Grand Swiss 2025 participants

The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2025 is taking place September 3 – September 16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It will be an 11-round Swiss-system tournament and forms part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2026. The winner and runner-up of the tournament will earn the right to play in the Candidates Tournament 2026.

FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2025 is in the Top Chess Events Calendar for the year 2025 and also in the Asia Chess Calendar. For a complete list of events visit the main page of The Chess Calendar

The form can be filled in the actual website url.

The 11-round Swiss format tournament will see 172 players take part – 116 in the Open and 56 in the Women’s tournament. As per regulations, the top two qualifiers in both the Open and the Women’s competition will qualify for the Candidates Chess 2026 tournament, where the challenger for the title of World Champion will be determined.

Apart from serving as the qualifier for the Candidates 2026, the Grand Swiss 2025 also features a notable prize fund, which has been significantly increased from the last edition. The prize fund in the Open is $625,000 (increased from $460,000 in 2023) and in the Women’s competition features a $230,000 prize fund (up from $140,000 in 2023).

Grand Swiss 2025 participants open (see the women section participants here)

FIDE has announced the first list of participants in the Grand Swiss. The highest rated players in the field are India’s superstars Arjun Erigaisi, World Champion Gukesh D, and Praggnanandhaa R. There other participants from top 10 the FIDE Top players rating list are Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, and Anish Giri.

Significant misses include players that did not cover the requirements like Carlsen, Anand, Topalov, Le Quang Liem, etc see the full list here. From that list the only one saved so far by a FIDE President nomination is Boris Gelfand, while Goryachkina is the only female player to receive a nomination for the open section. Some players also declined participating, like Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who said, “I am fed up with classical chess, I might not participate in both the Grand Swiss and the World Cup”

Here is the full list of announced participants at the Grand Swiss Chess 2025.