Press release by the Grand Chess Tour
The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has confirmed the field for the Croatia Grand Chess Tour leg that will include four full tour participants and seven wildcards. With legendary World Champions Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand as well as the World Championship title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi from Russia the Croatia Grand Chess Tour promises to be action packed.
For the Rapid & Blitz Tournament in Zagreb — which will take place on July 5-12, 2021 —similarly to the Paris Grand Chess Tour, the GCT also selected to feature split wildcards where Garry Kasparov will play the blitz portion of the tournament, while Croatian Grandmaster Ivan Saric will be fighting it out in the rapid games. Their combined score will be used to determine final standings. Croatia Grand Chess Tour will include 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a total prize fund of $150,000.
“The Croatia Grand Chess Tour will feature quite unique competition”, said GCT Executive Director, Michael Khodarkovsky. “Fans can expect five days of exhilarating chess demonstrated by the famed world champions, like Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand, as well as a new wave of the top players like the 2021 World Chess Champion Challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi and the 2021 champion of the prestigious super tournament in Wijk aan Zee, 22 years old Dutch Grandmaster Jorden Van Foreest.”
The confirmed field for Croatia Grand Chess Tour is as follows:
| # | Player Name | Player Type | Country | FIDE Rating | URS Rating |
| 1 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | Full Tour Player | FRA | 2758 | 2797 |
| 2 | Grischuk, Alex | Full Tour Player | RUS | 2777 | 2782 |
| 3 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | Full Tour Player | AZE | 2770 | 2768 |
| 4 | Giri, Anish | Full Tour Player | NED | 2776 | 2763 |
| 5 | Kasparov, Garry (blitz) | Wildcard | RUS/CRO | 2812 | 2636 |
| 6 | Anand, Viswanathan | Wildcard | IND | 2753 | 2764 |
| 7 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | Wildcard | RUS | 2789 | 2788 |
| 8 | Saric, Ivan (rapid) | Wildcard | CRO | 2648 | 2659 |
| 9 | Duda, Jan-Krzysztof | Wildcard | POL | 2683 | 2726 |
| 10 | Korobov, Anton | Wildcard | UKR | 2729 | 2748 |
| 11 | Van Foreest, Jorden | Wildcard | NED | 2701 | 2651 |
Watch all the action live exclusively on grandchesstour.org, kasparovchess.com, and on the kasparovchess Twitch.tv channel.
In a famous game between the two legends, which included a well-known — and hilarious — reaction by Kasparov (at 5:05 in the video below), Anand beat the Russian in the second blitz game of tiebreaks to win the PCA Credit Suisse Masters Tournament in 1996.
The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world’s best players. The legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the world’s greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions.
The GCT is sponsored by the Superbet Foundation, Vivendi, Colliers International, and the Saint Louis Chess Club. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions. For more information about the tour, please visit grandchesstour.org.
