6/24/2018 – Wesley So won the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2018, the combined rapid chess and blitz tournament in Leuven. The tour continues with an equivalent tournament in Paris, where the French conglomerate Vivendi and its "Canal plus" TV channel is a leading partner of the tournament. Indeed, the games will take place in a television studio. Read our report on day four.
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The second stop of the Grand Chess Tour 2018 is Paris. Again, just as in Leuven, a combined rapid chess and blitz tournament will be played. The tournament continues on Sunday at 12:00 CEST (6:00 AM EDT), with the second day of blitz. Read our report on day four.
In addition to the nine permanent participants of the tour, Vladimir Kramnik will is a wildcard.
Players receive 5 minutes for all moves plus there is a 3-second delay from move 1, meaning that if a player moves in less than 3 seconds the time on his clock remains unchanged.
Round-up show
GM Simon Williams checks in on the action from the second day of blitz.
At the airport, in the hotel or at home on your couch: with the new ChessBase you always have access to the whole ChessBase world: the new ChessBase video library, tactics server, opening training App, the live database with eight million games, Let’s Check and web access to playchess.com
Commentary by Yasser Seirawan, Jovanka Houska, Alejandro Ramirez (St. Louis) Maurice Ashley and Romain Edouard (Paris)
Round-up shows
Daniel King and Erwin l'Ami examine the rapid days in Paris.
Final rapid standings
The venue
The venue is a studio of the tournament partner Canal plus on the Seine at 5 Boulevard de la République.
The players
Name
Federation
Age
Wesley So
USA
24
Hikaru Nakamura
USA
30
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
France
27
Viswanathan Anand
India
48
Levon Aronian
Armenia
35
Fabiano Caruana
USA
25
Sergey Karjakin
Russia
28
Alexander Grischuk
Russia
34
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Azerbaijan
33
Vladimir Kramnik (Wildcard)
Russia
42
The first three rounds of rapid have starting times of 14:00, 15:30 and 17:00 clock
Full schedule
Rapid (June 20–22)
Time
June 20
Time
June 21
Time
June 22
14.00
Round 1
12.00
Round 4
14.00
Round 7
15.30
Round 2
13.30
Round 5
15.30
Round 8
17.00
Round 3
15.00
Round 6
17.00
Round 9
Blitz (June 23–24)
Time
June 23
Time
June 24
14.00
Round 1
12.00
Round 10
14.30
Round 2
12.30
Round 11
15.00
Round 3
13.00
Round 12
15.30
Round 4
13.30
Round 13
16.00
Round 5
14.00
Round 14
16.30
Round 6
14.30
Round 15
17.00
Round 7
15.00
Round 16
17.30
Round 8
15.30
Round 17
18.00
Round 9
16.00
Round 18
16.30
Playoffs/Prize-giving
Grand Chess Tour 2018 — Full schedule
Tournament
Format
Place
Dates
Prize fund
Your Next Move
Rapid and Blitz
Leuven
June 12-16
$ 150,000
Paris
Rapid and Blitz
Paris
June 20-24
$ 150,000
Saint Louis
Rapid and Blitz
St. Louis
August 10-16
$ 150,000
Sinquefield Cup
Classical
St. Louis
August 17-28
$ 300,000
London Chess Classic
Classical
London
December (TBD)
$ 300,000
GCT winner prizer
$ 150,000
Total prize fund
$ 1,200,000
Scoring system
In the first three events, rapid and blitz scores are combined, with two points for a win in rapid. New this year, if there is a tie for first place, the top two (determined by mathematical tiebreaks if more than two players tie) will play two 10+5 rapid games and then, if necessary, a single 5 vs. 4 minute sudden-death 'Armageddon' game, where the black player has draw odds.
For the overall standings, points will be awarded in the individual tournaments according to the standings. However, the same points will be awarded if there is a tie. The tiebreak mini-match will be to determine the winner of the individual tournament. If a player wins the tournament alone, he will receive two (Sinquefield Cup) or one (Rapid and Blitz Events) extra point in the Grand Chess Tour
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