Giri, Vaishali Win Grand Swiss, Joined By Bluebaum, Lagno In Candidates
GM Anish Giri played a perfect slow, grinding game to defeat GM Hans Niemann and win the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss with 8/11. Giri takes the $90,000 top prize and earns a spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, where he'll be joined by GM Matthias Bluebaum, who drew with GM Alireza Firouzja and had the best tiebreaks of the three players on 7.5/11. His spot was confirmed when GM Vincent Keymer was unable to convert a promising but highly tricky position against GM Arjun Erigaisi.
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu won the 2025 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss for a second time in a row after making a draw against GM Tan Zhongyi. She had better tiebreaks than GM Kateryna Lagno, who also scored 8/11 after making a lightning-fast draw against IM Ulviyaa Fataliyeva. GM Bibisara Assaubayeva took third despite letting a huge advantage slip against GM Anna Muzychuk.
Final Standings
Giri finished in clear first, while the three-player tie for second was broken by the rating of the players' opposition during the event—lower-rated Bluebaum had faced tougher opposition and takes the Candidates spot, while Firouzja finishes third.
FIDE Grand Swiss Final Standings
Lagno and particularly Vaishali had dominated the Women's event, so it was fitting that they both secured their spots in the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament, with Assaubayeva third.
FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Final Standings
Open: Dream Day For Giri And Bluebaum
In the end it was only Giri who managed to win on the top-seven boards, which were the only ones that mattered for Candidates qualification.
Round 11 Results: Open
Check out the full games and results.
Going into the final day, eight players were in contention for two Candidates spots, but only one player, Bluebaum, had the combination of points and tiebreaks that meant he would have an excellent chance with a draw. Everyone else essentially had to win.
The first players to drop out of contention were the teenagers, with 15-year-old GM Andy Woodward never getting a glimmer of a chance against the formidable GM Yu Yangyi.
Woodward performed at 2784 and gained 33 rating points, while 16-year-old Mishra performed at 2828, gained 32 points to cross the 2650-barrier, and stretched his unbeaten run in classical chess to an incredible 67 games, the kind of run we only tend to see in seasoned professionals at the very top of their game.
There was still some small room for regret, however. Mishra had the best tiebreak of any player and, all other things being equal, would have reached the Candidates in place of Bluebaum if he'd beaten GM Vidit Gujrathi. Instead a lively clash against the 2023 Grand Swiss winner fizzled out into a draw.
That left only the top-three matchups featuring the five leaders and Arjun, who was half a point back. The next game to finish would be a big one, with Giri taking down Niemann, an opponent he pointed out he's played matches with escalating prize funds against in the last couple of years. The most recent meeting had been in the Esports World Cup, where some crazy flagging allowed Giri to triumph and reach the $50,000+ main event.
A stunning finish as @anishgiri of @teamsecret qualifies for the main event of the #EsportsWorldCup by flagging Hans Niemann, who was completely winning almost all game! https://t.co/F9hnu4sSrc pic.twitter.com/lTr0QPuGMm
— chess24 (@chess24com) July 26, 2025
The stakes were even higher in Samarkand, with the $90,000 top prize and a potentially lucrative Candidates spot opening up for the winner. A draw was unlikely to give anything to either player.
That's why Giri couldn't have asked for anything better than he got out of the opening: a risk-free position he described as having "huge potential," with the bishop pair, asymmetrical pawns, and a half-hour advantage on the clock.
"Being in a must-win for him it’s a very sad position," said Giri, who went on to smoothly turn the small edge into a winning advantage which he duly converted. That's our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao analyzes below.
That capped a fine tournament for Giri, who won five games and lost none.
Giri revealed that he'd visualized qualifying for the Candidates the day before and even started to pick his team. He explained:
I really love preparing for the Candidates and I’m in a situation now where I’m a little too old to be excited about just playing the tournament circuit... It’s the only way for me... to get out of the mundane. Maybe I’m delusional that I can win it, but at least everybody is delusional and I can really give it my best shot!
Maybe I’m delusional that I can win it, but at least everybody is delusional and I can really give it my best shot!
—Anish Giri on the Candidates
At the time his game finished Giri hadn't quite mathematically clinched a spot alongside GM Fabiano Caruana in the Candidates, but he didn't have long to wait, since the Bluebaum-Firouzja game soon ended in a draw.
Firouzja had done all he could, going for a borderline-desperate Dutch double fianchetto in the opening, but the Alekhine's gun he set up of queen and two rooks proved to be a dud, leading only to simplifications and a draw.
That draw left Bluebaum and Firouzja both on 7.5 points, half a point behind Giri, but for Firouzja it was the end of the road for now, as far as the Candidates went. Bluebaum, meanwhile, was left on the brink of qualification after an event in which he'd faced five 2700-players (plus the live 2700-rated GM Nihal Sarin), and beaten two of them—the Indian stars Arjun and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
That gave Bluebaum a tiebreak that would earn him a spot in the Candidates, unless Keymer could defeat Arjun to join Giri on 8/11.
Arjun-Keymer was another game where both players had to win, and Keymer followed Firouzja in going for a double fianchetto with the black pieces. Arjun correctly sacrificed an exchange and then went for what felt an unfathomably complex position with risky pawn pushes. Keymer got perilously low on the clock as he tried to navigate the complications and in computer terms may have missed winning chances, but they were a world away from the simple win he'd spoiled a day earlier against Bluebaum.
The draw in that game not only meant Bluebaum was in the Candidates but confirmed Giri as the sole winner of the FIDE Grand Swiss and the $90,000 top prize.
🇳🇱 Anish Giri (@anishgiri) being awarded his medal and winner’s trophy by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich at the closing ceremony of the #FIDEGrandSwiss. pic.twitter.com/CtP8H8vFZg
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 15, 2025
Women: Vaishali Does It Again
All four games that mattered for the Women's Candidates were drawn, with the decisive games only starting lower down the standings.
Round 11 Results: Women
Check out the full games and results.
While a PhD in statistics would have helped to understand the situation in the Open tournament going into the final round, it was much more clear-cut in the Women's section: Lagno and Vaishali led and both needed a draw to guarantee a place in the Candidates alongside the already qualified GMs Zhu Jiner, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Divya Deshmukh, Koneru Humpy, and Tan.
Lagno put that knowledge to good use, as she made the first draw of the day, in an effortless 30 moves against Fataliyeva, who mathematically could have qualified for the Candidates herself but would have needed everything to go her way.
Lagno admitted her opening choice was "very, very safe" and summed up, "Of course I’m happy with my result here because I won five games, I didn’t lose a single game, and it looks like I qualified to the Candidates, which was the main goal."
It was a very smooth performance, except for the hiccup that Lagno had been dead lost against Assaubayeva before pulling off a miracle escape.
IM Song Yuxin dropped out of Candidates contention with a quiet draw against GM Irina Krush, and Vaishali was left with the safety cushion that she could even lose her game against Tan if Assaubayeva didn't win. During the round, however, Assaubayeva, who had inflicted the only loss on Vaishali, looked to be crushing against GM Anna Muzychuk, so that full pressure was on Vaishali.
Vaishali noted, "Today was not easy, playing Black with Tan," and confessed to relaxing too early after what seemed like a poor opening choice by her opponent. Complications arose, Vaishali burned up time, but in the end she reached a pawn-down endgame that was relatively easy to hold.
With the handshake after the game Vaishali had not just qualified for the Candidates but won the FIDE Grand Swiss, since she had a slightly better tiebreak than Lagno.
That capped a fine tournament for Vaishali, who confessed she didn't expect it at all, coming after a tough year in which she'd recently lost seven games in a row in the Chennai Grand Masters.
"I’m happy that I didn’t collapse," Vaishali said about her one stumble.
That meant Vaishali had won back-to-back FIDE Grand Swisses after her triumph in 2023. Asked about her progress since, Vaishali commented, "I think I’ve become a better player and person!"
I think I’ve become a better player and person!
— Vaishali on how she's changed since winning the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss
Vaishali collected the trophy with Lagno second.
🇮🇳 Vaishali Rameshbabu (@chessvaishali) being awarded her medal and winner’s trophy by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich at the closing ceremony of the Women's #FIDEGrandSwiss. pic.twitter.com/0rNPAsGDBw
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) September 15, 2025
In the end Vaishali could have lost and still qualified for the Candidates, since Assaubayeva strayed, first by trading off queens and then by trading rooks into what suddenly turned out to be a perfect fortress for Anna.
That was a strange finish, but the Candidates chances had gone, and the draw still gave Assaubayeva third place. The other good news for the Kazakh star is that for now she's the highest-ranked player in the FIDE Women's Events 2024-2025 series that will decide the final spot in the Women's Candidates.
That's all for the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE Women's Grand Swiss—we hope you enjoyed the show!
How to rewatch?
You can rewatch the day's broadcast on the Chess24 YouTube or Twitch channels. The games can also be reviewed from our dedicated events page.
The broadcast was hosted by IM Anna Rudolf and John Sargent.
The 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE Women's Grand Swiss were 11-round Swiss tournaments that took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 4-15. Each decided two places in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournaments that select the next world championship challengers. The Open tournament had a $625,000 prize fund, with $90,000 for first place, while the Women's was $230,000 ($40,000). The time control was classical, with a longer time control for the Open of 100 minutes/40 moves + 50 min/20 + 15 min, with a 30-second increment from move 1.
Previous coverage:
- Round 10: Niemann Beats Pragg To Join 5-Way Tie For 1st; Vaishali Catches Lagno
- Round 9: Firouzja, Giri, Keymer Join Grand Swiss Lead With 2 Rounds To Go
- Round 8: Lagno Overtakes Vaishali In Women's; Nihal, Bluebaum Lead Open
- Round 7: Nihal, Bluebaum Grab Grand Swiss Lead; Gukesh Loses 3rd Game
- Round 6: Maghsoodloo Leads Grand Swiss As Gukesh Loses 2nd Game In A Row
- Round 5: 16-Year-Old Mishra Youngest Player Ever To Beat World Champion In Classical Chess
- Round 4: 14-Year-Old Erdogmus Wins Masterpiece; Lagno Catches Vaishali
- Round 3: Maghsoodloo, Vaishali Take Sole Grand Swiss Lead On 3/3
- Round 2: Gukesh Misses Win Vs. 14-Year-Old Erdogmus
- Round 1: Gukesh, Firouzja Among Early Winners; Women's Favorites Toppled
- World Champion Gukesh Headlines Spectacular Grand Swiss Lineup
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
