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The $625,000 Grand Swiss in Samarkand, on the ancient Silk Road, was a hard fought race for two qualifying spots in the 2026 world title Candidates, yet paradoxically it ended with victories for one grandmaster with a reputation for halved games and for another who nobody expected to do well.
Anish Giri, the Netherlands No 1, took the $90,000 first prize with an unbeaten 8/11 total. The five-time Dutch champion’s key game was in the final round against Hans Niemann, when the controversial American, who himself needed to win, had his attacking ideas thwarted in the opening.
Giri gained the bishop pair, then systematically swapped pieces into an endgame where his bishops had maximum impact. The Dutchman has long had a reputation as a draw specialist, but given a small edge he can be deadly.
The runner-up, Matthias Blübaum, seeded only 32nd, has been twice European champion yet has never attained an elite 2700 Fide world rating. The 28-year-old German No 2 played pragmatically in critical moments, especially in the penultimate round when his compatriot Vincent Keymer had a winning endgame but missed the tactical resource 54…Nxg3! In Blübaum’s post-game interview, he declared himself “insanely lucky”.
On the face of it, Giri has a chance in the eight-player Candidates, but Blübaum is a likely also-ran. In his two previous appearances there. Giri drew all 14 games in the 2016 Candidates, but was a second-half threat to Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2020, while Blübaum may be earmarked as the opponent who all the favourites expect to beat (the current in-word for this is “ farming”).
Final leading Grand Swiss scores at Samarkand were Giri 8, Blübaum and Keymer, Alireza Firouzja (France) all 7.5. Firouzja, after being narrowly edged out, did not attend to receive his bronze medal at the final victory ceremony.
The 15-man group who tied on seven points, and were separated for prizes by tie-breaks, included five Americans. That represents a significant success for the St Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield’s project of creating a group capable of winning world team events in the 2030s.
Abhimanyu Mishra, 16, fifth on tie-break, and Andy Woodward, 15, seventh, are teenagers while the fanatically ambitious Niemann, eighth, Awonder Liang, 11th, and Sam Sevian, 18th, are all in their early twenties. So a success for the US, even though its main hope, Levon Aronian, finished down the course in 84th place.
England’s Nikita Vitiugov, a former Russia champion before he switched federations, had a solid performance close to his rating with two wins, seven draws, and two defeats.
When there are winners, there must be losers. India had the top three seeds in Samarkand, but they all underperformed. Arjun Erigaisi was close but no cigar in sixth place, while the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, lost three games in a row, two of them to teenagers, and dropped out of the world top 10, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was not at his best.
Gukesh probably regrets entering the tournament, but still has his battered world crown and can now concentrate on his 2026 title defence, which he is likely to start as the underdog against whoever is his challenger.
Praggnanandhaa still has an excellent chance to qualify for the Candidates via the 2025 Fide tournament circuit, where he has a clear lead. The US champion and world No 3, Fabiano Caruana, has already qualified via the 2024 Fide circuit, while the world No 2, Hikaru Nakamura, is set to take the Fide rating spot with the aid of his recent maximum scores against weak opposition in the Louisiana state championship and the Iowa Open.
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That leaves three places to be decided by the 2025 World Cup, to be staged at Goa, India, in early November. The World Cup is a knockout, with best of two classical games followed by speed tie-breaks, so the chances for upset results are significant.
Prominent contenders who have not yet qualified include the double world title challenger, Nepomniachtchi, world top 10 players Erigaisi, Firouzja, Keymer, Wesley So and Wei Yi, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Niemann. Elementary arithmetic confirms that most of these will be disappointed.
In the $230,000 Women’s Grand Prix, India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu, who won the 2023 Grand Swiss, repeated her victory with 8/11, while Russia’s Kateryna Lagno also qualified for the Candidates on the same score. The pair were half a point ahead of Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kazakhstan) who was placed third on tie-break ahead of Tan Zhongyi and Yuxin Song (both China) .
Overall, the open world title is now in a state of flux, while in contrast China’s Ju Wenjun has a firm grip on the women’s throne. The 34-year-old has held the world title since 2018, has defeated five challengers, and continues to hone her game through participation in grandmaster tournaments. She is now part of the all-time women’s elite consisting of Hungary’s three Polgar sisters, China’s Hou Yifan, and Georgia’s Nona Gaprindashvili. None of the current women’s candidates look likely to defeat Ju, who should see off her next challenger comfortably.
3990: 1…Qg7+! 2 Rxg7 Rxh3+! 3 K or gxh3, draw by stalemate.
