Grand Swiss: Many upsets in the women’s section

Candidates spots up for grabs

The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss began on Thursday, marking the start of one of the toughest qualification events in the World Championship cycles. This is the fourth edition of the tournament, and as in previous years, the stakes are very high: the top two finishers in both the open and women’s sections will qualify directly for the 2026 Candidates Tournaments, which will decide the challengers for the World Championship matches.

The main qualification path for the Grand Swiss was through the June 2025 FIDE rating list, with players needing to be among the top 100 in the world to receive an invitation. An activity requirement was also enforced, obliging players to have completed 30 classical games over the previous year.

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The open section features 116 players, with one notable exception in terms of the Candidates race: reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju is taking part but is not fighting for qualification, since he is guaranteed a place in the match for the crown. If Gukesh finishes among the top two in the standings, then the third-placed player will qualify for the Candidates instead. Fabiano Caruana, the only player already guaranteed a Candidates place by winning the 2024 FIDE Circuit, is not participating.

Gukesh Dommaraju

Gukesh Dommaraju | Photo: Michal Walusza

In the women’s section, 56 players are competing. Out of the 8 places available in the 2026 Women’s Candidates, 5 had already been decided before the start of the Grand Swiss. Zhu Jiner and Aleksandra Goryachkina qualified via the 2024–25 Women’s Grand Prix, while Divya Deshmukh, Tan Zhongyi and Humpy Koneru claimed their spots at the Women’s World Cup. Of these players, only Tan is competing in the Women’s Grand Swiss, while Goryachkina and Divya chose to play in the open section (they are seeded 110^th and 115^th respectively).

The top seed in the women’s section is Anna Muzychuk, the frontrunner in the race to secure a place through the FIDE Women’s Events 2024–25 cycle.

A key difference between the two tournaments lies in the time control. The open section features a long classical format: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and then 15 minutes until the end of the game, with a 30-second increment added from move one. The women’s section uses the quicker FIDE classical control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes to finish the game, also with 30-second increments from the start.

Tan Zhongyi

Tan Zhongyi | Photo: Michal Walusza

Open section: Gukesh, Firouzja and Abdusattorov score, Suleymanli shows deep preparation

The opening round of the open section saw 58 games played. Out of these, 17 ended decisively, while 41 were drawn. Among the 17 winners, 13 were the rating favourites, while 4 victories counted as upsets.

The strongest players to score wins included several members of the world’s top ten at the start of the event.

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Gukesh Dommaraju defeated multiple French champion Etienne Bacrot with the black pieces, finding strong tactical solutions once Bacrot faltered in the middlegame, including an exchange sacrifice that proved decisive.
Alireza Firouzja overcame Bassem Amin by converting a positional edge into a winning endgame.
Anish Giri used accurate technique to outplay Robert Hovhanissyan.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov beat Velimir Ivic after making an exchange sacrifice that gave him a powerful outside passed pawn.

A further notable result came from 57-year-old Boris Gelfand, who challenged Vishy Anand for the World Championship in 2012. Gelfand defeated the ever-creative Baduur Jobava in a short but sharp encounter.

Four upset victories stood out.

Spanish grandmaster David Antón defeated Vladimir Fedoseev.
Former European champion Anton Demchenko, representing Slovenia, got the better of Indian star Pentala Harikrishna.
Aydin Suleymanli of Azerbaijan defeated Karthikeyan Murali after showing spectacular tactical recourses out of a Sicilian Alapin, later explaining that the entire 40-move game had been part of his home preparation.
Finally, Ivan Zemlyanskii scored a surprise win against Aleksandar Indjic.

Vladimir Fedoseev, David Anton

David Antón (right) defeated Vladimir Fedoseev | Photo: Michal Walusza

Karthikeyan Murali, Aydin Suleymanli

Aydin Suleymanli (right) defeated Karthikeyan Murali | Photo: Michal Walusza

All decisive results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
3	61	GM	Bacrot, Etienne	2637	0	0 – 1	0	GM	Gukesh, D	2767	3
4	4	GM	Firouzja, Alireza	2754	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Amin, Bassem	2636	62
6	6	GM	Abdusattorov, N	2748	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Ivic, Velimir	2630	64
7	65	GM	Hovhannisyan, R	2629	0	0 – 1	0	GM	Giri, Anish	2746	7
13	71	GM	Anton, David	2625	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Fedoseev, Vladimir	2731	13
16	16	GM	Vidit, Gujrathi	2712	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Donchenko, Alexander	2624	74
18	18	GM	Harikrishna, Pentala	2704	0	0 – 1	0	GM	Demchenko, Anton	2620	76
21	79	GM	Aryan, Chopra	2619	0	0 – 1	0	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	2692	21
34	34	GM	Shankland, Sam	2670	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Wagner, Dennis	2608	92
35	93	GM	Suleymanli, Aydin	2602	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Karthikeyan, Murali	2669	35
44	44	GM	Gelfand, Boris	2652	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Jobava, Baadur	2590	102
47	105	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan	2586	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Indjic, Aleksandar	2650	47
52	52	GM	Erdogmus, Yagiz	2646	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Goryachkina, A	2528	110
54	54	GM	Rodshtein, Maxim	2645	0	1 – 0	0	GM	Abdisalimov, A	2488	112
56	56	GM	Svane, Frederik	2643	0	1 – 0	0	IM	Suyarov, M	2482	114
57	115	GM	Divya, Deshmukh *)	2478	0	0 – 1	0	GM	Puranik, Abhimanyu	2640	57
58	58	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	2640	0	1 – 0	0		Olisa, Tennyson	2287	116

Firouzja 1-0 Amin

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

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Alireza Firouzja

Alireza Firouzja | Photo: Michal Walusza

Harikrishna 0-1 Demchenko

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

FIDE Grand Swiss 2025

The playing hall in Samarkand | Photo: Michal Walusza

Standings after round 1

1	3	GM	Gukesh, D	IND	2767	1	0
2	4	GM	Firouzja, Alireza	FRA	2754	1	0
3	6	GM	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	UZB	2748	1	0
4	7	GM	Giri, Anish	NED	2746	1	0
5	16	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2712	1	0
6	21	GM	Maghsoodloo, Parham	IRI	2692	1	0
7	34	GM	Shankland, Sam	USA	2670	1	0
8	44	GM	Gelfand, Boris	ISR	2652	1	0
9	52	GM	Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan	TUR	2646	1	0
10	54	GM	Rodshtein, Maxim	ISR	2645	1	0
11	56	GM	Svane, Frederik	GER	2643	1	0
12	57	GM	Puranik, Abhimanyu	IND	2640	1	0
13	58	GM	Salem, A.R. Saleh	UAE	2640	1	0
14	71	GM	Anton Guijarro, David	ESP	2625	1	0
15	76	GM	Demchenko, Anton	SLO	2620	1	0
16	93	GM	Suleymanli, Aydin	AZE	2602	1	0
17	105	GM	Zemlyanskii, Ivan	FID	2586	1	0
18	1	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	IND	2785	0,5	0,5
19	2	GM	Erigaisi, Arjun	IND	2771	0,5	0,5
20	5	GM	Keymer, Vincent	GER	2751	0,5	0,5
21	8	GM	Aronian, Levon	USA	2744	0,5	0,5
22	9	GM	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	FID	2742	0,5	0,5
23	10	GM	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2741	0,5	0,5
24	11	GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2738	0,5	0,5
25	12	GM	Niemann, Hans Moke	USA	2733	0,5	0,5

…116 players

All games

Women’s section: Anna Muzychuk loses on time, no fewer than 11 games produce upsets

The women’s tournament saw even more decisive games proportionally than the open, with 15 out of 28 finishing with a winner. In contrast to the open, however, only 4 of these were won by the rating favourites, while an extraordinary 11 games produced upsets.

Among the favourites:

Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated Mai Narva
Vaishali Rameshbabu (winner of the 2023 Women’s Grand Swiss) overcame Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova, now representing her native Uzbekistan.
Afruza Khamdamova won against Mariia Manko
Dinara Wagner scored a victory over Javiera Gómez.

The list of upsets was striking, with 6 of the top 10 seeds losing their first-round games:

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Top seed Anna Muzychuk was defeated on time despite holding a favourable position, losing to 18-year-old Hungarian WGM Zsoka Gaal.
Tan Zhongyi was beaten by experienced Russian GM Olga Girya.
Polina Shuvalova lost to Ulviyya Fataliyeva, who patiently converted a minor-piece endgame into a win after 60 moves.
Mariya Muzychuk fell to 19-year-old Kazakh WGM Xeniya Balabayeva, blundering into a decisive knight fork in one move.
Yuliia Osmak was defeated by Vantika Agrawal
Leya Garifullina lost to Zhai Mo.

Zsoka Gaal

Zsoka Gaal | Photo: Michal Walusza

Olga Girya

Olga Girya | Photo: Michal Walusza