The FIDE Grand Swiss is the biennial open-Swiss qualifier for the World Championship Candidates Tournament. The 2027 edition — the fourth running of the modern Grand Swiss format established in 2019 — will qualify the top two finishers directly for the 2028 Candidates Tournament. As of mid-2026 the host city and exact dates are not confirmed; FIDE traditionally announces 12 to 18 months in advance.
Format: eleven rounds of Swiss pairing, classical time control. The field typically includes 100 to 160 grandmasters drawn from the top of the published FIDE rating list plus continental qualifiers from Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa. The 2019 inaugural edition was won by Wang Hao; the 2021 edition by Alireza Firouzja; the 2023 edition by Vidit Gujrathi; the 2025 edition (held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan in October–November 2025) results are linked from the FIDE Grand Swiss series page.
Alongside the open Grand Swiss runs the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss, with parallel qualification into the Women’s Candidates Tournament. Both events use the same Swiss-system format and roughly the same calendar.
For elite players the Grand Swiss is a high-variance route to the world championship — eleven games at classical time control against a mix of world-class and very strong national-team grandmasters. Players from outside the world top-twenty have used it to crash the Candidates cycle, most recently Vidit Gujrathi in 2023.
External links: the FIDE Grand Swiss event hub, FIDE rating system, and TWIC’s Grand Swiss tournament report archive are linked in the right column.