FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: All The Information
The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss is a chess tournament that is part of the world championship cycle. The 2021 Grand Swiss ran from October 27-November 8 and determined two candidates for the 2022 world championship.
It was won by GM Alireza Firouzja outright with a score of 8/11. GM Fabiano Caruana finished second with 7.5/11 on a tiebreak over GM Grigoriy Oparin. Firouzja and Caruana thus qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament.
The inaugural FIDE Chess.com Women's Grand Swiss was held concurrently. GM Lei Tingjie won by 1.5 points with a 9/11 score and qualified the 2022 Women's Candidates Tournament, which only had one candidates spot on the line.
Broadcast
The Grand Swiss is covered at our Events page with live broadcasting on Chess.com/TV or on our Twitch and YouTube channels.
Schedule
The 2021 event was held from October 27 to November 7, with players arriving October 25 for the opening ceremony on October 26. Many also participated in the Mikhail Tal Memorial blitz tournament on November 8.
| Date | Event | Los Angeles | St. Louis | New York | Reykjavik | London | Paris | Riga | New Delhi | Beijing |
| Oct. 27 | Round 1 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 7:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Oct. 28 | Round 2 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 7:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Oct. 29 | Round 3 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 7:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Oct. 30 | Round 4 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 7:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Oct. 31 | Round 5 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 1 | Round 6 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 2 | Rest day | |||||||||
| Nov. 3 | Round 7 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 4 | Round 8 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 5 | Round 9 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 6 | Round 10 | 5:00 | 7:00 | 8:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 7 | Round 11 | 4:00 | 6:00 | 7:00 | 11:00 | 12:00 | 13:00 | 14:00 | 16:30 | 19:00 |
| Nov. 8 | Mikhail Tal Blitz | 2:00 | 4:00 | 5:00 | 8:00 | 9:00 | 10:00 | 11:00 | 13:30 | 16:00 |
Location
The FIDE Grand Swiss takes place in Riga, Latvia.
The 2019 tournament was held in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man, a British dependency. The 2021 tournament was originally scheduled to be played there as well, but was moved "due to the strict COVID-19 restrictions still in place in the Isle of Man and the UK," according to FIDE.
The change of location did not affect the dates and format of the 2021 event.
Format
The Grand Swiss and the Women's Grand Swiss share the same format. They are 11-round Swiss tournaments, meaning players on the same score face each other every round. However, no player faces another player more than once. If two players are tied for first place entering the final round but they played earlier in the tournament, they would each face someone just below them in the standings instead of each other for a second time.
The time control in the Grand Swiss is 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and finally 15 minutes for the rest of the game. There is a 30-second increment starting from move 1.
The time control for the Women's Grand Swiss is somewhat shorter: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, also with a 30-second increment starting on move 1.
There is a tiebreaker system rather than additional games, which is as follows. Descriptions are from the FIDE Handbook.
- Buchholz Cut 1 (the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player reduced by the lowest score of the opponent)
- Buchholz (the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player)
- Sonneborn-Berger (the sum of the scores of the opponents a player has defeated and half the scores of the players with whom he has drawn)
- Direct encounter between the players in tie
- Drawing of lots.
Players
This year's field was announced by FIDE on September 30. The open field was headlined by GMs Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja. The women's field was highlighted by GMs Mariya Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Nana Dzagnidze.
Prize Fund
In 2021, the top two players qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament while the third- through eighth-place finishers (Oparin, GM Yu Yangyi, GM Vincent Keymer, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, GM Alexandr Predke, and GM Alexei Shirov) gained a spot in the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, a three-tournament series from February to April 2022 which is itself a path to the Candidates Tournament as well.
The monetary prize fund is $425,000, with $70,000 going to first place. The top 40 finishers receive a prize, as below:
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
| 1st | $70,000 | 21st | $3,000 |
| 2nd | $50,000 | 22nd | $3,000 |
| 3rd | $40,000 | 23rd | $3,000 |
| 4th | $35,000 | 24th | $3,000 |
| 5th | $30,000 | 25th | $3,000 |
| 6th | $25,000 | 26th | $2,500 |
| 7th | $20,000 | 27th | $2,500 |
| 8th | $17,000 | 28th | $2,500 |
| 9th | $14,000 | 29th | $2,500 |
| 10th | $11,500 | 30th | $2,500 |
| 11th | $8,000 | 31st | $2,000 |
| 12th | $8,000 | 32nd | $2,000 |
| 13th | $8,000 | 33rd | $2,000 |
| 14th | $8,000 | 34th | $2,000 |
| 15th | $8,000 | 35th | $2,000 |
| 16th | $5,000 | 36th | $2,000 |
| 17th | $5,000 | 37th | $2,000 |
| 18th | $5,000 | 38th | $2,000 |
| 19th | $5,000 | 39th | $2,000 |
| 20th | $5,000 | 40th | $2,000 |
The prize fund in the Women's Grand Swiss is $125,000, with the winner receiving $20,000 as well as a spot in the 2022 Women's Candidates Tournament.
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
| 1st | $20,000 | 7th | $7,000 |
| 2nd | $16,500 | 8th | $6,000 |
| 3rd | $14,000 | 9th | $5,000 |
| 4th | $12,000 | 10th | $4,000 |
| 5th | $10,000 | 11th-15th | $2,500 |
| 6th | $8,000 | 16th-20th | $2,000 |
Regulations
The complete FIDE regulations for the 2021 Grand Swiss can be found here. Regulations for the Women's Grand Swiss are located here.
History
The Grand Swiss is a relatively new tournament, first held in 2019. Only the winner received a spot in the Candidates, instead of the top two finishers as in 2021. The victor in 2019 was GM Wang Hao, who scored 8/11 and won on the tiebreak system over GM Fabiano Caruana and qualified for the 2020 Candidates. Caruana had already qualified by winning the 2018 Candidates to become that year's challenger to GM Magnus Carlsen's world championship.
The 2021 Grand Swiss was only the second edition.
| Year | Fed | Winner | Score |
| 2019 | GM Wang Hao | 8.0/11 | |
| 2021 | GM Alireza Firouzja | 8.0/11 |
2021 was the first year with a Women's Grand Swiss.
| Year | Fed | Winner | Score |
| 2021 | Lei Tingjie | 9.0/11 |
