Grand Chess Tour Confirms Full Tour Participants for the 2019 Season

For more information, please contact:
Mr Michael Khodarkovsky 

Grand Chess Tour Spokesperson

Phone: +1 201 317 8581

Email: press@grandchesstour.org

 

For Immediate Release

Grand Chess Tour Confirms Full Tour Participants for the 2019 Season


Saint Louis, MO, February 7, 2019 – The Grand Chess Tour is pleased to confirm the names of the twelve players that will be competing as full tour participants in 2019. They are as follows:

#

Name

FED

URS (Rank)

FIDE (Rank)

1

Carlsen, Magnus

NOR

2859 (1)

2835 (1)

2

Nakamura, Hikaru

USA

2806 (2)

2749 (16)

3

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

FRA

2796 (3)

2780 (6)

4

Caruana, Fabiano

USA

2794 (4)

2828 (2)

5

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar

AZE

2792 (5)

2817 (3)

6

Ding, Liren

CHN

2788 (6)

2813 (4)

7

Aronian, Levon

ARM

2782 (7)

2767 (10)

8

So, Wesley

USA

2779 (8)

2765 (11)

9

Nepomniachtchi, Ian

RUS

2778 (9)

2763 (13)

10

Karjakin, Sergey

RUS

2776 (10)

2753 (15)

11

Giri, Anish

NED

2765 (14)

2783 (5)

12

Anand, Viswanathan

IND

2761 (16)

2773 (8)

* Ratings per the URS™ and FIDE Classic rating lists as at January 1, 2019 (selection date)

The only player to decline his invitation was GM Vladimir Kramnik following the announced of his retirement from professional chess at the end of January 2019. He was replaced by GM Sergey Karjakin who accepted his full tour invitation as the first alternate.

The process of finalising the allocation of players to individual events has already commenced and further announcements regarding the participant lists for each event as well as the selection of wildcards will be made in due course.

 

 

About the Grand Chess Tour (http://grandchesstour.org)

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 St Louis Chess Club (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.