Three Indian chess grandmasters will be in action at the Grand Chess Tour as the 2024 edition of the tournament kicks off tomorrow with Poland Rapid and Blitz leg.
R Praggananandhaa, D Gukesh, and Arjun Erigasi will be in action. This will be the first tournament of D Gukesh after winning Candidates 2024 last month.
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Grand Chess Tour Explained- What is the format?
The Grand Chess tour is a multi-legged tournament divided into five legs across formats and it goes for a year. The top players in the world compete with each other to accumulate points and win big amounts of cash prizes.
Started in 2015 as a three-legged affair, the Grand Chess Tour has evolved to five legs now. Magnus Carlsen won the inaugural tournament in 2015.
The five legs and their dates for the Grand Chess Tour 2024 are as follows:
Poland Rapid & Blitz: May 6-13, 2024 in Warsaw, Poland
Romania Classic: June 24-July 6, 2024 in Bucharest, Romania
Croatia Rapid & Blitz: July 8-15, 2024 in Zagreb, Croatia
Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: August 10-17, 2024 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Sinquefield Cup: August 17-31, 2024 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
Which top players will participate in the Grand Chess Tour 2024?
Nine top chess players of the world were offered full tour invitations for the Grand Chess Tour 2024. As per the organizers, this was based on their performance in the previous edition, in addition to several factors, including URS rating, FIDE rating, fighting spirit, and sportsmanship
Players invited to Grand Chess Tour 2024
Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, D Gukesh, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, R Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov
These nine players are required to play both the classical tournaments and two of the three rapid and blitz tournaments. In addition to these nine, GCT will also offer wildcard entries to other top players.
Indian Chess players featuring in GCT 2024
Other than Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa — who received full tour invitations, two other Indians have received wildcards for GCT. Arjun Erigaisi will feature in the Poland leg while Vidit Gujrathi will play in the Croatia leg.
Prize pool for Grand Chess Tour 2024
The prize purse has increased to $1.5 million throughout the 2024 season. The prize fund for each of the two classical tournaments will be $350,000 and $175,000 per event for rapid and blitz. In addition, a bonus prize fund totaling $2