FIDE Grand Swiss

Next FIDE Grand Swiss: Isle of Man, May 2027

Dates

10 to 25 May 2027; rounds from 12 to 24 May

Venue

Villa Marina, Douglas, Isle of Man

Format

11-round Swiss, an Open and a Women's section

Players

170 in both sections, 114 of them in the Open

Prize fund

900,000 US dollars, 650,000 of it for the Open

Candidates places

2 in each section

Round start

14:30 local time, 19:00 IST

2025 winners

Anish Giri, Vaishali Rameshbabu

FIDE announced the 2027 Grand Swiss on 15 April 2026, with a record prize fund of 900,000 US dollars and 170 players across the Open and the Women's sections. Two places in the 2028 Candidates are at stake in each section. Visit Isle of Man lists the Villa Marina on Harris Promenade in Douglas as the venue, and the Open regulations name IOM International Chess Limited as the organiser, with sponsorship from the Scheinberg family.

The Isle of Man hosted the first Grand Swiss in 2019 and the 2023 edition, which was also played at the Villa Marina. "We are happy to return again to the Isle of Man," said FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky. As of 25 September 2026, no player has qualified: most of the Open places depend on the January 2027 rating list.

How the FIDE Grand Swiss works

The Grand Swiss is part of the FIDE World Championship cycle. Its top finishers qualify for the Candidates Tournament, and the winner of the Candidates plays the world champion for the title. FIDE holds the Grand Swiss every two years, in the year before the Candidates.

In a Swiss tournament, nobody is knocked out. Every player plays all 11 rounds, and in each round players meet opponents on the same or a similar score. The 2027 Open pairs the players with the Dutch system, one of the FIDE pairing systems for Swiss events.

Each game is played at 100 minutes for 40 moves, then 50 minutes for 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1. The 2025 Open used the same clock. Players cannot agree a draw before Black's 30th move; an earlier draw needs a claim through the arbiter or a stalemate. A player who reaches the board more than 15 minutes after the start loses the game, and a shorter delay costs 500 US dollars unless it is excused.

Players on equal points are ranked first by the average rating of their opponents without the lowest-rated one. Next come Buchholz Cut 1, which adds up the scores of the opponents without the lowest one, then the full Buchholz, the game between the tied players and a drawing of lots. The tiebreak decides the Candidates places but not the money: players on equal points share their prizes equally.

FIDE Grand Swiss 2027 schedule

Rounds 1 to 10 start at 14:30 on the Isle of Man, which is 19:00 IST, and round 11 starts at 14:00, which is 18:30 IST. In May the island is on British Summer Time, one hour ahead of UTC and 4 hours 30 minutes behind India. The Women's section runs over the same dates, 10 to 25 May.

The 2027 event has 2 rest days, on 16 and 21 May. The 2025 event had one, on 10 September.

FIDE showed every round of 2025 live on its YouTube channel, and the games were also shown move by move on Lichess and Chess.com. The 2027 regulations require a live video broadcast with English commentary by at least 2 commentators.

Who qualifies for the Grand Swiss 2027

The rating list decides most of the field. The 100 rating places go by the January 2027 standard list, and a player needs at least 30 rated games in 2026 to count. The regulations set no minimum rating. In 2025 the June 2025 list decided, about 3 months before round 1. For 2027 the rating places are settled about 4 months ahead.

The women's world champion on 1 January 2027 has a place in the Open, and the 4 continental places must be decided by the same date. FIDE publishes the invited players and the reserves. A reserve who is invited has one week to return the signed contract.

In the last 2 editions, FIDE published the players qualified by rating soon after the list came out: on 14 June 2023, from the 1 June list, and on 5 June 2025, from the June 2025 list. It announced the full 2025 field of 116 Open and 56 women players on 8 July, 58 days before round 1.

Grand Swiss 2027 prize money

The 900,000 US dollars that FIDE announced covers both sections, and the Open regulations give 650,000 of it to the Open. The winner gets 100,000 US dollars, and the top 50 players all win money. The 2025 prize funds were 625,000 US dollars for the Open and 230,000 for the women.

Because players on equal points share their prizes, a tie changes the money. In 2025, Giri received 90,000 US dollars for first place. Blübaum, Firouzja and Keymer finished on 7.5 points, and Chess.com reported 62,333 US dollars for each of them, a third of the prizes for places 2 to 4.

Grand Swiss places in the 2028 Candidates

The winner and the runner-up of the 2027 Open qualify for the 2028 Candidates Tournament, and the top 2 of the Women's section for the 2028 Women's Candidates. In the Open, the Grand Swiss is one of 4 paths with 2 places each, next to the Total Chess World Championship Tour, the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Circuit, and it gives out the first places of the cycle.

If a top-2 player is the world champion or has already qualified, the place goes to the third-placed player, and after that through the FIDE Circuit ranking. The Grand Swiss regulations use the world champion as of 1 January 2027, and the FIDE 2028 qualification paths use the champion as of 1 May 2027. Both dates fall after the title match in Geneva, which ends on 12 December 2026.

The top 4 of the Open also qualify for the 2027 World Cup, and the top 4 of the Women's section for the 2027 Women's World Cup.

The Grand Swiss has sent players to every Candidates since 2019. Wang Hao took the single Open place that year. The Open has given 2 places since 2021, and the Women's section since 2023. Vaishali qualified from the 2025 Women's Grand Swiss, won the 2026 Women's Candidates and plays Ju Wenjun for the women's title.

FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 results

The 2025 Grand Swiss ran from 4 to 15 September 2025 at the Silk Road EXPO Centre in Samarkand, the first Grand Swiss in Uzbekistan. The Open had 116 players and the Women's section 56.

Anish Giri won the Open outright with 8/11 after he beat Hans Niemann in the last round. Three players finished on 7.5 points, and the first tiebreak, the average rating of the opponents, split them: 2695 for Matthias Blübaum, 2684 for Alireza Firouzja and 2668 for Vincent Keymer. Blübaum, the 32nd seed, took second place and the second Candidates place.

Behind them, 15 players finished on 7 points. Abhimanyu Mishra of the United States was fifth, and Andy Woodward, seeded 108th, was seventh.

FIDE Women's Grand Swiss

The Women's Grand Swiss began in Riga in 2021, where Lei Tingjie won with 9/11, 1.5 points ahead of the next players, and took the single Women's Candidates place. It has run next to the Open at every edition since, with 50 players in 2021 and 2023 and 56 in 2025.

In 2027 the Women's section runs on the Isle of Man over the same dates as the Open. Its top 2 qualify for the 2028 Women's Candidates, and its top 4 for the 2027 Women's World Cup. FIDE's totals for both sections are 170 players and 900,000 US dollars, and the Open takes 114 players and 650,000 US dollars. That leaves 56 players and 250,000 US dollars for the Women's section, against 230,000 US dollars in 2025. The FIDE handbook lists the Women's Grand Swiss regulations for each edition.

In 2025 the women played at a shorter clock than the Open: under the 2025 Women's regulations, 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1.

FIDE Women's Grand Swiss 2025 results

Vaishali Rameshbabu, the 13th seed, took the sole lead in round 7 with a win over Guo Qi. She and Kateryna Lagno both finished on 8/11, and both qualified for the 2026 Women's Candidates. The first tiebreak gave Vaishali first place by one rating point: her opponents averaged 2434, and Lagno's 2433. Chess.com reported 35,500 US dollars for each of them.

It was Vaishali's second Women's Grand Swiss title in a row, after the Isle of Man in 2023, and FIDE said no player had won two in a row in either section before. Bibisara Assaubayeva, Tan Zhongyi and Song Yuxin finished on 7.5 points.

Indian players at the Grand Swiss

India had 15 players in the 2025 Open and 3 in the Women's section, and the top 3 seeds of the Open were Indian: R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh. Arjun finished best, sixth with 7/11, and Nihal Sarin, ninth, and Vidit Gujrathi, 15th, also scored 7. In round 7, Nihal beat the former leader Parham Maghsoodloo to share the lead with Blübaum, and Arjun lost to Blübaum.

World champion Gukesh had a hard event. Abhimanyu Mishra, 16, beat him in round 5, and Chess.com reported that this made Mishra the youngest player to beat a reigning world champion in a classical game. Nikolas Theodorou beat Gukesh in round 6, and Ediz Gürel handed him a third loss in a row in round 7. He drew with Divya Deshmukh in round 8, won his last game and finished 41st with 6/11. Chess.com called it "a tournament to forget". The Swiss format has no knockout, so he played all 11 rounds.

Praggnanandhaa finished 35th with 6/11. Divya, the 2025 Women's World Cup winner, played in the Open and scored 5/11. In the Women's section, Vaishali won, Harika Dronavalli was 14th with 6.5 and Vantika Agrawal 36th with 5.

India's best Grand Swiss came in 2023 on the Isle of Man, when Vidit Gujrathi won the Open and Vaishali the Women's section. FIDE headed its report "Indian Triumph". In 2019 Vidit was the best Indian, 12th with 7/11, and in 2021 Nihal Sarin was 18th with 6.5/11 and Harika fifth in the Women's section with 7/11. For 2027, Indian players can qualify for the Open through the January 2027 rating list, a continental place or a nomination.

Grand Swiss winners since 2019

The first Grand Swiss was played on the Isle of Man in October 2019, with 154 players at the Comis Hotel and a prize fund of 432,500 US dollars. Wang Hao and Fabiano Caruana both scored 8/11, and Wang Hao won on tiebreak and took the only Candidates place.

FIDE first gave the 2021 edition to the Isle of Man, then moved it to Riga in August 2021. Alireza Firouzja won there with 8/11, and runner-up Caruana also qualified for the 2022 Candidates. Back on the Isle of Man in 2023, Vidit won with 8.5/11 ahead of Hikaru Nakamura, and both went to the 2024 Candidates. The prize fund has grown at every edition: 432,500 US dollars in 2019, then 550,000, 600,000 and 855,000 for both sections, and 900,000 for 2027.

In 2023, runner-up Anna Muzychuk had already qualified at the 2023 Women's World Cup, and third-placed Tan Zhongyi took the second Candidates place with Vaishali. Vaishali is the only player with 2 Grand Swiss titles.

FIDE Grand Swiss FAQ

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026 against the FIDE regulations for the Grand Swiss 2027, the FIDE 2028 qualification paths, the FIDE announcement of 15 April 2026, FIDE reports from each edition, Chess.com, Visit Isle of Man and the final standings on Chess-Results.