Last Leg in London
The London Chess Classic was the final leg of the 2016 Grand Chess Tour. Apart from the Sinquefield Cup, the London Classic was the only other classical event in the 2016 GCT and boasted a $300,000 prize fund. The format was a ten-player round-robin including eight of the current top ten players in the world. Tour regulars Anand, Aronian, Caruana, Giri, Kramnik, Nakamura, So, Topalov and Vachier-Lagrave were joined by wild card Mickey Adams of the host country.
Wesley So, the London Chess Classic tournament leader utilized the same strategy he employed during the 2016 Sinquefield Cup by drawing his last three games and putting the pressure on the competition to win and catch him. Once again, this strategy worked, as Caruana failed to win against Giri with the black pieces. Wesley So went on to convincingly and deservingly win the 8th London Chess Classic and the 2nd Grand Chess Tour, collecting an additional $100,000 bonus for his efforts. with his total winnings from the 2016 Grand Chess Tour totaling to $295,000.