The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is a circuit of chess tournaments in which players compete for multiple prize pools. The tournaments, which vary from year to year, have included Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic.
History The Grand Chess Tour was announced on April 24, 2015, at the Saint Louis Chess Club in St. Louis, Missouri, before the "Battle of the Legends", a match between Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short. The tour was designed to promote competitive chess by including all of the top players and then-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 that would be attractive to the players and media alike.
Held in 2015, the first Grand Chess Tour included three tournaments—Norway Chess, the Sinquefield Cup, and the London Chess Classic—each with 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.http://grandchesstour.com/content/rules-regulations Grand Chess Tour: Rules & Regulations Nine "standard" players competed in each tournament, with a tenth wildcard player selected by the organizing committee of each tournament. 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 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.
In 2016, there were eight standard players and two wildcards per event.
The point breakdown and prize money for each classical tournament is:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" ! Place !! Points !! Event standings !! Overall standings |- | 1st || 13/12* || $75,000 || $75,000 |- | 2nd || 10 || $50,000 || $50,000 |- | 3rd || 8 || $40,000 || $25,000
| 4th || 7 || $30,000 || |- | 5th || 6 || $25,000 || |- | 6th || 5|| $20,000 || |- | 7th || 4|| $15,000 || |- | 8th || 3|| $15,000 || |- | 9th || 2 || $15,000 || |- | 10th || 1 || $15,000 ||
If a player shares 1st place and wins the tiebreak (*), they earn 12 points rather than the 13 points awarded to an outright winner. Rapid and blitz events have the prize money halved.
Winners
{| class="sortable wikitable" ! # !! Year !! Winner |- |align="center"|1||2015|| |- |align="center"|2||2016|| |- |align="center"|3||2017|| |- |align="center"|4||2018|| |- |align="center"|5||2019|| |- |align="center"|6||2021|| |- |align="center"|7||2022|| |- |align="center"|8||2023|| |- |align="center"|9||2024|| |- |align="center"|10||2025|| |- |align="center"|11||2026||
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 February 2015, was invited as the ninth player to compete after 8th ranked Vladimir Kramnik and 10th ranked Wesley So declined to participate.https://ratings.fide.com/toparc.phtml?cod=337 Fide Ratings List: January 2015 Jon Ludvig Hammer was selected to participate in the 2015 Norway Chess Tournament after qualifying through a wildcard tournament.http://www.chessdom.com/gm-hammer-wins-entercard-scandinavian-masters-to-qualify-for-norway-chess-2015/ GM Hammer Wins Entercard Scandinavia Masters to Qualify for Norway Chess 2015 Wesley So and Michael Adams were selected to participate in the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic, respectively.http://grandchesstour.com/2015-sinquefield-cup/field 2015 Sinquefield Cup: The Fieldhttp://www.londonchessclassic.com/gct_players.htm London Chess Classic: Players 2015
The results of the 2015 Grand Chess Tour. Tour points in bold indicate a tournament win.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" ! !Player ! Norway ! Sinquefield ! London ! Total points ! Prize money |- |-style="background:#ccffcc;" | 1 || align=left| || 4 || 10 || 12 || 26 || $215,000 |- | 2 || align=left| || 7 || 6 || 10 || 23 || $155,000 |- | 3 || align=left| || 2 || 13 || 7 || 22 || $145,000 |- | 4 || align=left| || 5 || 7 || 8 || 20 || $90,000 |- | 5 || align=left| || 8 || 8 || 3 || 19 || $95,000 |- | 6 || align=left| || 13 || 4 || 1 || 18 || $105,000 |- | T-7 || align=left| || 3 || 5 || 6 || 14 || $60,000 |- | T-7 || align=left| || 10 || 2 || 2 || 14 || $80,000 |- | 9 || align=left| || 6 || 3 || 4.5 || 13.5 || $55,000 |- | || align=left| || || || 4.5 || 4.5 || $20,000 |- | || align=left| || 1 || || || 1 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || || 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.
On February 11, 2016, the GCT announced it was adding two rapid/blitz tournaments for 2016, sponsored by Colliers International France (Paris), and Your Next Move (Leuven).
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 will be the average of each monthly FIDE supplement from February through December inclusive, as well as the live ratings after the 2015 London Chess Classic. 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 competed as a wild card in the rapid/blitz tournaments held in both Paris and Leuven. 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 were based on the best three tournament results, Anand remained eligible for the overall tour prizes. For the Sinquefield Cup, Vladimir Kramnik had to withdraw due to health issues and was replaced by Peter Svidler.
The wildcards were as follows:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" !Player !Event |- | align=left| || Paris & Leuven |- | align=left| || Paris |- | align=left| ||St. Louis |- | align=left| || St. Louis |- | align=left| ||London
The results of the 2016 Grand Chess Tour. Tour points in bold indicate a tournament win.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" ! !! Player !style="background-color:#ffdddd"| Paris !style="background-color:#ffdddd"| Leuven !style="background-color:#ddeeff"| Sinquefield !style="background-color:#ddeeff"| London ! Totalpoints !! Prizemoney |-style="background:#ccffcc;" | 1 || align=left| || || 10 || 13 || 13 || 36 || $295,000 |- | 2 || align=left| || 13 || || 4.5 || 7 || 24.5 || $144,166 |- | 3 || align=left| || || 6 || 7.75 || 10 || 23.75 || $108,750 |- | T-4 || align=left| || 6 || 8 || 7.75 || || 21.75 || $81,250 |- | T-4 || align=left| || || 7 || 7.75 || 7 || 21.75 || $82,916 |- | 6 || align=left| || 8 || 5 || 4.5 || || 17.5 || $55,000 |- | 7 || align=left| || 4 || 2.5 || || 7 || 13.5 || $46,666 |- | 8 || align=left| || 5 || 2.5 || || 5 || 12.5 || $50,000 |- | 9 || align=left| || 2 || || 7.75 || 1 || 10.75|| $66,250 |- | || align=left| || 10 || 13 || || || 23 || $67,500 |- | || align=left| || || || 3 || || 3 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || || || || 3 || 3 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || || || 2 || || 2 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || 1 || || || || 1 || $7,500
Grand Chess Tour 2017
The 2017 Grand Chess Tour consisted of five events: three rapid and blitz chess, and two classical chess. By January 2017, six players had qualified for the 2017 Grand Chess Tour; on January 3, three wildcard selections for the tour were announced, bringing the total number of participants to nine. Vladimir Kramnik declined to participate in the 2017 GCT, citing a busy summer schedule. He was replaced by Levon Aronian.
On July 5, Garry Kasparov agreed to join the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament as a wildcard.
Players {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Player ! Qualification method ! URS rating January 2017 ! FIDE rating January 2017 |- | align="left" | || GCT 2016 Winner || 2777 || 2808 |- | align=left | || GCT 2016 Runner-Up || 2787 || 2785 |- | align=left | || GCT 2016 3rd place || 2779 || 2827 |- | align=left | || 1st 2016 FIDE Average rating || 2852 || 2840 |- | align=left | || 2nd 2016 FIDE Average rating || 2787 || 2811 |- | align=left | || 3rd 2016 FIDE Average rating || 2774 || 2796 |- | align=left | || WC (1st URS 1 January 2017 not picked) || 2779 || 2767 |- | align=left | || WC (2nd URS 1 January 2017 not picked) || 2778 || 2785 |- | align=left | || WC || 2771 || 2786 |- | align=left | || WC (Alternate) || 2771 || 2780 |- | align=left | || WC (Leuven)|| 2787 || 2811 |- | align=left | || WC (Paris) || 2771 || 2742 |- | align=left | || WC (Paris) || 2768 || 2766 |- | align=left | || WC (Paris) || ? || 2739 |- | align=left | || WC (Paris) || ? || 2695 |- | align=left | || WC (Leuven) || ? || 2701 |- | align=left | || WC (Leuven) || 2760 || 2752 |- | align=left | || WC (Leuven) || 2757 || 2773 |- | align=left | || WC (St. Louis) || ? || 2748 |- | align=left | https://www.hina.hr/news/9564889 Kasparov participates in St Louis tournament under Croatian flag || WC (St. Louis Rapid & Blitz) || N/A || 2812 |- | align=left | || WC (St. Louis Rapid & Blitz) || ? || 2739 |- | align=left | || WC (St. Louis Rapid & Blitz) || ? || 2735 |- | align=left | || WC (St. Louis Rapid & Blitz) || ? || 2718 |- | align=left | || WC (London) || ? || 2751
Results {| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;" ! !! Player !style="background-color:#ffdddd"| Paris !style="background-color:#ffdddd"| Leuven !style="background-color:#ddeeff"| Sinquefield !style="background-color:#ffdddd"| St. Louis !style="background-color:#ddeeff"| London ! Totalpoints ! Prizemoney |-style="background:#ccffcc;" | 1 || align=left| || 12 || 13 || 9 || || 7 || 41 || $245,417 |- | 2 || align=left| || 10 || 8 || 13 || || 7 || 38 || $207,917 |- | 3 || align=left| || || 5.5 || 6.5 || 13 || 4 || 29 || $91,250 |- | 4 || align=left| || 8 || || 3 || 9 || 5 || 25 || $77,500 |- | 5 || align=left| || 3 || || 4 || 5 || 12 || 24 || $95,000 |- | 6 || align=left| || 5 || || 6.5 || 9 || 3 || 23.5 || $75,000 |- | T-7 || align=left| || 4 || 10 || 1.5 || || 7 || 22.5 || $79,167 |- | T-7 || align=left| || || 4 || 1.5 || 7 || 10 || 22.5 || $100,000 |- | 9 || align=left| || || 3 || 9 || 2 || 1.5 || 15.5 || $75,000 |- | || align=left| || || 7 || || || || 7 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || 7 || || || || || 7 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || 6 || || || || || 6 || $12,500 |- | || align=left| || || 5.5 || || || || 5.5 || $11,250 |- | || align=left| || || || 5 || || || 5 || $20,000 |- | || align=left| || || || || 5 || || 5 || $10,000 |- | || align=left| || || || || 5 || || 5 || $10,000 |- | || align=left| || || || || 3 || || 3 || $7,500 |- | || align=left| || || 2 || || || || 2 || $7,500 |- | || align=left| || 2 || || || || || 2 || $7,500 |- | || align=left| || || || || || 1.5 || 1.5 || $15,000 |- | || align=left| || 1 || || || || || 1 || $7,500 |- | || align=left| || || 1 || || || || 1 || $7,500 |- | || align=left| || || || || 1 || || 1 || $7,500 |} Wildcard players were not eligible for the overall prize funds.
Grand Chess Tour 2018