Vaishali Rameshbabu Wins FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025

• 17 Sep 2025

Why in News?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu on her remarkable victory in the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Key Points

• Vaishali won $40,000 in prize money and secured a place in the 2026 Candidates Tournament, the event that will determine the next challenger for the Women’s World Chess Championship.
  • Her victory in the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss is historic, making her the first player in the event’s history to win it twice. 
• With this win, Vaishali joins Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh as the third Indian woman to qualify for the prestigious  2026  Candidates Tournament.
  • The  Candidates  tournament will decide the challenger for the current Women’s World Chess Champion, Wenjun Ju of China, with players from China, Russia, and India already securing spots.
• In her previous performances, Vaishali finished 5th at the Norway Women’s Chess Tournament in May 2025 and was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Tan Zhongyi at the Women’s World Cup.

FIDE Grand Swiss

• The FIDE Grand Swiss, launched in 2019 (with the women’s event starting in 2021), is a key tournament in the World Chess Championship cycle, featuring top global players and held biennially with 11 rounds in a Swiss system.
• Considered as one of the most difficult and unpredictable chess events, given its open nature, the top two finishers in both categories qualify directly for the World Candidates tournament, where a challenger for the title of world champion is chosen. 
• The 2025 edition ran from 4th to 15th September at the EXPO Centre in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. 
  • There were 116 players taking part in the Open and 56 players in the Women’s competition. 
  • The total prize fund for the event is $855,000 – $625,000 for the Open and $230,000 for the Women’s event.