FIDE Grand Swiss

The FIDE Grand Swiss is a large individual tournament within the World Championship cycle. FIDE stands for the International Chess Federation, the governing body for international chess competition. The Grand Swiss does not crown the world champion directly. Instead, it awards places in the Candidates Tournament, the competition that determines who earns the right to challenge the reigning world champion. Its results can therefore directly affect the race for the title.

It uses the Swiss system. This means the whole field does not play a complete round robin. In each round, the pairing system generally matches players with similar scores, allowing a much larger field than an all-play-all event. The 2025 edition had eleven rounds, and the top two players in the open event qualified for the 2026 Candidates.

The event began in 2019, and recent editions have also included a Women's Grand Swiss. It provides a different qualification route from the FIDE World Cup, which uses knockout play: losing a match eliminates a player. Both feed into the path that ultimately leads to the World Chess Championship.