Giri, Vaishali Win 2025 Grand Swiss

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2025 Grand Swiss and Women's Grand Swiss winners Anish Giri and Vaishali Rameshbabu (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

After almost two full weeks of play during the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, four players earned their “FIDE Airlines” boarding passes for the 2026 Candidates.

Dutch GM Anish Giri and German GM Matthis Bluebaum won their spots in the Open, while Indian GM Vaishali Rameshbabu repeated as Grand Swiss champion to earn a trip to her second consecutive Women’s Candidates. She will be joined by Russian GM Kateryna Lagno, who finished second behind Vaishali on tiebreaks.

In the Open, Giri’s undefeated 8/11 score was good for clear first, a half-point ahead of Bluebaum, French GM Alireza Firouzja, and German GM Vincent Keymer. Bluebaum had the highest average opponent rating, earning him the second qualification spot via tiebreaks. Giri also takes home $90,000 for his victory.

Rated 2671 and seeded 32nd (out of 116 players) at the start of the event, the 28-year-old Bluebaum’s qualification certainly came as a surprise. But the first player to ever win multiple European Chess Championships has been on a hot streak this year, and he will be a fun “dark horse” to cheer for in the Candidates.

In the Women’s tournament, Vaishali and Lagno tied for first with 8/11 scores, each taking home $35,500. While Lagno went undefeated with five wins and six draws, Vaishali needed a sixth win after losing to Kazakh GM Bibisara Assaubayeva in the eighth round. Vaishali’s final victory in the penultimate round is annotated below by WGM Sabina Foisor:

Assaubayeva had the best tiebreaks of the three players tied for third with 7½/11 scores, narrowly missing on a share of first place after failing to convert serious winning chances against Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk.

Five Americans were part of the 15-way (!) tie for fifth place with 7/11 scores in the Open. Of them, Niemann’s finish was likely the biggest disappointment, as he entered the last round with 7/10 and a shot at the candidates if he could win (or perhaps even just draw) Giri.

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Anish Giri gives his best Ian Nepomniachtchi impersonation during his game against Hans Niemann (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Entering the penultimate round, Niemann trailed four leaders by a half-point, but after they all drew, he was able to join the pack with an impressive win over India’s GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, annotated below by Foisor:

Instead, Giri’s professional approach gave Niemann no realistic chances to create anything with the black pieces, and a slight advantage grew from there, as Foisor explains:

Three more Americans joined Niemann in the tie for fifth after entering the final day a half-point behind the leaders: GMs Awonder Liang, Abhimanyu Mishra, and Andy Woodward. It feels somehow inaccurate as I type this, even though it’s clearly correct, but the 22-year-old Liang is by far the oldest of this trio of talented youngsters.

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Awonder Liang (R) and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Given the tiebreak situation, Liang had no path to qualify for the Candidates even with a last-round win, but that did not stop him from pushing against Uzbekistan’s GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in one of the longer games of the round. Alas, Abdusattorov was able to hold the draw, but Liang still gained nine FIDE rating points for his performance, putting him back over 2700 FIDE.

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Liang (R) credited opponents like Salem Saleh for providing him with opportunities to push for a win (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Liang seems to be coming into his own as an elder statesmen for American chess, giving the following aged, somber synopsis of his tournament:

It was my first time playing the Grand Swiss, so I wasn't too sure what to expect. Early on, I played quite relaxed, not trying to pose too many problems to my opponents. Unfortunately, I spent quite a while in 2620-2640 Elo hell, where my opponents were more than happy to take a draw with the white pieces. However, I continued trying to play calmly, and, eventually … I ran into [GM Anton] Korobov and [GM] Salem [Saleh], who both played quite ambitiously, giving me chances.

Generally my play this event was somewhat uninspired, mostly taking advantage of my opponent's mistakes while limiting mistakes of my own. I later faced Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov, but my quality of play in both of those games was also fairly low. I can't say of myself that it was any due to any pressure from the candidates — as I never had any chance to qualify — but for whatever reason, the amount of mistakes in this event from all players was incredible. Perhaps it was due to the long event and players getting tired towards the end, or simply throwing caution to the wind out of sheer boredom.

Both Mishra and Woodward had outside chances of qualifying for the Candidates if either could win their final game (and other results broke their way). But Mishra was unable to muster more than a draw with the black pieces against India’s GM Vidit Gujrathi, and Woodward, despite having the white pieces, only managed a draw against Chinese GM Yu Yangyi. 

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Abhimanyu Mishra was featured on the official commentary stream after defeating the reigning World Champion earlier in the tournament (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

The 16-year-old Mishra finished fifth on tiebreaks, and Woodward was not far behind, finishing seventh on tiebreaks. In other words, not only did a 16-year-old seeded 86^th and a 15-year-old seeded 108^th finish tied for fifth, but they did so with the first- and third-toughest paths of any of the players to finish with 7/11.

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Andy Woodward (L) and Abhimanyu Mishra at the closing ceremony (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

These results were reflected in their rating gains, with Woodward gaining 33 points for his 2784 performance and Mishra “only” 32 points for his undefeated 2828 performance. On his performance, Mishra shared the following statement:

Unlike all top players, I had to divide my time between both chess and high school. 50% of my time was spent studying for many AP Courses that I'd taken.

Without corporate involvement (current situation), it's hard to imagine pursuing chess full time. I'm glad that even with even just 50% of my time, I was able to produce such a result.

It is unfortunate that I could not create enough problems against Vidit as black in the last round. Winning that game would have guaranteed the [Candidates] spot.

Looking forward to keep fighting in this uneven battleground!

Woodward went from having a strong event to a spectacular one during the final three rounds, boasting wins over GMs Levon Aronian and Parham Maghsoodloo. Woodward’s win over Maghsoodloo, who led the event entering the rest day, is annotated below by Foisor.

On his strong finish, Woodward shared:

It was a dream come true to compete in the FIDE Grand Swiss against some of the best players in the world. … I am very grateful for the opportunity to play. As for the tournament, I am very happy with my performance. I didn't have high expectations going into the tournament, with not much experience against 2650+ opposition.

Fortunately, in the first few rounds I was quite lucky (especially Round 2) and … [in my games against] Aronian and Maghsoodloo, which were … full of complications and tactics.

The results of those games extremely boosted my confidence not only going into the last round but also from a general standpoint, and I hope I can carry that on to the U.S. Championships.

It felt unreal knowing that I had even just a slight chance of qualifying to the Candidates going into the last round. … The biggest takeaway for me from this tournament is to rise up to meet the challenge and compete to my fullest effort and ability. Anyone can achieve anything if they set their mind to it.

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Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE

Additionally, Woodward provided us with annotations of his win over Aronian.

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Sam Sevian's strong finish saw him join the tie for fifth (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Finally, GM Sam Sevian was the last American to join the logjam of 7/11 scores after closing out the tournament with back-to-back wins over Turkish GM Ediz Guriel and Serbian GM Alexandr Predke, respectively. Sevian had a solid “plus-two” score of 5/8 before losing his ninth-round game as Black against second-seeded GM Arjuan Erikgaisi, so it was nice to see him make the most of his “double Whites” to close out the event with a 2/2 finish.

Two more Americans finished with positive scores: GMs Jeffery Xiong and Grigoriy Oparin. Xiong’s last-round victory over former Women’s World Championship challenger GM Alexandra Goryachkina put him back in the black with an eight-point rating gain. Oparin’s last-round loss to Azerbaijani GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, however, kept him from gaining rating despite his 2669 performance and wins over Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and Spanish GM David Anton.

The best way to illustrate the strength of this tournament is by pointing out that the only three American players to lose rating points — GMs Ray Robson and Sam Shankland, who each put up 5½/11 scores, and eighth-seeded GM Levon Aronian, who finished with a disappointing 5/11 — are all players with peak FIDE ratings over 2700 and at least one appearance for Team USA at a FIDE Olympiad.

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Irina Krush (L) during her win over former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Only two Americans competed in the 56-player Women’s event, where GM Irina Krush tied for sixth place with 7/11 and a 2516 performance that included a win over former Women’s World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova.

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The dynamic Carissa Yip produced nine decisive results out of 11 games (Photo courtesy Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Krush’s Olympiad teammate IM Carissa Yip had a more up-and-down event, finishing “plus-one” after winning five games but losing four for a hit of six rating points.

There was comparatively less drama in the final round of the Women’s event, as both Lagno and Vaishali could book their trips with a draw, as even with a win in her final game, Assaubayeva would have finished third on tiebreaks. But it is worth noting that, by failing to tie for first, Assaubayeva lost out on a substantial amount of FIDE Circuit points, which could impact the standings for the final Women’s Candidates spot, although Assaubayeva still currently has the inside track. Note that, although Assaubayeva is eighth on the leaderboard, the top seven are the other seven qualifiers!

Five spots remain for the 2026 FIDE Candidates, as GM Fabiano Caruana already qualified last year via the 2024 FIDE Circuit. Three of these spots will be awarded at the end of November’s 2025 FIDE World Cup, and a fourth will be determined at the end of the calendar year’s 2025 FIDE Circuit, where Praggnanandhaa currently leads. The final spot will be awarded to the player with the highest average rating from the six FIDE monthly rating lists beginning with August 2025. It’s no secret who is gunning for that final spot.

The Women’s Candidates tournament is penciled in for April 2026, although dates and location have not been announced. No details have been given for the open Candidates other than the fact that it will be held at some point in 2026, as well.