By Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Yes, this September really was « Grand », with first the Grand Swiss in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) and then the Grand Chess Tour finals in São Paulo (Brazil) – two obviously very important events: the first being a qualifier for the Candidates 2026, and the second deciding the season’s professional circuit podium.
I arrived at the Grand Swiss with a whole French delegation: Jules (Moussard), Marc’Andria (Maurizzi), Maxime (Lagarde) and I all took the same flight from Paris – I think Étienne (Bacrot) came from Nice. The venue was a bit too isolated but quite pleasant, and we still managed to visit Samarkand’s famous old town. We were spread across several hotels and there wasn’t much to do outside aside from walking – though the riverside setting was nice. Maxime stayed in the same hotel as me, while Jules and Marc’Andria were elsewhere. Our hotel even had a games console with several games, including FIFA, and a ping-pong table. So the four of us often met there.
After a short week at home, I had to head off in the other direction – to Brazil! Another country added to my list 😊. The first thing that struck me on arrival was the huge enthusiasm for chess. It’s true it was the first super-tournament in Brazil – even in South America – for about twelve years (São Paulo already, a tournament I hadn’t participated in). There was a big crowd for the event and a real passion from the public; it’s also just part of the Brazilian spirit. The tournament itself was extremely well organized. I’m very happy to have taken part and to have helped contribute to the hype around the event and to engage with the local public.
Grand Swiss information: FIDE Grand Swiss Chess Tournament 2025 – A Gateway to the World Championship
Grand Swiss Live: FIDE Grand Swiss Chess 2025 live / Women’s Grand Swiss Chess 2025 live
Grand Swiss Participants: Participants open / Participants women
Next: World Chess Cup 2025 / Candidates 2026
On the competitions themselves:
In Samarkand, I wasn’t thrilled to start with black in an 11-round Open where you absolutely need to score to be among the top two qualifiers for the Candidates. It turned out I soon had a double white, and ultimately finished with six whites! The tournament started well, but I suffered a sharp setback against Marc’Andria in a very wild game where anything could have happened. I reached a winning position, but that was partly because Marc’Andria took a lot of risks at one point.
In round 6 with black against the Armenian Sargsyan, I decided to go all-in (rightly or wrongly), and it went very badly! Afterwards, I managed to win three games in a row, which gave me some hope, but it was unfortunately « too little, too late », especially after a game where I might have had a chance against Mishra, but he was very solid and found the right moves to hold. In the end I posted a respectable +3 (7/11), but there is a bitter taste since I didn’t really fight for the top places. Clearly, the loss with white against Marc’Andria changed a lot in that respect.
For the four-player final of the Grand Chess Tour, I had set myself two missions. First, win a match to qualify for the 2026 edition. Second, go for the overall victory, as I had never won this circuit despite being a regular on the podium for the past ten years.
In the semi-final against Pragg, who has played extremely well this year, the match was tense. After two draws in the classical games, I produced a very convincing first Rapid game with white. In the second Rapid he caused me a lot of trouble, but I managed to find active, accurate moves and to defend. The blitz games could have gone badly, but I was lucky to win from a lost position in the third one and ultimately take the match.
With the first mission accomplished, I then went for the second: the final against Fabiano (Caruana). The pattern was somewhat similar to the match against Pragg, except that in the first classical game it was Fabi who had winning chances after an enormous amount of prep on his part and a gigantic game. Luckily, he made some mistakes in a dramatic Queen endgame in which I held on with a lot of resilience – and a little bit of luck! Like against Pragg, after two draws I won the first Rapid game and then comfortably defended the second. However, I completely collapsed in the blitz – I lost three straight games! A first unfortunate loss triggered everything, but clearly the blitz was a major weakness in both matches. Less consistency, less freshness – these are things that happen to me more often now, whereas blitz used to be a strength. Still, I came extremely close to equalizing in the final blitz.
Overall, either of us could have won the match, but Fabiano’s final victory was by no means undeserved. My blitz skills exposed too many limits to hold the score. Read the full article by MVL here
