FIDE Grand Swiss 2023—format, schedule, and Candidates qualification, explained

The Grand Swiss Tournament is one of the biggest chess events on the calendar, playing a key part in the qualification process for the next world chess championship competition. As the name suggests, the event is grand—featuring 114 players—and uses the Swiss format, with the top two finishers earning themselves a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament, which determines the next world championship challenger.

The 2023 edition of the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament will take place between Oct. 25 and Nov. 5 in the Villa Marina of Douglas on the Isle of Man and features the best and brightest of the chess world—with a few notable exceptions.

What is the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament?

The Grand Swiss is a notable chess tournament that offers a direct qualification path to the upcoming Candidates Tournament. The 2023 event will be the third edition of this fairly new competition, but was rapidly transformed into a must-watch classic by its direct impact on the world chess championship cycle.

The event will take place between Oct. 25 and Nov. 5, and will be played on the Isle of Man—more specifically, the Villa Marina of Douglas. It will have a single rest day on Oct. 31.

The 100 highest-rated players in the world have all been invited alongside a few other selected players to form the 114-strong field. Controversially, they are not allowed to step down from participating once confirmed for the event, even if they have otherwise qualified for the Candidates, or incur heavy financial penalties.

The full list of confirmed participants is available here. Notable highlights include the following grandmasters:

• Fabiano Caruana (already qualified)
• Hikaru Nakamura
• Alireza Firouzja
• Anish Giri
• Hans Niemann

Notable absentees include Magnus Carlsen, who has declared a complete lack of interest in trying to reclaim his abdicated world chess championship title under the current format, current world chess champion Ding Liren, and his previous challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi. World #8 Wesley So also won’t feature in the competition, just like Ju Wenjun, who earned a separate invitation on account of being the reigning women’s world chess champion.

The top two finishers of the event qualify for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. If one or more of the three players who have already qualified finish in the top spots, the qualification spots move further down the list, with tiebreakers determining the positions rather than a playoff match.

What is the format of the 2023 Grand Swiss Tournament?

The tournament is named after the Swiss format, the traditional method of managing large non-knockout competitions where the field is too large for a round-robin bracket. Competitions are paired based on their running score, meaning those who won their game in the first round (1-0) will be matched against others with the same score.

This continues to narrow the leading pack as the rounds progress, with 2-0 vs. 2-0 matches followed by 3-0 vs. 3-0 ones on the top of the bracket. Depending on the number of rounds, you can vault back to the top without a perfect score, but the Swiss format punishes a slow start far more harshly than a round-robin one does.

In 2021, Alireza Firouzja won the Grand Swiss with a score of 8/11, with tiebreakers separating Fabiano Caruana and Grigory Oparin on 7.5. In 2019’s inaugural event, both Wang Hao and Fabiano Caruana ended on 8/11 to take the top spots.

How can you qualify for the World Chess Championship?

To get a chance to fight for the world chess championship title, you need to win the Candidates Tournament, which happens once every two years, with the championship match to follow between the title holder and the challenger.

While FIDE does keep tinkering with the format, and oddities like Carlsen’s non-participation also shake things up from time to time, here’s what it all looks like for the 2023 to 2024 cycle, with eight spots on offer for the Candidates:

• The loser of the 2022 world chess championship final – Ian Nepomniachtchi
• The top three finishers of the FIDE World Cup – Magnus Carlsen, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Fabiano Caruana, Nijat Abasov (if Carlsen truly declines or qualifies another way)
• The top two finishers of the FIDE Grand Swiss – TBA x2
• The winner of the 2023 FIDE Circuit
• The highest-rated eligible player in the January 2024 rankings – TBA, but with Carlsen likely to decline the invitation and Fabiano Caruana already confirmed for the event, this could be as low as the third or even the fifth place in the rankings.