2/18/2022 – The total Prize Fund Increased to $1.4 million across all five tournaments. The nine players are Wesley So Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Richard Rapport, and Leinier Dominguez. | Photo: grandchesstour.org

12/11/2020 – The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is scheduled to return in 2021 and will feature five tournaments and a format that was originally planned for the 2020 edition of the tour. Tour participants will compete for a total prize fund of $1.275 million over the course of the 2021 season.

2/19/2020 – The Grand Chess Tour, which was announced one month ago, is a standard-bearer for world-class events. In the latest press release, the organizers have now announced dates, confirmed participants and venues for this year's tour. There will be two tournaments with classical time controls and three rapid and blitz tournaments. The three best players in the world — Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren — all take part. | Picture: Grand Chess Tour

11/7/2019 – Anish Giri started well among ten world-class players, at the Superbet Rapid Tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest: He is in the lead after the first three rapid games with 2½ out of 3, half a point behind them are Vishy Anand, Anton Korobov and Levon Aronian on positions two to four. | Photos: Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour

8/29/2018 – Following the Sinquefield Cup 2018 in Saint Louis, Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana were working overtime: they played a tiebreak to determine who would participate in the London Chess Classic, the Grand Chess Tour final KO event for the top four finishers. Caruana won the match by taking the second rapid game to score 1½-½. V. SARAVANAN files one more report. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes

6/25/2018 – IM Malcolm Pein, now a candidate for FIDE Deputy President, took time out from a full schedule for a chat with Macauley Peteron in Leuven at the end of the "Your Next Move Rapid and Blitz" tournament. Malcolm discussed the Grand Chess Tour, the FIDE / Agon proposed "broadcast policy," the upcoming World Championship in London, and his thoughts on the election including having his old friend Nigel Short as a political sparring partner. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/25/2018 – Sergey Karjakin seemed unstoppable after Saturday's first nine rounds of blitz, however, Nakamura finally emerged as the winner of the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Hikaru fought until last minute and finished one and a half points ahead of the field. Meanwhile, Wesley So played it safe to get clear third and keep the lead in the Tour overall standings. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/24/2018 – Sergey Karjakin jumped out to a small lead after a stellar performance on the first day of blitz in Paris. Nakamura also had a good day and is second. Wesley So has slipped to third place, but along with Vachier-Lagrave and Aronian, remains in contention. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/23/2018 – An unprecedented rapid & blitz invitational tournament is being organised in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Ten players from ten different African countries will participate in an event that will mimic the Grand Chess Tour format. The French mass media conglomerate that sponsors the Paris GCT, Vivendi SA, is sponsoring this novel initiative. | Pictured: Abidjan city center at night | Photo: Cedric Favero

3/10/2018 – The players for the next Grand Chess Tour circuit have been announced, settling the question of whether or not Magnus Carlsen would return to defend his 2017 win — he won't. The demanding schedule of the GCT was too much to commit to fully during a World Championship match year. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/10/2017 – The organisers of the Grand Chess Tour announced changes to the format for 2018, including a new format for next year's London Chess Classic. The traditional classical tournament will be replaced by a semi-final and final held in mid-December that will combine classical, rapid and blitz chess over six days. The change is being made to make the tour final more dynamic, accentuate the purpose of the GCT's "Universal Rating" system (combining all three disciplines) and avoid conflict with the World Championship which will be also held in London from November 9th to 28th. | Pictured: Malcolm Pein, Michael Khodarkovsky, and Tony Rich | Photo: Pascal Simon

8/24/2017 – In 2005 Garry Kasparov, World Champion from 1985 to 2000 and arguably the best player of all times, withdrew from tournament chess. At the Grand Chess Tour Rapid- and Blitz Tournament in Saint Louis in August 2017 he dared a comeback and played a serious tournament again. His final score of 13.0/27 indicates that he was not as dominant as he used to be - but how good did he play, how good was his opening repertoire and did he miss chances? Let's take a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

1/5/2017 – In a recent press release the Grand Chess Tour announced two things: a new rating system, called Universal Rating System, or URS™, that combines the results players have in classical, rapid and blitz chess, and the Wildcard Selections for the five events of the Grand Chess Tour 2017. More...

1/2/2017 – One player who did exceedingly well in 2016 is Wesley So. The 23-year-old won two super tournaments – the Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic, he helped the US win team gold in the Chess Olympiad in Baku where So also won gold for the best performance on board three. So also won the Grand Chess Tour ahead of legends such as Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and others. We got in touch with Wesley So to talk about the London Chess Classic and the chess decisions in much greater detail.

8/17/2016 – After the fascinating Sinquefield Cup, ending in a resounding victory by Wesley So, comes the Ultimate Moves. This is an exhibition match/event that is designed for pure fun only. It is broadcast live, with Maurice Ashley as the color commentator in his signature dynamic style, in a match between Team Rex, with five players joined by Garry Kasparov, against Team Randy, also with five players joined by Yasser Seirawan. Don’t miss it: 2¼ hours of unadulterated fun!

8/15/2016 – With so many players breathing down his neck, it was a wonder that a draw was sufficient for Wesley So to take clear first, and yet it almost wasn’t so. Veselin Topalov was the unlucky soul who reached a winning position against Aronian for a long time but failed to convert it, finishing fifth on tiebreak. The two wins of the day were signed by Caruana and Nakamura over Giri and Ding Liren respectively. Final report with GM analysis.

8/14/2016 – It was an inauspicious start, with symmetrical positions and split points, but thankfully for the fans it did not last. Anand against Topalov was the final draw, but neither seemed ready to accept it and serious risks were taken to avoid one. Giri sacced a pawn against Svidler, but failed to make the most of it and lost, while Aronian got an advantage early in a QGD against Nakamura and won a superb positional game analyzed in depth by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

8/13/2016 – It would be easy to complain there was, and that the five draws in round seven were a sign of something amiss, but like it or not, it is sometimes the nature of the beast. The games were all top-notch efforts, with genuine attempts to break the status quo in the positions, but at no point did any bear the unquestionable hallmarks of a win. The closest any really got was perhaps Anand’s good initiative against Aronian, or Caruana’s marathon efforts to try to beat Ding Liren. Report with GM commentary.

8/12/2016 – After the dearth of decisive games in rounds with plenty of action but not results, round six saw three wins that could easily have been four. Aronian missed a trick early in his game and could not save versus MVL, while Ding Liren got a decisive advantage early on in a King's Indian against Svidler. The game of the day was Wesley So’s win over leader Veselin Topalov, allowing him to take over the sole lead with 4.0/6. Here is the round six report with annotations by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

8/10/2016 – A topsy-turvy round started with belliggerent intentions on all boards, but as the round progressed, it began to seem as if we would have another full set of draws. Anand and So played out a striking novelty well past theory and prepared by both, so that in the end, the draw was just. Caruana managed to outfox MVL in the opening and middlegame, but right at the finish line he faltered and let the Frenchman escape. Finally, Topalov took the least obvious route possible to beat Ding and become the leader. Illustrated report with GM analysis.

8/9/2016 – It was another uneventful round, and while several games seemed to hold promise for more than a draw, the wind seemed to peter and die out in the players' sails. The most dynamic game of the round was unsurprisingly between Nakamura and Topalov, players for who the word dynamic seems a weak term, but despite the material imbalance at the end, neither seemed willing to press the issue. Giri pressed hard in an endgame against So, but the American neutralized his attempts and they also drew. Full report with GM analysis.

8/8/2016 – In round two, an analogy was made about movies and their sequels, and the title is a reference to it. To be fair to the players, all the games were dynamic affairs with fascinating tussles that just seemed to culminate in draws in spite of the players’ efforts, not because of them. Examples to be seen are Topalov’s oversight that all thought meant a sure loss, or Aronian’s opening piece sacrifice. Full report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi.

8/7/2016 – After the excitement of round one, round two, if anything, it was even more thrilling with every game having a story to tell. Topalov seemed poised to play a masterpiece after a beautiful attack on Caruana, but somehow botched it and let Fabiano escape, while Anand came back from a bad position to outplay MVL and score his first win. The last game to finish was Nakamura's superb win over Giri, and that was not all that happened. Here is the detailed report with analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

8/6/2016 – Fans got it all in what was a thrilling start to the Sinquefield Cup. Almost all boards saw vicious battles. MVL seemed like his star would fall as he was in big trouble against Giri, but saved it after Anish blundered. However, the biggest blunder was Svidler's terrible oversight, losing a piece to Topalov. Nakamura suffered an off-day and lost to So, while Anand and Caruana drew a very complicated battle. Here is the illustrated report with analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.