The Grand Chess Tour Expands: More Tournaments, More Participants
More here. (HT: Allen Becker) The tournaments in Paris, St. Louis, Kolkata, and London continue for the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, and to these have been added events in the Ivory Coast, Croatia, and Romania. Additionally, there will be 12 full tour participants, up from the usual nine. The list of invitees are:
- 1. Magnus Carlsen
- 2. Hikaru Nakamura
- 3. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
- 4. Fabiano Caruana
- 5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
- 6. Ding Liren
- 7. Levon Aronian
- 8. Wesley So
- 9. Ian Nepomniachtchi
- 10. Vladimir Kramnik
- 11. Anish Giri
- 12. Viswanathan Anand
There are also two alternates, Sergey Karjakin and Yu Yangyi, who will be promoted to full tour participants in case any of the foregoing decline their invitations. Since Kramnik has retired from the game, that means that Karjakin is in (if he wants to be).
As for the tournaments, two (the new event in Croatia, along with the Sinquefield Cup) will feature classical chess. The remaining five (in Abidjan [in the Ivory Coast], Paris, St. Louis, Bucharest, and Kolkata) will be rapid & blitz events. All 12 participants will play in the classical events, while the rapid & blitz will be 10-player tournaments, with the participants choosing 3 of the 5 to play in.
More info, including dates and prize money, at the link above.