Grand Chess Tour Paris LIVE
6/22/2018 – 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 two.
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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 Thursday at 12:00 CEST (6:00 AM EDT), with the second day of rapid. Read our report on day two.
In addition to the nine permanent participants of the tour, Vladimir Kramnik will start with, a wildcard.
Players receive 25 minutes for all moves plus there is a 10-second delay from move 1, meaning that if a player moves in less than 10 seconds the time on his clock remains unchanged.
Round-up shows
GMs Daniel King and Erwin l'Ami looks at the highlights of the first three days.
Final rapid standings
Rapid games and commentary
ChessBase Account Premium annual subscription
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)
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 | ||
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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
| Place | Sinquefield Cup | Rapid & Blitz Events Combined points |
| 1 | 18/20 | 12/13 |
| 2 | 15 | 10 |
| 3 | 12 | 8 |
| 4 | 10 | 7 |
| 5 | 8 | 6 |
| 6 | 6 | 5 |
| 7 | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | 3 | 3 |
| 9 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 1 | 1 |
Links
Rapid and blitz are fine for a little fun at the club but the truly interesting contests today take place at the large opens where top players compete with everyone else. Watching the top dozen players playing each other over and over gets a little stale.
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