FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 R1: Gukesh, Firouzja Win As Muzychuk and Tan Falter

Lichess Coverage

Lichess will produce in-depth blog posts with annotations for each round of the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss. WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea will annotate the games from the Women's Grand Swiss and GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez will annotate the games from the Open Grand Swiss. Lichess will also create videos for each round of the tournament, with interviews and other types of content. Keep an eye on our socials for the videos!

Annotations by GM Renier Castellanos Rodriguez

Annotations by WIM Silvia Raluca Sgîrcea

Open Overview

The top 10 boards did not see any upsets. While some boards, such as boards 1 and 2, were drawn, the favorites were able to win on four out of the ten boards: GM Gukesh D, GM Alireza Firouzja, GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and GM Anish Giri were able to win against GM Etienne Bacrot, GM Bassem Amin, GM Velimir Ivic, and GM Robert Hovhannisyan, respectively.

The Top 10 Boards

The reigning world champion played an exemplary game on the Black side of the Caro-Kann, first equalizing, then improving, then winning. The resulting middlegame position was highly complex, with a lot of plans available for both sides. As is typical for an “outplaying” type of game, it was not clear where exactly Bacrot started going astray, as Gukesh was capitalizing on very minor inaccuracies. Gukesh’s piece harmony was simply too high, while Bacrot’s pieces seemed jumbled.

GM Gukesh D
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Alireza Firouzja had a somewhat Pyrrhic victory today as he played on for 6 hours against GM Bassem Amin, eventually winning in an incredibly complicated, calculation-intensive endgame.

GM Alireza Firouzja
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov castled short against GM Velimir Ivic’s fighting Najdorf Sicilian, but Abdusattorov being the attacking genius that he is, he was not looking for a calm, positional game. After 17. f4, Abdusattorov’s swashbuckling intentions were made clear; granted, though, the move was also rather positionally-minded and eventually it became clear Abdusattorov wanted to expand on the queenside. White’s pawn expansion on the queenside eventually netted him a queen, but Ivic in fact had a chance to defend the position, which he ultimately did not find.

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov against GM Velimir Ivic
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

At the top level, it takes two to produce a spectacular game, and thus both GM Anish Giri and GM Robert Hovhannisyan need to be commended for their play. Hovhannisyan played very aggressively against Giri’s Najdorf, and Giri was responding with just as much aggression. Just a couple of inaccurate moves from Hovhannisyan was all it took for Giri to start seizing the initiative and initiating a brutal attack on the dark squares. We caught up with Giri and asked him about his game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwKRWSHT8k

GM Anish Giri shaking hands with GM Robert Hovhannisyan
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

On board 1, GM Jeffery Xiong was pressing on the White side of an Exchange French against the tournament’s #1 seed, GM Praggnanandhaa R. However, Praggnanandhaa was defending well and Xiong had to be ultra-precise to keep building on his slight advantage. With the position looking more and more equal, the players found a way to repeat moves and drew the game on move 31.

The same could be said for GM Ediz Gürel’s game against GM Vincent Keymer, where Gürel also had a slight advantage but ultimately could not convert.

Other boards, such as board 8 and 9, saw even more equal games. Meanwhile, on board 10, while it was clear both sides wanted to play it safe, GM Ivan Cheparinov did have a path to an advantage with 24...Qf6, according to the silicon machine, at least.

Notable Games

GM Pentala Harikrishna lost as White from what was an equal queenless middlegame position. Similar to the Gukesh game, GM Anton Demchenko simply played a marvelous and accurate game.

Other notable results included GM David Anton Guijarro defeating GM Vladimir Fedoseev and GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi winning against GM Alexander Donchenko.

14-year-old GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş won against his much more experienced opponent, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, in a very impressive, fight-for-every-point type of game. Erdoğmuş’s weakening expansion came back to haunt him, however, as Goryachkina was close to winning at some point. Erdoğmuş was able to keep the position complicated, though, and quickly tricked Goryachkina and outcalculated her.

GM Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş playing against GM Aleksandra Goryachkina
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

In another victory for the young guard, GM Ivan Zemlyanskii won against GM Aleksandar Indjic in a long game.

The oldest player in the field, GM Boris Gelfand, played one of the shortest games of the round, defeating GM Baadur Jobava in only 23 moves.

Flashy Games

The game that stole the show today was GM Aydin Suleymanli’s crushing queen sacrifice victory against GM Karthikeyan Murali. When the game was over, Suleymanli had only spent 10 minutes of his time with the increment, so it was clear he had prepared this line. Of course, though, preparation or not takes nothing away from this brilliant game.

GM Frederik Svane, playing against GM Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov, also sacrificed his queen, but that to immediately deliver checkmate and not as a positional queen sacrifice similar to the previous game. The game before that point was also stunning as Svane pushed pawn, after pawn, after pawn.

GM Frederik Svane playing against GM Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

Women's Overview

It was a brutal day for the top seeds as both GM Anna Muzychuk and GM Tan Zhongyi lost their games — Muzychuk, in fact, lost a winning game on time. Third seed GM Bibisara Assaubayeva was able to win her game, though, but it was still tough sledding for seeds #5, #6, #7, and #8, IM Polina Shuvalova, GM Mariya Muzychuk, IM Yuliia Osmak, and IM Leya Garifullina, respectively, who also all shockingly lost their games.

The Top 10 Boards

GM Anna Muzychuk had a large advantage for most of her game against WGM Zsoka Gaal, but they were both in severe time trouble as early as move 30. In an endgame that required precise calculation, Muzychuk simply lost on time as she worked hard to find the best move.

GM Anna Muzychuk playing against GM Zsoka Gaal
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

GM Tan Zhongyi’s game against GM Olga Girya was equal for the most part as Girya expanded on the kingside, incurring some weaknesses along the way, but Tan’s pieces were not well-poised to capitalize on said weaknesses. As Girya’s pieces started creeping into the seventh rank, however, Tan could not find the right piece setup and allowed Girya’s majors to infiltrate, leaving her three pawns down.

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva played a model attacking game in the Sicilian Najdorf, winning against her experienced opponent, IM Mai Narva, in just 27 moves.

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva playing against IM Mai Narva
Photo: Michal Walusza / FIDE

IM Polina Shuvalova went for a tempting option in 17. Bb6, trying to for a favorable trade, but, ultimately, her decision weighed heavily on her position as her pieces became quite misplaced. IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva’s advantage of having control of the d4 square was eventually converted into a passed d-pawn, which eventually led to a winning endgame.

Despite the opposite-sides castling middlegame position, WGM Xeniya Balabayeva’s game against GM Mariya Muzychuk was rather calm. Pieces were traded quickly, and just when the game seemed to be headed toward a draw, Muzychuk miscalculated and allowed White’s passed a-pawn to queen as her knight was helpless to defend against White’s threats.

In an isolated queen’s pawn position, IM Yuliia Osmak played the typical attacking plan with Qc2-Bb1 (or Qd3-Bc2), but IM Vantika Agrawal was spending her time and was able to calculate very precisely. As Osmak’s starting opening advantage dwindled, Vantika was able to make use of her bishop pair to transform her advantage into a winning rook + bishop vs. rook + knight, with pawns, endgame.

WGM Zhai Mo came very well-prepared to today’s game and won an attacking masterpiece against IM Leya Garifullina. Garifullina’s king, who was trapped in the center, seemed safe enough, but Zhai was able to show precisely how to brew up a vicious attack.

Notable Games

IM Eline Roebers was able to swindle IM Carissa Yip as she kept the game going and outcalculated Yip in the complications.

IM Olga Badelka played a topsy-turvy game against IM Teodora Injac, where she had an advantage and was pressing, but then allowed too much kingside counterplay from Injac. She was able to stabilize, though, and found a creative way to reposition her pieces, gaining space and, eventually, a winning endgame.

GM Vaishali Rameshbabu’s Bishop Opening, Vienna Hybrid transposed to an even more Romantic opening, the King’s Gambit. IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova seemed ill-equipped to deal with the ensuing complications, and Vaishali was able to make use of her attack to get into a winning endgame, which she duly converted.

Flashy Games

WIM Umida Omonova’s game against IM Oliwia Kiolbasa looked like a rather calm Sicilian Defense, Canal Attack. The position immediately exploded on move 18, though, as Kiolbasa’s 18...Rfd8 allowed the strong piece sacrifice, 19. Nxe6!!.

Pairings for Round 2 (Top 10 Boards)

Open:

Women's: