2025 FIDE Grand Swiss: The Stories So Far

The 2025 FIDE World Grand Swiss is just past its halfway point in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The event consists of a 116-player Open section and a 56-player Women’s section. Play resumes Thursday, September 11, at 5:15 a.m. CDT.

The top two finishers in each section will qualify for the FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates Tournament, respectively. The total prize fund in Samarkand is $855,000, with $625,000 for the Open and $230,000 for the Women’s, and first-place prizes of $90,000 and $40,000, respectively.

Below is a summary of the first six rounds, with annotations courtesy of WGM Sabina Foisor. Keep reading for some additional puzzles, selected by Sabina, from games played by some of the 12 Americans (10 in the Open, two in the Women’s) competing. Beginning next week, keep an eye out for many more puzzles curated by Sabina, as well, in our weekly Tactics Tuesday and Wednesday Workout worksheet series.

Open

Iran’s GM Parham Maghsoodloo leads with a remarkable 5/6 score — including wins over GMs Alireza Firouzja and Richard Rapport — ahead of five players tied for second with 4½/6. The 25-year-old is now back over 2700 and into the top 30 of the live rankings.

Parham Maghsoodloo (L) leads the Grand Swiss with a 5/6 score after drawing Arjun Erigaisi (R) on Tuesday (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

There are five more games after today’s rest day, so we can expect plenty of jockeying in the standings. Additionally, with two qualification spots for the next FIDE Candidates Tournament up for grabs, the fight for second place will be just as important for the potential leaders.

The group of players currently tied for second is an exciting mix of world elites and upstarts. The elites are Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi and Dutch GM Anish Giri, who sit at fifth and 10th, respectively in the live world rankings. Below is Giri’s win yesterday in an excellent Najdorf:

India’s GM Nihal Sarin is somewhere between the two categories, as the 21-year-old is one win away from reaching a FIDE classical rating of over 2700 for the first time in his career.

Calling German GM Matthias Blubaum an upstart feels a bit dishonest, as he is 28 years old, but his career is clearly on an upswing as his live rating has eclipsed his 2021 peak rating of 2674.

And that just leaves…

On Monday, GM Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest-ever player to defeat the current world champion in a classical game (Photo courtesy of Michael Walusza/FIDE)

GM Abhimanyu “The Youngest Ever” Mishra has been on an absolute tear in this tournament. The youngest-ever player to earn the GM title has added another line to his CV, becoming the youngest-ever player to defeat the sitting world champion in a classical game. The 16-year-old from New Jersey defeated Serbian GM Alexey Sarana and Chinese GM Yu Yangyi in consecutive rounds, and even held GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu to a draw. Mishra has made it into the top 100 in the live ratings as a result.

An additional 15 players sit on “plus-two” scores of 4/6, including pre-tournament favorites like GMs Alireza Firouzja, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Vincent Keymer. There’s still a lot of chess to be played, of course, so even players with 3½/6 like GM Levon Aronian or Ian Nepomniachtchi could easily go on a hot streak and vie for a top-two finish.

Tomorrow, our eyes will be on Giri – Mishra on Board 3. It’s worth noting that Mishra has been a Najdorf acolyte for most of his young career, so it will be interesting to see if Giri opts to “wave the red flag in front of the bull” and open with 1. e4. All pairings for Round 7 can be found on the official tournament website.

Women’s

Two players lead the Women’s tournament with 5/6 scores: Indian GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and Russian GM Kateryna Lagno. Chinese IM Guo Qi and Bulgarian former World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova trail with 4½/6. An impressively swift victory from Vaishali is annotated below:

While the buzz in the Open has been about some of the young upstarts, it’s worth noting that experience is reigning supreme in the Women’s event: 24-year-old Vaishali is the only player in this group under the age of 30, and it’s been over 20 years since the 46-year-old Stefanova won her title in 2004.

Vaishali Rameshbabu (L) and Kateryna Lagno are tied for first in the Women's Grand Swiss with 5/6 scores (Photos courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Both Americans competing — GM Irina Krush and IM Carissa Yip — sit on “plus-one” scores of 3½/6 as part of a six-way tie for 14th place.

Americans Awonder Liang, Andy Woodward, and Carissa Yip discuss who-knows-what before their respective sixth-round games (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Because the leaders drew their head-to-head encounter on Monday, tomorrow’s top boards will be Stefanova – Lagno and Vaishali – Guo. Yip and Krush both take the white pieces, against Russian IM Leya Garifullina and Hungarian WGM Zsoka Gaal, respectively.

And more!

Below are two positions each from Yip and American GM Jeffery Xiong, as well as a heart-breaker from GM Sam Shankland’s game against Firouzja. Take a look at each one, and click on the diagram to be taken to Sabina’s solution.