tiebreaks Were Fair, But Playoffs Could Be Added

There’s no question that Bluebaum deserved his spot in the Candidates based on better tiebreaks, since as well as being first by the average rating of his opponents he also had the best overall performance rating of any player on 7.5/11. What could be questioned, however, is if using a mathematical tiebreaker is the best approach when players are level on points for something as important as Candidates qualification.

Firouzja had worse tiebreaks than Bluebaum, so the draw denied him a Candidates spot. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

A playoff at the venue is obviously an option, even if time might be limited, while Peter Doggers suggests we could return to the old tradition of holding a separate event—for which the interest and sponsorship potential should be high!

Another player to join the debate was a five-time world champion. 

Carlsen comments: “It has to be said that it’s incredibly cruel to decide the Candidates spots by tiebreaks, as they do.”

It has to be said that it’s incredibly cruel to decide the Candidates spots by tiebreaks, as they do.

—Magnus Carlsen

Are there any changes you’d make to the qualification cycle, or is some cruelty the price we pay for excitement, since in any case there are more worthy Candidates than the eight spots on offer?



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