What is the Grand Chess Tour
The Grand Chess Tour is a series of supertournaments held each year in Romania, the United States, Croatia and the United Kingdom. It was created in 2015 to bring together the strongest classical, rapid and blitz events into a single season-long competition.
Each leg awards points based on final standings, in addition to the local prize money. Points accumulate across the season, and the players with the highest totals advance to the Tour Finals — a separate knockout event with its own prize fund.
Most legs feature a fixed roster of full-tour members invited for the whole season, plus a small number of wildcards selected by each host city.
How the season is built
Classical legs
9-round round-robins played at slow time controls. The two classical events (Bucharest, Saint Louis) carry the largest prize money.
Rapid & Blitz legs
Each leg is a 9-round rapid round-robin followed by an 18-round double round-robin in blitz, scored together.
Lineup
Most slots go to full-tour members invited for the entire circuit. A few wildcards per stage are added by each organiser.
Tour Finals
The top finishers of the season meet in a separate knockout to crown the Tour champion. The Finals also have their own prize pool.
Players earn points at every stage based on final standings. The top 4 of the season qualify for the Tour Finals.
- 1 place13
- 2 place10
- 3 place8
- 4 place7
- 5 place6
- 6 place5
- 7 place4
- 8 place3
- 9 place2
- 10 place1
- 1 place13
- 2 place10
- 3 place8
- 4 place7
- 5 place6
- 6 place5
- 7 place4
- 8 place3
- 9 place2
- 10 place1
Past champions
Frequently asked questions
Points are given based on the final standings of each event. 1st place earns 13 points, 2nd — 10, 3rd — 8, 4th — 7, and so on down to 1 point for last place. The same scale applies to both classical and rapid & blitz events.