The group includes 14 pianists from China, six from Japan, three from South Korea and three from the United States, organizers said late on Tuesday.
Contestants also come from Chinese Taipei, Italy, France, Georgia, Malaysia and Britain. Russian pianist Philipp Lynov is taking part under a neutral flag.
The Polish pianists moving forward are Piotr Alexewicz, Adam Kałduński, Piotr Pawlak and Yehuda Prokopowicz.
Alexewicz, 25, studied at the Academy of Music in Wrocław, southwestern Poland, and is now at the Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland. He won second prize at the Hilton Head Piano Competition in the United States this year and was a semifinalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth Texas.
Kałduński, 29, is a graduate of the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, north-central Poland. He reached the semifinals in the 2021 Chopin Competition. His honours include first prize at the International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Beijing in 2019 and top awards at the Premio Amadeus Competition in Lazise, Italy, in 2023.
Pawlak, 27, has collected numerous international prizes, including first place at the Maj Lind Piano Competition in Helsinki in 2022 and the Chopin Competition in Darmstadt in 2017.
He won second prize at the Chopin Competition on Historical Instruments in Warsaw in 2023. Trained also as an organist, he is now studying conducting, and has won national and international Olympiads in mathematics and computer science.
Prokopowicz, 19, is a student at the Music Academy in Kraków. He has won prizes at more than 30 competitions in Poland and abroad and performed at the Artur Rubinstein Festival in Łódź, central Poland, in 2022 and 2024.
The second round begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Each participant will perform a 40–50 minute recital featuring Chopin’s preludes, polonaises and other works.
The competition jury is chaired by American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who won the Warsaw competition in 1970 and is the first foreigner to hold the post in the event’s nearly 100-year history.
The 17-member jury also includes past Warsaw winners Dang Thai Son and Yulianna Avdeeva, along with internationally acclaimed pianists Nelson Goerner, Kevin Kenner, Robert McDonald, Krzysztof Jabłoński, Piotr Paleczny and Ewa Pobłocka, as well as Chopin scholar John Rink and British music critic John Allison.
The competition's winner will be announced on October 20.
First held in 1927, the Warsaw event is among the world’s most prestigious piano competitions.
Past winners include renowned pianists such as Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, Garrick Ohlsson, Krystian Zimerman, Rafał Blechacz and Bruce Liu.
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Click on the audio player above to listen to an interview with music critic Andrzej Sułek.