Grand Chess Tour

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is a circuit of chess tournaments where players compete for multiple prize pools. Major tournaments that have been featured in the Grand Chess Tour include Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic.

History

The Grand Chess Tour was announced on April 24, 2015 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in St. Louis, Missouri prior to the Battle of the Legends: Garry Kasparov vs Nigel Short match. The tour was designed to promote competitive chess by including all of the top players and the World Champion Magnus Carlsen in a single circuit. With the combination of several established tournaments, the Grand Chess Tour aimed to create a large prize pool which would be attractive to the players and media alike.[1]

The first Grand Chess Tour took place across three tournaments, Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic with each tournament in the Grand Chess Tour having the same prize fund, structure, and time controls. The overall prize pool for the first Grand Chess Tour was $1,050,000, with $300,000 for each tournament and a $150,000 prize for the top three players across the entire circuit.[1][2]

In 2015, nine "standard" players competed in each tournament in the Grand Chess Tour, with a tenth wildcard player is selected by the organizing committee of each individual event. In 2016, there will be eight standard players, and two wildcards per event. Players earn tour points based on their performance at each event. The top three players who accumulate the most tour points across all events receive extra prize money, taken from the Grand Chess Tour prize fund, and automatic invitations to the following year's Grand Chess Tour. Wildcard players receive tour points for any tournaments in which they participate.[2]

Grand Chess Tour 2015

In 2015, the Grand Chess Tour invited the top-10 players in the world ranked by the January 2015 FIDE rating list. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the 11th ranked player in January 2015, was invited as the ninth player to compete after 8th ranked Vladimir Kramnik and 10th ranked Wesley So declined to participate.[2][3] Jon Ludvig Hammer was selected to participate in the 2015 Norway Chess Tournament after qualifying through a wildcard tournament.[4] Wesley So and Michael Adams were selected to participate in the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic, respectively.[5][6] The point breakdown for each tournament is as follows

Place Points Place Points
1st 13/12* 6th 5
2nd 10 7th 4
3rd 8 8th 3
4th 7 9th 2
5th 6 10th 1

Event Prize Fund (USD)

Place Prize Place Prize
1st $75,000 6th $20,000
2nd $50,000 7th $15,000
3rd $40,000 8th $15,000
4th $30,000 9th $15,000
5th $25,000 10th $15,000

Overall Tour Prize Fund (USD) (Awarded to the Top 3 finishers in the overall tour by virtue of points earned, in addition to individual tournament prizes earned)

Place Prize
1st $75,000
2nd $50,000
3rd $25,000

The results of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour. Tour points in bold indicate a tournament win.

Player FIDE Rating
December 2015
Norway Chess [7] Sinquefield Cup London Chess Classic Total Points Total Earnings
1  Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 2834 4 10 12 26 $215,000
2  Anish Giri (Netherlands) 2784 7 6 10 23 $155,000
3  Levon Aronian (Armenia) 2788 2 13 7 22 $145,000
4  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 2773 5 7 8 20 $90,000
5  Hikaru Nakamura (United States) 2793 8 8 3 19 $95,000
6  Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 2803 13 4 1 18 $105,000
7  Alexander Grischuk (Russia) 2747 3 5 6 14 $60,000
8  Viswanathan Anand (India) 2796 10 2 2 14 $80,000
9  Fabiano Caruana (United States) 2787 6 3 4.5 13.5 $55,000
10  Michael Adams (United Kingdom) 2737 4.5 4.5 $20,000
11  Jon Ludvig Hammer (Norway) 2695 1 1 $15,000
12  Wesley So (United States) 2775 1 1 $15,000

Grand Chess Tour 2016

On January 6, 2016, the Altibox Norway Chess event announced it would not be part of the Grand Chess Tour in 2016.[8] [9]

On February 11, 2016, the GCT announced it was adding two rapid/blitz tournaments for 2016,[10] sponsored by Colliers International France (Paris), and Your Next Move (Leuven).[11]

For 2016, An initial roster of eight players was created based upon the rules published on the GCT website. The Initial Roster consisted of the three top finishers in the 2015 GCT and the next five highest players by rating according to the 2016 January FIDE Rating List. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was subsequently added to the roster as the GCT Wild Card Player for all 4 events.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen declined participation in the two classic events but will still compete as a wild card in the rapid/blitz tournaments held in both Paris and Leuven. [12] All other players accepted the invitations for all four tournaments with the exception of Viswanathan Anand who declined the invitation to the Paris tournament. Since GCT Tour Points are based on the best three tournament results Anand remains eligible for the overall tour prizes in 2016.

The wildcards that have been announced to date are as follows:

Player Event
 Magnus Carlsen (Norway) Paris & Leuven
 Laurent Fressinet (France) Paris
 Ding Liren (China) St Louis
 Michael Adams (England) London

The results of the 2016 Grand Chess Tour. Tour points in bold indicate a tournament win.

Player FIDE rating
June 2016
Paris GCT Leuven GCT Sinquefield Cup London Chess Classic Total Prize Money (to date)
 Wesley So (United States) 2770 7 10 13 30 $120,000
 Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 2855 10 13 23 $68,500
 Levon Aronian (Armenia) 2792 6 87.75 21.75 $66,250
 Hikaru Nakamura (United States) 2787 13 4 4.5 21.5 $62,750
 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) 2787 8 5 4.5 17.5 $40,250
 Fabiano Caruana (United States) 2804 3 6 7.75 16.75 $58,750
 Viswanathan Anand (India) 2782 7 7.75 14.75 $51,250
 Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) 2761 2 1 7.75 10.75 $51,250
 Anish Giri (Netherlands) 2812 5 2.5 1 8.5 $30,000
 Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 2770 4 2.5 6.5 $15,000
 Ding Liren (China) 2783 3 3 $15,000
 Peter Svidler (Russia) 2751 2 2 $15,000
 Laurent Fressinet (France) 2687 1 1 $7,500

References

External links

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