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FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: All The Information

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: All The Information

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The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss is a chess tournament that is part of the world championship cycle. The 2021 Grand Swiss ran from October 27-November 8 and determined two candidates for the 2022 world championship.

It was won by GM Alireza Firouzja outright with a score of 8/11. GM Fabiano Caruana finished second with 7.5/11 on a tiebreak over GM Grigoriy Oparin. Firouzja and Caruana thus qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament.

The inaugural FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss was held concurrently. GM Lei Tingjie won by 1.5 points with a 9/11 score and qualified the 2022 Women's Candidates Tournament, which only had one candidates spot on the line.


Broadcast

The Grand Swiss is covered at our Events page with live broadcasting on Chess.com/TV or on our Twitch and YouTube channels.

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Hosts

Schedule

The 2021 event was held from October 27 to November 7, with players arriving October 25 for the opening ceremony on October 26. Many also participated in the Mikhail Tal Memorial blitz tournament on November 8.

Date Event Los Angeles St. Louis New York Reykjavik London Paris Riga New Delhi Beijing
Oct. 27 Round 1 4:00 6:00 7:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Oct. 28 Round 2 4:00 6:00 7:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Oct. 29 Round 3 4:00 6:00 7:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Oct. 30 Round 4 4:00 6:00 7:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Oct. 31 Round 5 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 1 Round 6 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 2 Rest day
Nov. 3 Round 7 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 4 Round 8 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 5 Round 9 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 6 Round 10 5:00 7:00 8:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 7 Round 11 4:00 6:00 7:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:30 19:00
Nov. 8 Mikhail Tal Blitz 2:00 4:00 5:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 13:30 16:00

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Schedule

Location

The FIDE Grand Swiss takes place in Riga, Latvia.

The 2019 tournament was held in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, a British dependency. The 2021 tournament was originally scheduled to be played there as well, but was moved "due to the strict COVID-19 restrictions still in place in the Isle of Man and the UK," according to FIDE.

The change of location did not affect the dates and format of the 2021 event.

Format

The Grand Swiss and the Women's Grand Swiss share the same format. They are 11-round Swiss tournaments, meaning players on the same score face each other every round. However, no player faces another player more than once. If two players are tied for first place entering the final round but they played earlier in the tournament, they would each face someone just below them in the standings instead of each other for a second time.

The time control in the Grand Swiss is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game. There is a 30-second increment starting from move 1.

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Format

The time control for the Women's Grand Swiss is somewhat shorter: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, also with a 30-second increment starting on move 1.

2021 FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss Format

There is a tiebreaker system rather than additional games, which is as follows. Descriptions are from the FIDE Handbook.

  1. Buchholz Cut 1 (the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player reduced by the lowest score of the opponent)
  2. Buchholz (the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player)
  3. Sonneborn-Berger (the sum of the scores of the opponents a player has defeated and half the scores of the players with whom he has drawn)
  4. Direct encounter between the players in tie
  5. Drawing of lots.

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Tiebreak

Players

This year's field was announced by FIDE on September 30. The open field was headlined by GMs Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja. The women's field was highlighted by GMs Mariya Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Nana Dzagnidze.

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Open Participants

2021 FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss Participants

Prize Fund

In 2021, the top two players qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament while the third- through eighth-place finishers (Oparin, GM Yu Yangyi, GM Vincent Keymer, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, GM Alexandr Predke, and GM Alexei Shirov) gained a spot in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, a three-tournament series from February to April 2022 which is itself a path to the Candidates Tournament as well. 

The monetary prize fund is $425,000, with $70,000 going to first place. The top 40 finishers receive a prize, as below:

Place Prize Place Prize
1st $70,000 21st $3,000
2nd $50,000 22nd $3,000
3rd $40,000 23rd $3,000
4th $35,000 24th $3,000
5th $30,000 25th $3,000
6th $25,000 26th $2,500
7th $20,000 27th $2,500
8th $17,000 28th $2,500
9th $14,000 29th $2,500
10th $11,500 30th $2,500
11th $8,000 31st $2,000
12th $8,000 32nd $2,000
13th $8,000 33rd $2,000
14th $8,000 34th $2,000
15th $8,000 35th $2,000
16th $5,000 36th $2,000
17th $5,000 37th $2,000
18th $5,000 38th $2,000
19th $5,000 39th $2,000
20th $5,000 40th $2,000

2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Prize Fund

The prize fund in the Women's Grand Swiss is $125,000, with the winner receiving $20,000 as well as a spot in the 2022 Women's Candidates Tournament.

Place Prize Place Prize
1st $20,000 7th $7,000
2nd $16,500 8th $6,000
3rd $14,000 9th $5,000
4th $12,000 10th $4,000
5th $10,000 11th-15th $2,500
6th $8,000 16th-20th $2,000

2021 FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss Prize Fund

Regulations

The complete FIDE regulations for the 2021 Grand Swiss can be found here. Regulations for the Women's Grand Swiss are located here.

History

The Grand Swiss is a relatively new tournament, first held in 2019. Only the winner received a spot in the Candidates, instead of the top two finishers as in 2021. The victor in 2019 was GM Wang Hao, who scored 8/11 and won on the tiebreak system over GM Fabiano Caruana and qualified for the 2020 Candidates. Caruana had already qualified by winning the 2018 Candidates to become that year's challenger to GM Magnus Carlsen's world championship.

The 2021 Grand Swiss was only the second edition.

Year Fed Winner Score
2019 GM Wang Hao 8.0/11
2021 GM Alireza Firouzja 8.0/11

2021 was the first year with a Women's Grand Swiss.

Year Fed Winner Score
2021 Lei Tingjie 9.0/11
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