“It feels great,” Firouzja started his interview after his tournament was over. “It was a very long tournament. When I came here I thought my chances were very low because the players are very experienced here and I didn’t see myself as a big contender. OK, rating wise I was a contender but in general these tournaments are very tricky and I’m happy that it ended very well.”

I didn’t see myself as a big contender.
—Alireza Firouzja

Firouzja gave a lovely answer to the question of what he would say to beginners who want to take up the game: “Chess for me is always a game I can never quit, I believe. When you learn chess, it’s finished, I think you should go all the way and even if you’re not a professional, every day you will think about chess. It is a very nice game and it’s very good for mental health; everything is great.”

As it turns out, he doesn’t have a favorite player: “I try to learn from all 16 world champions. They’re all great. But in general, for me, there’s no difference.”

Chess for me is always a game I can never quit.
—Alireza Firouzja

The next key game to finish was Yu vs. Vachier-Lagrave, one of the most interesting ones of the final round. In a sharp Najdorf with opposite casting, the Chinese player had his opponent under severe pressure but then missed an amazing tactic (the point behind 29…Qf4—see annotations) with which MVL could suddenly solve all his problems.

Not long after, Caruana also drew his game with Predke and that result likely gained him the second Candidates spot, but it wasn’t 100 percent clear yet due to the first tiebreak (technically called Buchholz Cut 1) for which a lot of results of games still underway were relevant.

That Yu-MVL had ended in a draw was definitely good news for Caruana. “I thought the most dangerous game was Maxime against Yu Yangyi and I was very worried for both of them at some point; I was hoping for a draw!” Caruana said. “Maxime’s position looked extremely suspicious and then near the end, I already thought Yu Yangyi’s position was very dangerous.”

His own game was a closed Ruy Lopez where Predke simply played a fine game. “I didn’t feel I had so many chances; probably I was even slightly worse at some point,” said Caruana. “He was super well prepared, this whole line… I kind of knew it was possible but I didn’t know the details.

“After 21…Nd4 I didn’t really know what to do. It’s super sharp. I thought 22.Bb2 was interesting but then this Qb4-Qd2 was a nice maneuver and after that, I’m certainly not any better. I was kind of worried that I might come under pressure because he has a passed a-pawn which is very dangerous. But I never felt I was in real danger at least.”

“It was a tough tournament, it was really tough,” said Caruana. “Both the length of the tournament and the length of the games, I kind of felt exhausted after I beat Firouzja, I just had no energy left. So I was also happy that I could draw Maxime because my energy level is pretty much at zero now!”

Next for Caruana, like for many participants (but sadly not Firouzja) is the Lindores Abbey blitz tournament, tomorrow, in the same playing hall (see below for more info). After that, he’ll head back home and then to Salt Lake City where he’ll join Chess.com’s world championship commentary from our new Utah studio.

We finish the coverage with the following, nerve-wracking game by two players who could have reached seven points as well if one of them had won, but it looks like the tiebreak would not have given them a spot in the Grand Prix for either of them. According to our GM annotator, it’s the Game of the Year so don’t miss it: 

Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk.	SNo	Fed	Title	Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3		GM	Firouzja, Alireza	2770	8	68	72	50.25
2	1		GM	Caruana, Fabiano	2800	7.5	67	72.5	49.75
3	39		GM	Oparin, Grigoriy	2654	7.5	63.5	68.5	45.75
4	11		GM	Yu Yangyi	2704	7	66.5	72	44.5
5	65		GM	Keymer, Vincent	2630	7	65.5	70	43.25
6	4		GM	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	2763	7	65	70	43.5
7	26		GM	Predke, Alexandr	2666	7	64.5	70	42.25
8	32		GM	Shirov, Alexei	2659	7	64.5	68.5	41.5
9	34		GM	Howell, David	2658	7	62.5	66.5	40.25
10	27		GM	Sargissian, Gabriel	2664	7	61.5	65.5	40.5
11	33		GM	Anton Guijarro, David	2658	7	61	65	39.25
12	20		GM	Korobov, Anton	2690	7	60.5	66	41.5
13	40		GM	Sevian, Samuel	2654	7	60.5	64.5	39.75
14	6		GM	Esipenko, Andrey	2720	7	60	64.5	40
15	50		GM	Deac, Bogdan-Daniel	2643	7	60	63	39.25
16	14		GM	Artemiev, Vladislav	2699	7	56.5	61.5	39
17	89		GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2605	6.5	66.5	70.5	40.75
18	41		GM	Nihal, Sarin	2652	6.5	64	68	38.75
19	8		GM	Dubov, Daniil	2714	6.5	61.5	66	37.5
20	72		GM	Kuzubov, Yuriy	2624	6.5	61.5	65	36.5

(Full standings here.)

With Lei securing her victory on Saturday, the biggest story of the day was Paehtz reaching her third GM norm. She had earlier norms from 2011 and 2016, which still need to be checked before it’s certain that she will meet the requirements for the GM title. Chess.com has learned that there might be an issue with one of the norms, so perhaps today’s cheering for Paehtz was premature, but let’s hope not.

If she does get the title, Paehtz will be only the 40th female player in history to achieve this (and all happen to be still alive). She had missed her chances for a norm in rounds nine and 10 but today she pulled it off with a win against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva.

“Of course, when I lost to Mariya [Muzychuk] I became a little bit insecure or shaky because OK, it was in a way a crucial game because a draw would have secured me the norm. But actually, my main aim here was not to score any norms but to qualify for the Grand Prix, this was basically the top priority,” said Paehtz.

“A game like today means everything. If you win, you score the tournament of your life. If you lose, you want to basically die somewhere alone in your room. If it would be a draw it would be more or less neutral but I mean, sometimes to have a single game which actually changes from happiness into sadness in such a drastic way is actually quite nerve-taking.”

Besides tomorrow’s blitz event, many of the players, including e.g. Firouzja and Paehtz, will be heading to Brezice, Slovenia where the European Team Championship (Open | Women) will start in just a few days.

Women Final Standings (Top 20)

Rk.	SNo	FED	Title	Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7		GM	Lei Tingjie	2505	9	64.5	70	56
2	12		IM	Paehtz, Elisabeth	2475	7.5	69.5	74.5	49.5
3	15		WGM	Zhu Jiner	2455	7.5	67.5	71.5	46.75
4	1		GM	Muzychuk, Mariya	2536	7	69	74	46.5
5	4		GM	Harika, Dronavalli	2511	7	64.5	68.5	42.25
6	18		IM	Javakhishvili, Lela	2446	7	64.5	68.5	41
7	20		IM	Badelka, Olga	2438	7	61	63	37.25
8	3		GM	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2518	6.5	68.5	72.5	41
9	13		WGM	Pogonina, Natalija	2467	6.5	66	70.5	39.5
10	34		IM	Assaubayeva, Bibisara	2400	6.5	62.5	68	39
11	22		WGM	Zawadzka, Jolanta	2428	6.5	61	65	35.25
12	37		WGM	Cori, Deysi	2382	6.5	58	58.5	30.5
13	21		IM	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	2433	6.5	57	61	33.75
14	46		WIM	Vantika, Agrawal	2322	6.5	56.5	60.5	33.25
15	27		GM	Girya, Olga	2410	6.5	55.5	60	34.5
16	17		GM	Cramling, Pia	2447	6.5	53	55.5	32.25
17	10		GM	Batsiashvili, Nino	2484	6	68.5	74	37.75
18	2		GM	Dzagnidze, Nana	2524	6	68.5	73.5	38.75
19	8		IM	Kashlinskaya, Alina	2493	6	62.5	66.5	31.5
20	5		IM	Shuvalova, Polina	2509	6	58.5	63	30.25

(Full standings here.)

You can find all games of the tournament here for replay and download: FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss | FIDE Chess.com Women’s Grand Swiss.

Mikhail Tal Memorial: Lindores Abbey Blitz at 2 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 CET
Many of the Grand Swiss participants will also be participating in the Lindores Abbey Blitz, a nine-round blitz tournament on November 8, a day after the Grand Swiss finishes and a day before the anniversary of Mikhail Tal’s 85th birthday. You can follow the games and live broadcast live here. Don’t miss it! 

The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss took place October 27-November 7, 2021 in Riga, Latvia. The format was an 11-round Swiss. The top two finishers in the open (Firouzja and Caruana) and the winner among the women (Lei Tingjie) qualified for their respective 2022 Candidates tournaments.

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Earlier reports: