The 2016 Grand Chess Tour shall invite the top-three finishers from the 2015 Grand Chess Tour and six players by rating. The rating used shall be the average of each monthly FIDE rating supplement from February to December, as well as the live rating list immediately after the 2015 London Chess Classic. Live ratings will be updated daily in the table below.
| Rank | Player | Feb 2015 | Mar 2015 | Apr 2015 | May 2015 | Jun 2015 | Jul 2015 | Aug 2015 | Sep 2015 | Oct 2015 | Nov 2015 | Dec 2015 |
Live 13 DEC 15 |
Average |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2865 | 2863 | 2863 | 2876 | 2876 | 2853 | 2853 | 2853 | 2850 | 2850 | 2834 | 2833.4 | 2855.8 |
| 2 | Topalov, Veselin | 2800 | 2798 | 2798 | 2798 | 2798 | 2816 | 2816 | 2816 | 2813 | 2803 | 2803 | 2780.5 | 2803.3 |
| 3 | Anand, Vishy | 2797 | 2791 | 2791 | 2804 | 2804 | 2816 | 2816 | 2816 | 2803 | 2803 | 2796 | 2784.6 | 2801.8 |
| 4 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2776 | 2798 | 2798 | 2799 | 2802 | 2814 | 2814 | 2814 | 2816 | 2793 | 2793 | 2786.6 | 2800.3 |
| 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | 2811 | 2802 | 2802 | 2803 | 2805 | 2797 | 2808 | 2808 | 2796 | 2787 | 2787 | 2787.3 | 2799.4 |
| 6 | Giri, Anish | 2797 | 2790 | 2790 | 2776 | 2773 | 2791 | 2793 | 2793 | 2798 | 2778 | 2784 | 2793.8 | 2788.1 |
| 7 | Kramnik, Vladimir | 2783 | 2783 | 2783 | 2777 | 2783 | 2783 | 2777 | 2777 | 2777 | 2796 | 2796 | 2796 | 2784.3 |
| 8 | So, Wesley | 2788 | 2788 | 2788 | 2778 | 2778 | 2780 | 2779 | 2773 | 2760 | 2767 | 2775 | 2775 | 2777.4 |
| 9 | Aronian, Levon | 2777 | 2770 | 2770 | 2776 | 2780 | 2765 | 2765 | 2765 | 2784 | 2781 | 2788 | 2792.6 | 2776.1 |
| 10 | Grischuk, Alex | 2810 | 2794 | 2794 | 2780 | 2781 | 2771 | 2771 | 2771 | 2774 | 2750 | 2747 | 2756.1 | 2774.9 |
| 11 | Ding Liren | 2755 | 2755 | 2751 | 2757 | 2749 | 2749 | 2770 | 2782 | 2782 | 2781 | 2776 | 2766 | 2764.4 |
| 12 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2760 | 2757 | 2757 | 2753 | 2753 | 2753 | 2753 | 2762 | 2762 | 2766 | 2766 | 2766 | 2759.0 |
| 13 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2775 | 2765 | 2762 | 2754 | 2723 | 2731 | 2731 | 2744 | 2758 | 2765 | 2773 | 2784.3 | 2755.4 |
| 14 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | 2745 | 2745 | 2749 | 2745 | 2745 | 2747 | 2758 | 2758 | 2743 | 2744 | 2744 | 2741.7 | 2747.1 |
| 15 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | 2742 | 2744 | 2738 | 2759 | 2757 | 2759 | 2748 | 2748 | 2735 | 2737 | 2737 | 2740.2 | 2745.4 |