FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss

FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss are held in Riga. The events staged in the format and dates originally scheduled: from 25 October to 8 November, 2021

The city of Riga host the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss, two events that are part of the qualification cycle for the World Championship. The difficult decision to relocate the tournament from Douglas, its original planned location, was forced due to the strict COVID-19 restrictions still in place in the Isle of Man and the UK.

With the support of the Scheinberg family, sponsor of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss, the International Chess Federation has been working to find an alternative host city for the events, with the priority to stage them in the format and dates originally scheduled, and keeping the excellent organizational standards that the event enjoyed on its previous editions.

49-year-old Alexei Shirov and 44-year-old Evgeniy Najer caught Alireza Firouzja in Round 5 of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss after the 18-year-old drew his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Alexei crashed through against Ivan Saric and will now play Firouzja in Round 6, while Najer defeated Robert Hovhannisyan. His opponent will be Fabiano Caruana, who made up for two missed win in a row by taking down David Howell. There are now five leaders in the women’s event after Nino Batsiashvili, Zhu Jiner, Elisabeth Paehtz and Jolanta Zawadzka picked up wins.

See also:

• Official website
• Watch all the Grand Swiss games: Open | Women
• Nakamura, Vidit withdraw as Grand Swiss goes ahead despite lockdown
• Grand Swiss Round 1: Caruana and Firouzja strike
• Grand Swiss Round 2: Firouzja world no. 6 as Caruana misses win
• Grand Swiss Round 3: Firouzja’s rampage continues
• Grand Swiss Round 4: Firouzja and Lei Tingjie sole leaders