Grand Chess Tour 2019 comes to India from 20-27 November

by Sagar Shah - 27/01/2019

The Grand Chess Tour has been a boon to the professional chess players. Inspired by Garry Kasparov and backed by Saint Louis Chess Club, the tour began in 2015. The good news is that we are in 2019 and the tour is going strong. This year apart from the tour increasing its prize fund to a total of $1.75 million (approx 12 crore, 40 lakh INR), the number of events has also increased to eight and will span across four continents! Kolkata will host the penultimate event of the tour from 20-27 November for the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz event. The Indian connection to the tour got even more stronger as Vishy Anand is one of the participants and Gameplan sports, an Indian company is appointed as the official sponsorship and branding partner of the tour.

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).

The new tournaments will be in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Kolkata (India), Bucharest (Romania) and Zagreb (Croatia). Major sponsors already confirmed for the 2019 season include Vivendi SA, Colliers International, Tata Steel India, St Louis Chess Club and Superbet Group. Gameplan Sports have been appointed as the official sponsorship and branding partner of the tour.

A big moment for Indian chess - GamePlan, the company which organized the Tata Steel Chess India 2018 is now the official sponsorship and branding partner of the entire Grand Chess Tour 2019. Above in the picture: Jeet Banerjee (right), Director of GamePlan Pvt. Ltd along with Guru Rambhadran, a key member of the Gameplan team | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Interview with Jeet Banerjee, the man who brought the first super tournament to India

Croatia GCT and the Sinquefield Cup will be classical tournaments with five rapid and blitz tournaments to be held in Abidjan, Paris, St Louis, Bucharest and Kolkata. The GCT Finals will once again be held in London as part of the 2019 London Chess Classic. The twelve full tour participants will play in both classical events as well as in three of the five rapid and blitz tournaments. The classical events will be expanded to eleven-rounds while the rapid and blitz events will all use the GCT’s traditional ten player formats. The full schedule for the 2019 regular season (including arrival and departure days) is as follows:

Cote d’Ivoire Rapid & Blitz, May 6 - 13, 2019, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Croatia GCT (Classical), June 24 - July 9, 2019, Zagreb, Croatia

Paris Rapid & Blitz, July 26 - August 2, 2019, Paris, France

St Louis Rapid & Blitz, August 8 - 15, 2019, St. Louis, Missouri

USA Sinquefield Cup (Classical), August 15 - 30, 2019, St. Louis, Missouri USA

Superbet Rapid & Blitz, November 4 - 11, 2019, Bucharest, Romania

Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz, November 20 - 27, 2019, Kolkata, India

London Chess Classic (GCT Finals), November 30 - December 10, 2019, London UK

Grand Chess Tour comes to India from 20th to 27th November 2019

Full Tour Participants:

#	Name	FED	URS (Rank)	FIDE (Rank)	Selection Method
1	Carlsen, Magnus	NOR	2859 (1)	2835 (1)	URS #1
2	Nakamura, Hikaru	USA	2806 (2)	2749 (16)	Winner 2018 GCT
3	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	FRA	2796 (3)	2780 (6)	Runner-Up 2018 GCT
4	Caruana, Fabiano	USA	2794 (4)	2828 (2)	3rd Place 2018 GCT
5	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	AZE	2792 (5)	2817 (3)	URS #2
6	Ding, Liren	CHN	2788 (6)	2813 (4)	URS #3
7	Aronian, Levon	ARM	2782 (7)	2783 (5)	URS #4
8	So, Wesley	USA	2779 (8)	2765 (11)	FIDE Ave Rating #3
9	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	RUS	2778 (9)	2763 (13)	GCT Nominee
10	Kramnik, Vladimir	RUS	2768 (13)	2777 (7)	FIDE Ave Rating #1
11	Giri, Anish	NED	2765 (14)	2783 (5)	FIDE Ave Rating #2
12	Anand, Viswanathan	IND	2761 (16)	2773 (8)	FIDE Ave Rating #4

GM Sergey Karjakin and GM Yu Yangyi have been selected as the first and second alternates respectively and will be offered full tour contracts if any of the twelve players above decline their invitations.

Vishy Anand made the cut and is the twelfth tour member | Photo: Lennart Ootes

ABOUT

Grand Chess Tour™

The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world's best players. The Tour was created in partnership between the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (Sinquefield Cup) and Chess Promotions, Ltd. (London Chess Classic). 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. — grandchesstour.org

URS™

The Universal Rating System (URS™), is a revolutionary new sport’s rating system designed to assess the relative strength of participants across a wide variety of competitor vs competitor sports or games. The URS™ was developed as the result of a collaborative research project funded by the Grand Chess Tour, the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The system is the product of detailed research conducted over more than two years by some of the world’s leading experts in methods of rating chess players. — universalrating.com

Gameplan Sports Pvt. Ltd.

Set up in 1998, Gameplan Sports Pvt. Ltd. is one of India’s foremost corporate branding agencies, working primarily in the fields of sports and literature. The company presents innovative and cost-effective ideas that give sponsors maximum exposure. Key activities include marketing and management of international and domestic sponsorship rights in India; marketing and management of Indian and international cricket tournaments, player endorsements, syndicating content in print and electronic media, in-stadia advertising, 3-D signs, event management, event promotions, hospitality and memorabilia. – http://gameplan.co.in/