Anish Giri, Dutch GM and a popular face among Indian chess fans, played wonderful chess to win the recently concluded FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 that happened in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, thereby securing a Candidates spot for the third time after his appearances in 2016 and 2020. The 31-year-old was joined by Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum in the podium, who finished second to qualify for the Candidates alongside Giri.
Giri was delighted by his performance in the Grand Swiss event but didn’t seem particularly pleased by former World Champions Magnus Carlsen and Gary Kasparov. Calling out the duo, he took a dig at the Norwegian and the Russian by saying, “It’s funny… when the GOATs like Carlsen and Kasparov are asked for their opinion, they always go for the lowest-hanging fruit, yeah? When they’re asked to pinpoint who has impressed them the most, they go for the most obvious names. Of course, they pick the youngest and the strongest, but there’s no creativity at all. Mention somebody people didn’t notice,” he said to Chessbase India.
When asked who Anish Giri would have named if he were asked the same question, he replied: “There were so many creative players, so many interesting thoughts… I don’t know, I didn’t think about it, but they’re the GOATs, I expect something more from them.”
“Kasparov, my biggest childhood hero… a great player who is very good at predicting, but he always takes the easiest prediction. Whenever Carlsen was playing, he always predicted Carlsen to win. Always the easiest. I mean, they want to be right all the time. They don’t want to take any risk. ‘Who impressed you the most?’ Okay, I don’t know… Abhimanyu Mishra’s H7 pawn, or something. Say something unusual,” added Giri.
Earlier, when Carlsen was asked by Take Take Take who he hopes or who he feels deserves to secure a spot at the Candidates through the World Cup in Goa, Carlsen said: “I don’t really hope for anybody. But I generally hope to see the best players there. I don’t know. There are a lot of… probably a couple more of the young guys. But honestly, as long as Pragg is in there, you know, there isn’t a lot to choose between (the rest). I hope Alireza Firouzja makes it, but I’m not even sure he’s going to play in the World Cup.”
Then, the world No. 1 also spoke about Anish Giri and Bluebaum securing Candidates spots via the Grand Swiss tournament.
Asked if he was surprised by the top two, Carlsen said: “For sure. I think Bluebaum had an incredible tournament. And to be fair, it is a bit easier when you come up like he got a few games and then he did really well against Arjun Erigaisi to win that and after that he could kind of cruise like a little bit like the others are forced to beat him. So he’s in a good position. Giri, I think got the friendliest pairings in the whole tournament for a long time, but then in the end he took his chances while um the others didn’t. So, it was very deserved.”
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The win in Samarkand is one of the most significant achievements for five-time Dutch National Champion Giri, who previously had won the Tata Steel Masters in 2023.
“Oh, I had a funny talk today with Erwin l’Ami. Erwin wrote me that maybe this is a bigger win than Tata Steel, and I told him it’s a nice debate to have. Let’s talk about it,” he said after being asked to compare the wins in Samarkand and Wijk aan Zee.
WATCH: Anish Giri’s interview after his FIDE Grand Swiss win
“Of course, I can say the Tata Steel Masters is the Wimbledon of chess, but to be honest, it’s really amazing… and I was so lucky… because I won Sharjah. I understood the Sharjah tournament, but the difference is that most players I played in Sharjah aren’t even qualified to play here. This (the FIDE Grand Swiss) is this strong,” he added.
Giri also praised Indian GM Aditya Mittal and his progress while comparing his triumph at the Sharjah Masters earlier this year with his Grand Swiss win.
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“When I played the final game against Aditya Mittal at the time, with his rating back then, he wouldn’t even have qualified for the Grand Swiss. Of course, he was underrated, and now he’s 2620, by the way. Aditya impressed me the most over this period; he’s been playing tremendous chess and actually raised his rating to 2620. But you know, the field there (at the Sharjah Masters) was so different from here. I couldn’t imagine it was possible to win a tournament like this (the FIDE Grand Swiss), but of course, with luck, everything’s possible,” said Giri.
