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Matthias Bluebaum, Alireza Firouzja, Vincent Keymer, and Anish Giri in pole position for Candidates 2026

14 Sep, 2025by gprevenasΣκακιστικά νέα

Two rounds before the end of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, the fight for the two top positions – awarding qualification for the Candidates Chess Tournament 2026 – is more than intense. Matthias Bluebaum, Alireza Firouzja, Vincent Keymer, and Anish Giri are in the lead after nine rounds, with 6,5/9 each. They are followed by Abhimanyu Mishra, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Sarin Nihal, Hans Moke Niemann, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Yangyi Yu with 6,0/9

Today in round 10, the top pairings are:

Alireza Firouzja – Anish Giri
Vincent Keymer – Matthias Bluebaum
Yangyi Yu – Arjun Erigaisi
Nihal Sarin – Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Abhimanyu Mishra – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Hans Moke Niemann – R Praggnanandhaa

Scroll down for the full results and standings of the FIDE Grand Swiss.

Grand Swiss information: FIDE Grand Swiss Chess Tournament 2025 – A Gateway to the World Championship
Grand Swiss Live: FIDE Grand Swiss Chess 2025 live / Women’s Grand Swiss Chess 2025 live
Grand Swiss Participants: Participants open / Participants women

Round 1: Multiple surprises on the board
Round 2: Maghsoodloo, Firouzja, and Demchenko lead Grand Swiss 2025
Round 3: Parham Maghsoodloo is sole leader of Grand Swiss 2025 after R3
Round 4: Parham Maghsoodloo continues to lead the Grand Swiss, 13 players share second
Round 5: Parham Maghsoodloo continues leading the Grand Swiss, as Abhimanyu Mishra stuns the World Champion
Round 6: Anish Giri leaps to shared second, eyeing Candidates 2026 spot
Round 7: Nihal Sarin and Matthias Bluebaum are co-leaders after round 7 of the FIDE Grand Swiss
Round 8: Nihal Sarin and Matthias Bluebaum lead the Grand Swiss, Keymer inches in to the top


FIDE Grand Swiss 2025, Round 9: Four share lead in the Open

Matthias Bluebaum, Alireza Firouzja, Vincent Keymer and Anish Giri lead after nine rounds in the Open, all on 6.5/9. Lagno still leads in the Women’s event with 7/9 after narrowly escaping defeat against Bibisara Assaubayeva.

It was a gruelling day in the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, with several top games in the Open section lasting more than six hours.

Alireza Firouzja, playing as Black, overpowered Nihal Sarin in the Sicilian Alapin after a long struggle. Sarin, joint leader at the start of the day, had a very good position early in the game, but misplayed it.

White has just correctly sacrificed a knight and now has a menacing position. After the natural 17.Nd6+ Kd7 18.f4 Qf6 19.f5! gxf5 20.Bxd5 Black is in serious trouble. But Sarin opted for a much weaker continuation 17.f4 Qf6 18.Qe2 (18.Nd6+ is not nearly as efficient here as the f7-pawn is protected) Nfe7 19.g4? Again, missing Nd6+ which promised a better position.

19…Qh4 White is a piece down, but has strong compensation. In subsequent play, Firouzja returned the extra piece, transposing into a complicated endgame. The position was tense but even up until White’s 37th move.

White has two runners – on the b- and c-file, but his king is exposed and Black’s centralised rook and knight are well coordinated. White should have proceeded with 37.Be2 with the idea of getting it to c4 and outflanking Black. But Sarin played 37.Bf3?? which failed to 37…Re5! All of a sudden, White is losing his c5-pawn as his dark-squared bishop has no safe square on the g1-a7 diagonal. After 38.Bd2 Rxc5 39.Kh1 Rc2 40.Be3 Rh8 41.Bg1 Rh4 not only is Black a pawn up, but his pieces are much more active.

But now it was Firouzja’s turn to err. As the game went on, he struggled to convert his advantage and – at one point – allowed Sarin to come close to being equal. Eventually, Firouzja found a way to advance pawns (after White’s crucial mistake on move 60)  – but this took 82 moves and seven hours of play.

Parham Maghsoodloo, who was the leader from round three to round six, lost again today, his second defeat in a row. Playing as White in the Reti, he fell to Germany’s number one, Vincent Keymer. The game saw several sharp tactical twists and turns.

The first critical moment occurred on move 22.

White has just given up a d4-pawn. The best move was 22.Rad1, but Maghsoodloo played with the wrong rook – 22.Rfd1 and now Black has a Zwischenzug – 22…Bg5! 23.Bg3 Bf6 With this subtle bishop maneuver Black obtained the decisive advantage. 

After 24.Bf4 Kb8 25.Rd3 Ka8 26.Rad1 Rg5!! There was no escape for White. Keymer was not flawless in the conversion but emerged victorious after 70 moves and nearly seven hours.

On board two, Uzbekistan’s favourite Nodirbek Abdusatorrov split a point with the other tournament co-leader (and European Champion) Matthias Bluebaum. A draw was agreed after 39 moves, as neither side gained an edge following the King’s Pawn Opening.

On board four, Anish Giri defeated Jorden van Foreest in the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Playing as Black, van Foreest held until the endgame, where he cracked under pressure and lost. On board five, Niemann and Mishra split a point after a long battle in a bishop endgame where White (Niemann) had an extra pawn and tried every way possible to force Mishra to err, but without success.

Arjun Erigaisi prevailed over the American Sam Sevian, again joining the group of players half a point behind the leaders. The same goes for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who beat Türkiye’s Erdogmus with a nice finish. After losing to Keymer in round eight, Vidit today defeated Sargsyan and is on 5/9.

Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev scored a beautiful victory as White against Anton Demchenko, in a very sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted.

The opponents followed the game Melkumyan – Stevic (2019) up to move 12 when Anton tried a natural but erroneous move with catastrophic consequences for Black.

Instead of 12..Ne6 with a slightly inferior position Demchenko played 12…Qe7?

13.Nf5! Bxf5 14.exf5 Kd8 15.Rac1 and Black is completely paralyzed as his king can find no comfort in the center open for White’s heavy pieces. 

After 23 moves, Demchenko resigned in the following position:

World Champion Gukesh D made another draw today, against Armenian Robert Hovhannisyan. On several occasions, Gukesh had more chances but allowed them all to slip. After nine rounds, the World Champion has only two victories.

In a notable result of the day, in the duel of the two former world champion candidates (albeit in different categories), Alexandra Goryachkina defeated Boris Gelfand in 41 moves.

Written by Milan Dinic 

Photos: Michal Walusza 

FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 standings after round 9


Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts.
1 GM Bluebaum, Matthias GER 2671 6.5
2 GM Firouzja, Alireza FRA 2754 6.5
3 GM Keymer, Vincent GER 2751 6.5
4 GM Giri, Anish NED 2746 6.5
5 GM Mishra, Abhimanyu USA 2611 6
6 GM Erigaisi, Arjun IND 2771 6
7 GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek UZB 2748 6
8 GM Nihal, Sarin IND 2693 6
9 GM Niemann, Hans Moke USA 2733 6
10 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2738 6
11 GM Yu, Yangyi CHN 2714 6
12 GM Maghsoodloo, Parham IRI 2692 5.5
13 GM Sargsyan, Shant ARM 2653 5.5
14 GM Shirov, Alexei ESP 2616 5.5
15 GM Woodward, Andy USA 2557 5.5
16 GM Theodorou, Nikolas GRE 2646 5.5
17 GM Praggnanandhaa, R IND 2785 5.5
18 GM Rapport, Richard HUN 2711 5.5
19 GM Van Foreest, Jorden NED 2692 5.5
20 GM Liang, Awonder USA 2698 5.5
21 GM Tabatabaei, M. Amin IRI 2673 5.5
22 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2741 5.5
23 GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi IND 2712 5.5
24 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian FID 2742 5.5
25 GM Sindarov, Javokhir UZB 2722 5.5
26 GM Yakubboev, Nodirbek UZB 2681 5.5
27 GM Saric, Ivan CRO 2655 5.5
28 GM Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan TUR 2646 5
29 GM Maurizzi, Marcandria FRA 2610 5
30 GM Hakobyan, Aram ARM 2625 5
31 GM Pranav, V IND 2596 5
32 GM Anton Guijarro, David ESP 2625 5
33 GM Xiong, Jeffery USA 2640 5
34 GM Gurel, Ediz TUR 2631 5
35 GM Predke, Alexandr SRB 2609 5
36 GM Mamedov, Rauf AZE 2651 5
37 GM Aditya, Mittal IND 2589 5
38 GM Sjugirov, Sanan HUN 2627 5
39 GM Sevian, Samuel USA 2692 5
40 GM Fedoseev, Vladimir SLO 2731 5
41 GM Oparin, Grigoriy USA 2660 5
42 GM Esipenko, Andrey FID 2687 5
43 GM Dubov, Daniil FID 2691 5
44 GM Murzin, Volodar FID 2670 5
45 GM Grandelius, Nils SWE 2648 5
46 GM Vokhidov, Shamsiddin UZB 2645 5
47 GM Puranik, Abhimanyu IND 2640 4.5
48 GM Demchenko, Anton SLO 2620 4.5
49 GM Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2627 4.5
50 GM Mendonca, Leon Luke IND 2615 4.5
51 GM Rodshtein, Maxim ISR 2645 4.5
52 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2622 4.5
53 GM Ivanchuk, Vasyl UKR 2608 4.5
54 GM Henriquez Villagra, Cristobal CHI 2594 4.5
55 GM Suleymanli, Aydin AZE 2602 4.5
56 GM Lagarde, Maxime FRA 2609 4.5
57 GM Chigaev, Maksim ESP 2638 4.5
58 GM Kuzubov, Yuriy UKR 2600 4.5
59 GM Narayanan, S L IND 2591 4.5
60 GM Dardha, Daniel BEL 2624 4.5
61 GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra FID 2528 4.5
62 GM Vitiugov, Nikita ENG 2666 4.5
63 GM Robson, Ray USA 2674 4.5
64 GM Artemiev, Vladislav FID 2664 4.5
65 GM Harikrishna, Pentala IND 2704 4.5
66 GM Grischuk, Alexander FID 2657 4.5
67 GM Bjerre, Jonas Buhl DEN 2651 4.5
68 GM Sadhwani, Raunak IND 2658 4.5
69 GM Kollars, Dmitrij GER 2647 4.5
70 GM Lu, Shanglei CHN 2647 4.5
71 GM Hovhannisyan, Robert ARM 2629 4
72 GM Salem, A.R. Saleh UAE 2640 4
73 GM Gumularz, Szymon POL 2590 4
74 GM Volokitin, Andrei UKR 2628 4
75 GM Korobov, Anton UKR 2616 4
76 GM Bartel, Mateusz POL 2581 4
77 GM Aryan, Chopra IND 2619 4
78 GM Zemlyanskii, Ivan FID 2586 4
79 GM Najer, Evgeniy FID 2613 4
80 GM Moussard, Jules FRA 2591 4
81 GM Sargissian, Gabriel ARM 2626 4
82 GM Donchenko, Alexander GER 2624 4
83 GM Divya, Deshmukh IND 2478 4
84 GM Gukesh, D IND 2767 4
85 GM Samunenkov, Ihor UKR 2550 4
86 GM Abdisalimov, Abdimalik UZB 2488 4
87 GM Aronian, Levon USA 2744 4
88 GM Shankland, Sam USA 2670 4
89 GM Svane, Frederik GER 2643 4
90 GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw POL 2661 4
91 GM Karthikeyan, Murali IND 2669 4
92 GM Indjic, Aleksandar SRB 2650 4
93 GM Ivic, Velimir SRB 2630 4
94 GM Svane, Rasmus GER 2620 3.5
95 GM Xu, Xiangyu CHN 2615 3.5
96 GM Matlakov, Maxim FID 2609 3.5
97 GM Daneshvar, Bardiya IRI 2598 3.5
98 GM Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2637 3.5
99 GM Madaminov, Mukhiddin UZB 2560 3.5
100 GM Gelfand, Boris ISR 2652 3.5
101 GM Deac, Bogdan-Daniel ROU 2674 3.5
102 GM Sarana, Alexey SRB 2686 3.5
103 GM Amin, Bassem EGY 2636 3.5
104 GM Muradli, Mahammad AZE 2590 3.5
105 GM Santos Latasa, Jaime ESP 2620 3
106 GM Nigmatov, Ortik UZB 2488 3
107 GM Warmerdam, Max NED 2591 3
108 GM Vakhidov, Jakhongir UZB 2521 3
109 GM Jobava, Baadur GEO 2590 3
110 GM Wagner, Dennis GER 2608 3
111 GM Martirosyan, Haik M. ARM 2628 3
112 GM Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2682 3
113 GM Yuffa, Daniil ESP 2648 3
114 GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig NOR 2618 2.5
115 IM Suyarov, Mukhammadzokhid UZB 2482 2.5
116 Olisa, Tennyson Ewomazino NGR 2287 0.5

Results round 8


Bo. White Rtg Result Black Rtg
1 GM Nihal, Sarin 2693 0 – 1 GM Firouzja, Alireza 2754
2 GM Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2748 ½ – ½ GM Bluebaum, Matthias 2671
3 GM Maghsoodloo, Parham 2692 0 – 1 GM Keymer, Vincent 2751
4 GM Giri, Anish 2746 1 – 0 GM Van Foreest, Jorden 2692
5 GM Niemann, Hans Moke 2733 ½ – ½ GM Mishra, Abhimanyu 2611
6 GM Praggnanandhaa, R 2785 ½ – ½ GM Liang, Awonder 2698
7 GM Erigaisi, Arjun 2771 1 – 0 GM Sevian, Samuel 2692
8 GM Saric, Ivan 2655 ½ – ½ GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2742
9 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2738 1 – 0 GM Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan 2646
10 GM Maurizzi, Marcandria 2610 0 – 1 GM Yu, Yangyi 2714
11 GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2712 ½ – ½ GM Sargsyan, Shant 2653
12 GM Theodorou, Nikolas 2646 ½ – ½ GM Rapport, Richard 2711
13 GM Pranav, V 2596 0 – 1 GM Tabatabaei, M. Amin 2673
14 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2741 1 – 0 GM Puranik, Abhimanyu 2640
15 GM Mamedov, Rauf 2651 ½ – ½ GM Fedoseev, Vladimir 2731
16 GM Sindarov, Javokhir 2722 1 – 0 GM Chigaev, Maksim 2638
17 GM Dubov, Daniil 2691 ½ – ½ GM Hakobyan, Aram 2625
18 GM Anton Guijarro, David 2625 ½ – ½ GM Esipenko, Andrey 2687
19 GM Yakubboev, Nodirbek 2681 1 – 0 GM Demchenko, Anton 2620
20 GM Gurel, Ediz 2631 ½ – ½ GM Oparin, Grigoriy 2660
21 GM Shirov, Alexei 2616 1 – 0 GM Bjerre, Jonas Buhl 2651
22 GM Aronian, Levon 2744 0 – 1 GM Woodward, Andy 2557
23 GM Robson, Ray 2674 ½ – ½ GM Kuzubov, Yuriy 2600
24 GM Korobov, Anton 2616 0 – 1 GM Murzin, Volodar 2670
25 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan 2622 ½ – ½ GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2666
26 GM Mendonca, Leon Luke 2615 ½ – ½ GM Artemiev, Vladislav 2664
27 GM Sadhwani, Raunak 2658 ½ – ½ GM Dardha, Daniel 2624
28 GM Suleymanli, Aydin 2602 ½ – ½ GM Grischuk, Alexander 2657
29 GM Grandelius, Nils 2648 1 – 0 GM Gumularz, Szymon 2590
30 GM Lagarde, Maxime 2609 ½ – ½ GM Lu, Shanglei 2647
31 GM Henriquez Villagra, Cristobal 2594 ½ – ½ GM Rodshtein, Maxim 2645
32 GM Zemlyanskii, Ivan 2586 0 – 1 GM Vokhidov, Shamsiddin 2645
33 GM Salem, A.R. Saleh 2640 0 – 1 GM Predke, Alexandr 2609
34 GM Xiong, Jeffery 2640 1 – 0 GM Bartel, Mateusz 2581
35 GM Volokitin, Andrei 2628 0 – 1 GM Aditya, Mittal 2589
36 GM Narayanan, S L 2591 ½ – ½ GM Cheparinov, Ivan 2627
37 GM Harikrishna, Pentala 2704 1 – 0 GM Abdisalimov, Abdimalik 2488
38 GM Hovhannisyan, Robert 2629 ½ – ½ GM Gukesh, D 2767
39 GM Shankland, Sam 2670 ½ – ½ GM Moussard, Jules 2591
40 GM Najer, Evgeniy 2613 ½ – ½ GM Karthikeyan, Murali 2669
41 GM Gelfand, Boris 2652 0 – 1 GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra 2528
42 GM Aryan, Chopra 2619 ½ – ½ GM Indjic, Aleksandar 2650
43 GM Kollars, Dmitrij 2647 1 – 0 GM Matlakov, Maxim 2609
44 GM Ivanchuk, Vasyl 2608 1 – 0 GM Bacrot, Etienne 2637
45 GM Samunenkov, Ihor 2550 ½ – ½ GM Ivic, Velimir 2630
46 GM Daneshvar, Bardiya 2598 ½ – ½ GM Sarana, Alexey 2686
47 GM Donchenko, Alexander 2624 1 – 0 GM Eljanov, Pavel 2682
48 GM Svane, Rasmus 2620 ½ – ½ GM Deac, Bogdan-Daniel 2674
49 GM Nigmatov, Ortik 2488 0 – 1 GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2661
50 GM Svane, Frederik 2643 1 – 0 GM Vakhidov, Jakhongir 2521
51 GM Xu, Xiangyu 2615 ½ – ½ GM Amin, Bassem 2636
52 GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2626 1 – 0 GM Jobava, Baadur 2590
53 GM Yuffa, Daniil 2648 ½ – ½ GM Wagner, Dennis 2608
54 GM Warmerdam, Max 2591 ½ – ½ GM Martirosyan, Haik M. 2628
55 IM Suyarov, Mukhammadzokhid 2482 0 – 1 GM Muradli, Mahammad 2590
56 GM Hammer, Jon Ludvig 2618 ½ – ½ GM Santos Latasa, Jaime 2620
57 GM Divya, Deshmukh *) 2478 0 – 1 GM Sjugirov, Sanan 2627
58 Olisa, Tennyson Ewomazino 2287 0 – 1 GM Madaminov, Mukhiddin 2560