World Champion Gukesh Headlines Spectacular Grand Swiss Lineup

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced a strong field for the highly anticipated FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, scheduled to take place September 3-16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

2025 has been packed with great chess events, but many more exciting ones are still on the horizon. Among the real treats is the fourth edition of the Grand Swiss, the field for which was announced last week by FIDE.

The 11-round Swiss features 172 players - 116 in the Open and 56 in the Women's, fighting not only for the $90,000 first prize ($40,000 in the Women's section), but more importantly for two golden tickets to the 2026 Candidates Tournament. The winner of that event will become GM Gukesh Dommaraju's challenger in the 2026 World Chess Championship match.

2025 FIDE Grand Swiss Open: Top Players

While this year's edition is not quite at the level of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019, where GM Magnus Carlsen finished sixth, it's a spectacular field with six of the ten highest-ranked players on the July list. 18 grandmasters are ranked above 2700, with 102 above 2600, and even players beyond the top 25 above are capable of winning it.

Among the many stars in 2025 is the reigning World Champion Gukesh, who will not be playing to qualify for Candidates, but decided to play the Grand Swiss anyway. He is joined by fellow Indian GMs Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, all currently ranked among the world's top six players.

Praggnanandhaa has been playing brilliantly all year and currently holds a strong lead in the FIDE Circuit, which would earn him a Candidates spot. He could complicate things if he wins or finishes second in Samarkand, as pointed out by Chess.com's Tai Pruce-Zimmerman in his recent analysis. The race for second place in the Circuit would then become important and that position is currently held by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who is the fourth-ranked player in Samarkand.

Other GMs such as Alireza Firouzja, the 2021 winner, as well as Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Levon Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hans Niemann, and Vincent Keymer are also more than capable of winning the event.

GM Vidit Gujrathi was ranked 15th in the field when he won the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023, and curiously he is ranked 15th again, which again shows how open the event is.

While discussing the players taking part in Uzbekistan, it's worth mentioning the ones skipping it. FIDE's rule of requiring more than 30 rated classical games between July 2024 and June 2025 has excluded former World Champions Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand, although it's unlikely they would have played anyway.

Also missing is GM Fabiano Caruana, who so far is the only player who has already sealed his spot in the 2026 Candidates, which he did by winning the 2024 FIDE Circuit.

GM Hikaru Nakamura has chosen to go the rating path as the highest-ranked player by average rating from August 2025 to January 2026, as he noted during a recent stream.

"My plans for the rest of the year remain the same. I will be playing some tournaments likely in September and October, some Mickey Mouse tournaments and try to beat some IMs and get my rating up a bit. Everything is still on track for trying to qualify for the Candidates," he said.

The Women's Grand Swiss

Many of the players confirmed for the Women's section are currently battling it out at the 2025 Women's World Cup in Batumi., where three spots to the 2026 Women's Candidates are in play. In Samarkand, an additional two spots will be on the line. 

2025 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss: Top Players

Top seed is the 2023 Women's World Championship challenger GM Lei Tingjie, followed by GMs Anna Muzychuk, Koneru Humpy, Tan Zhongyi, Kateryna Lagno, and 2023 winner GM Vaishali Rameshbabu.

GM Hou Yifan, the women's world number-one, plays rarely and is unsurprisingly missing from the event, as is five-time Woman's World Champion GM Ju Wenjun.  Women's world number-six GM Zhu Jiner, as well as number-seven GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, have both already sealed their Candidates spots through the 2024/2025 FIDE Women's Grand Prix. Goryachkina won't be missing in Samarkand, though, as she's playing in the Open after receiving a wildcard from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. 

To sum up, we can look forward to an exciting event which begins in less than 50 days!