Giri and Vaishali win the Grand Swisses, Bluebaum and Lagno scoop up the additional Candidates places

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FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2025 (11)

Giri and Vaishali win the Grand Swisses, Bluebaum and Lagno scoop up the additional Candidates places

Mark Crowther - Monday 15th September 2025

Anish Giri beat Niemann in the final Round. Photo ©

Anish Giri beat Niemann in the final Round. Photo © | https://grandswiss2025.fide.com

The FIDE Grand Swiss finished today with a very tense final round in the Open tournament. The women's tournament was a little more cut and dried, Kateryna Lagno and Rameshbabu Vaishali knew that they only required draws to qualify for the Women's Candidates and Lagno got her draw fairly quickly with the white pieces but Vaishali only had to work a little harder with black to get her spot and indeed win the event.

The Open situation was a lot more complicated. There was no provision for tie-break matches, just a technical tie-break, the first and only one that counted this time was Average Rating of Opponents Cut 1 (ARO-C1).

Final Round Summary

Matthias Bluebaum had a better tie-break than his opponent Alireza Firouzja, so Bluebaum might make do with a draw, Firouzja knew he probably couldn't. Firouzja looked to be getting some pressure but Bluebaum was very precise and earned his draw. Anish Giri and Hans Moke Niemann both knew they needed wins and Giri got what he wanted, a position where only he had the winning chances, and a precise liquidation into a bishop endgame was enough for the full point and eventually victory in the whole tournament. Vincent Keymer knew he needed a win against Arjun Erigaisi and indeed was winning at several points, the later chances were very difficult and he had to settle for a draw, a win as it turned out would have meant a Candidates place. Andy Woodward had a very good tie-break and so a win would have given him an outside chance, but he could only draw with Yu Yangyi.

This event gave us a glimpse of the future of classical chess, this was very tough chess with many long games. I enjoyed seeing Alexei Shirov finish on 6.5/11, young talents Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (14 years old 6 points), and Abhimanyu Mishra (16 years old and 7 points) proved their major talent. Gukesh had a miserable event but two late wins took him to 6 points alongside Ivanchuk, Praggnanandhaa and Nepomniachtchi just to pull out three names, also tied on 6 was early leader Parham Maghsoodloo, he fell away in the second half losing to Nihal Sarin in round 7, drawing with Anish Giri in 8, losing to Vincent Keymer in 9 and then the Andy Woodward in 10, and finished with a draw.

The Women's Candidate field is almost settled, just one place from the FIDE circuit to come here are the qualifiers: Zhu Jiner (winner women's Grand Prix 2024-5), Aleksandra Goryachkina (2nd women's Grand Prix 2024-5), Divya Deshmukh (winner women's World Cup), Koneru Humpy (2nd), Tan Zhongyi (3rd), Vaishali Rameshbabu (winner Grand Swiss), Kateryna Lagno (runner-up).

The Open Candidates is far from settled. Fabiano Caruana qualified last year from the FIDE circuit, Giri and Bluebaum qualified from here. The World Cup is yet to come, Praggnanandhaa is favourite from the FIDE circuit and Hikaru Nakamura is trying to make sure he qualifies via the rating by playing enough rated games in the US.

FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 Samarkand UZB Thu 4th Sep 2025 - Mon 15th Sep 2025 Leading Final Round 11 Standings:
Rk	SNo	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	Giri, Anish	GM	NED	2746	8	2668	62	66.5
2	32	Bluebaum, Matthias	GM	GER	2671	7.5	2695	66	70
3	4	Firouzja, Alireza	GM	FRA	2754	7.5	2684	64	68.5
4	5	Keymer, Vincent	GM	GER	2751	7.5	2668	62.5	68
5	86	Mishra, Abhimanyu	GM	USA	2611	7	2731	69.5	73.5
6	2	Erigaisi, Arjun	GM	IND	2771	7	2687	63	67.5
7	108	Woodward, Andy	GM	USA	2557	7	2686	61	64.5
8	12	Niemann, Hans Moke	GM	USA	2733	7	2668	60.5	64.5
9	20	Nihal, Sarin	GM	IND	2693	7	2666	61.5	65.5
10	6	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	GM	UZB	2748	7	2663	63	68
11	19	Liang, Awonder	GM	USA	2698	7	2659	56	60
12	17	Rapport, Richard	GM	HUN	2711	7	2657	57	62
13	10	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	GM	AZE	2741	7	2649	55.5	60
14	28	Yakubboev, Nodirbek	GM	UZB	2681	7	2645	59.5	64
15	16	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	GM	IND	2712	7	2640	61	66
16	11	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	GM	FRA	2738	7	2637	60.5	65
17	15	Yu, Yangyi	GM	CHN	2714	7	2634	60.5	65.5
18	22	Sevian, Samuel	GM	USA	2692	7	2633	54.5	58.5
19	25	Esipenko, Andrey	GM	FID	2687	7	2630	56	60.5
20	43	Sargsyan, Shant	GM	ARM	2653	6.5	2693	61.5	65.5
21	82	Shirov, Alexei	GM	ESP	2616	6.5	2685	59	63
22	96	Pranav, V	GM	IND	2596	6.5	2679	62	67.5
23	23	Van Foreest, Jorden	GM	NED	2692	6.5	2655	61.5	65.5
24	14	Sindarov, Javokhir	GM	UZB	2722	6.5	2639	53.5	57.5
25	42	Saric, Ivan	GM	CRO	2655	6.5	2627	51.5	55
26	18	Harikrishna, Pentala	GM	IND	2704	6.5	2617	52	56
27	21	Maghsoodloo, Parham	GM	IRI	2692	6	2701	69.5	75
28	52	Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan	GM	TUR	2646	6	2701	64.5	69.5
29	87	Maurizzi, Marcandria	GM	FRA	2610	6	2701	64.5	69
30	72	Hakobyan, Aram	GM	ARM	2625	6	2684	58.5	63
31	53	Theodorou, Nikolas	GM	GRE	2646	6	2683	62.5	65.5
32	90	Predke, Alexandr	GM	SRB	2609	6	2676	63.5	68
33	59	Xiong, Jeffery	GM	USA	2640	6	2676	60	64
34	91	Ivanchuk, Vasyl	GM	UKR	2608	6	2668	59	63.5
35	1	Praggnanandhaa, R	GM	IND	2785	6	2666	64.5	69
36	31	Tabatabaei, M. Amin	GM	IRI	2673	6	2663	62.5	66.5
37	104	Aditya, Mittal	GM	IND	2589	6	2657	57	60.5
38	109	Samunenkov, Ihor	GM	UKR	2550	6	2654	55	59
39	99	Narayanan, S L	GM	IND	2591	6	2650	57.5	62
40	46	Mamedov, Rauf	GM	AZE	2651	6	2650	55	59.5
116 players

FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Samarkand UZB Thu 4th Sep 2025 - Mon 15th Sep 2025 Leading Final Round 11 Standings:
Rk	SNo	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	13	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	GM	IND	2452	8	2434	66.5	71.5
2	4	Lagno, Kateryna	GM	FID	2505	8	2433	65.5	70
3	3	Assaubayeva, Bibisara	GM	KAZ	2505	7.5	2425	65.5	70
4	2	Tan, Zhongyi	GM	CHN	2531	7.5	2423	61	64
5	21	Song, Yuxin	IM	CHN	2409	7.5	2411	63.5	67
6	33	Fataliyeva, Ulviyya	IM	AZE	2385	7	2461	69	74.5
7	44	Krush, Irina	GM	USA	2366	7	2419	58.5	63
8	6	Muzychuk, Mariya	GM	UKR	2484	7	2404	58	62
9	42	Guo, Qi	IM	CHN	2371	6.5	2436	64.5	69
10	30	Girya, Olga	GM	FID	2386	6.5	2430	64.5	68.5
11	31	Narva, Mai	IM	EST	2386	6.5	2429	60	64
12	1	Muzychuk, Anna	GM	UKR	2535	6.5	2417	54	58
13	15	Tsolakidou, Stavroula	IM	GRE	2445	6.5	2409	58.5	62.5
14	10	Dronavalli, Harika	GM	IND	2467	6.5	2401	60	64.5
15	9	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	GM	SUI	2472	6.5	2391	59.5	64
16	14	Lu, Miaoyi	IM	CHN	2449	6.5	2376	59.5	64
17	48	Balajayeva, Khanim	IM	AZE	2331	6	2439	60	64.5
18	23	Danielian, Elina	GM	ARM	2405	6	2421	56	59.5
19	46	Kamalidenova, Meruert	IM	KAZ	2349	6	2414	58.5	63.5
20	11	Yip, Carissa	IM	USA	2458	6	2399	59.5	63.5
21	8	Garifullina, Leya	IM	FID	2477	6	2381	55	59.5
22	20	Ushenina, Anna	GM	UKR	2409	6	2372	59.5	63.5
23	17	Javakhishvili, Lela	IM	GEO	2434	6	2343	49	52.5
24	26	Wagner, Dinara	IM	GER	2400	5.5	2459	64	67.5
25	37	Maltsevskaya, Aleksandra	IM	POL	2379	5.5	2451	60.5	65
26	36	Zhai, Mo	WGM	CHN	2380	5.5	2421	57.5	61.5
27	38	Efroimski, Marsel	IM	ISR	2377	5.5	2420	55	59
28	29	Gaal, Zsoka	WGM	HUN	2388	5.5	2419	57.5	61.5
29	22	Khamdamova, Afruza	WIM	UZB	2409	5.5	2418	61.5	66
30	5	Shuvalova, Polina	IM	FID	2492	5.5	2408	56.5	60.5
31	27	Stefanova, Antoaneta	GM	BUL	2395	5.5	2404	61.5	65.5
32	7	Osmak, Yuliia	IM	UKR	2478	5.5	2387	53.5	57.5
33	12	Injac, Teodora	IM	SRB	2454	5.5	2349	52.5	56
34	40	Badelka, Olga	IM	AUT	2375	5	2431	61.5	66
35	52	Omonova, Umida	WIM	UZB	2252	5	2420	55.5	59
36	35	Vantika, Agrawal	IM	IND	2381	5	2419	58	61
37	51	Kaliakhmet, Elnaz	WIM	KAZ	2299	5	2418	55	59.5
38	41	Tokhirjonova, Gulrukhbegim	IM	UZB	2372	5	2413	55.5	59
39	39	Roebers, Eline	IM	NED	2377	5	2404	56.5	60
40	34	Balabayeva, Xeniya	WGM	KAZ	2383	5	2379	54	57.5
56 players

FIDE Grand Swiss Final Round Video

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