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
- If a player shares 1st place and wins the tiebreak (*), they earn 12 points rather than the 13 points awarded to an outright winner.
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 2015Norway 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 2016Paris 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 8 7.75 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
- 1 2 Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (April 24, 2015). Grand Chess Tour Press Conference - 04.24.15.
- 1 2 3 http://grandchesstour.com/content/rules-regulations Grand Chess Tour: Rules & Regulations
- ↑ https://ratings.fide.com/toparc.phtml?cod=337 Fide Ratings List: January 2015
- ↑ 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
- ↑ http://grandchesstour.com/2015-sinquefield-cup/field 2015 Sinquefield Cup: The Field
- ↑ http://www.londonchessclassic.com/gct_players.htm London Chess Classic: Players 2015
- ↑ http://grandchesstour.com/content/norway-chess-2015 Results of Norway Chess 2015
- ↑ Press Release from GCT and Altibox Norway Chess
- ↑ Norway Chess leaves GCT
- ↑ Grand Tour adds two events
- ↑ 2016 GCT schedule announced
- ↑ Grand Chess Tour Announces Field For 2016 Season