Press Releases

Saint Louis, MO, January 24, 2019 – The fifth edition of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) will see the tour expand to eight tournaments and increase the number of full tour participants to twelve. The tour will also welcome fourteen event level wildcards in 2019. Tour participants will fight for a record prize fund of $1.75 million as the GCT expands its reach to four continents to include tournaments in Africa, Asia, Europe and America. The prize money on offer for the classical tournaments has been increased to $325,000 per event ($90,000 for 1st place and $60,000 for 2nd) while the prize fund for the GCT Finals in London will also be raised to $350,000 ($150,000 for 1st place and $100,000 for 2nd).

Just days after the end of his World Championship match in London against Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana will be pitting his wits against Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Grand Chess Tour Finals at the London Chess Classic, which this year will be a four-player knockout supported by our new sponsor the Lohia Foundation. 

The third edition of the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz chess tournament will be held in June 2018, with Alexander Grischuk, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So!

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is pleased to announce the list of players that have been invited to participate as full tour participants for the 2018 GCT. The 2018 GCT event dates and tour point regulations have also now been finalised and are detailed below.