FIDE Grand Prix 2019

There are four tournaments in the cycle; each consisting of 16 players. There are 21 contestants, who each play in 3 of the 4 tournaments.

The tournaments are knock-out tournaments, in the same style as the Chess World Cup. At each round of the tournament, players play a best-of-2 game knock-out match. The regular games are:

• best-of-2 games at a time limit of 90 minutes, + 30 minutes added after move 40, + 30 second per move increment from move 1.

If the match is tied 1-1, up to four tie breaks are played, at progressively faster time limits, with the match ending when a player wins any tie break. The tie breaks are, in order:[1]

• best-of-2 games at a time limit of 25 minutes, + 10 second per move increment from move 1.
• best-of-2 games at a time limit of 10 minutes, + 10 second per move increment from move 1.
• best-of-2 games at a time limit of 5 minutes, + 3 second per move increment from move 1.
• a single armageddon chess game: white receives 5 minutes + 2 second per move increment from move 61; black receives 4 minutes + 2 second per move increment from move 61; black wins the match in the case of a draw.

22 players will be playing in the Grand Prix. 20 qualify by rating (according to the average of the 12 monthly rating lists from February 2018 to January 2019, with ties broken according to the number of games played in that period), and one player is nominated per tournament by the organizer. World Chess nominated the same player, Daniil Dubov, for the first three tournaments, and he will therefore be entitled to participate in the Grand Prix series ranking. [2]

The list of rating qualifiers was released on 25 January 2019.[3] Five players qualified but declined their invitations: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen and Caruana had no need to play in the tournament (Carlsen as World Champion, and Caruana had already qualified for the Candidates Tournament); while Kramnik had recently announced his retirement. This resulted in the first five reserves being invited.

The main list of 21 players (20 qualifying by rating, plus organizer nominee Dubov), and their schedule, were released on 19 February.[4]

One more player was nominated for the Jerusalem tournament only, in coordination with the Israel Chess Federation;[5] their result will not be counted in the Grand Prix series ranking;[1] Boris Gelfand was announced as Jerusalem nominee on 25 October.[6]

Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian withdrew from the last stage of Grand Prix for medical reasons and are replaced by Wang Hao and Dmitry Andreikin. [7] [8]

Invitee	Country	Qualifying method	Average rating	Plays in tournaments
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	Azerbaijan	rating (3)	2812${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{6}}}$	1,2,4
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	France	rating (6)	2783${\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{6}}}$	2,3,4
Anish Giri	Netherlands	rating (7)	2779${\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{4}}}$	1,2,4
Wesley So	United States	rating (8)	2778${\displaystyle {\tfrac {11}{12}}}$	1,2,4
Levon Aronian	Armenia	rating (9)	2773${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{12}}}$	1,2
Alexander Grischuk	Russia	rating (11)	2767${\displaystyle {\tfrac {11}{12}}}$	1,2,3
Hikaru Nakamura	United States	rating (12)	2767${\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{6}}}$	1,2,3
Sergey Karjakin	Russia	rating (13)	2766${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{12}}}$	1,2,4
Yu Yangyi	China	rating (14)	2761${\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{12}}}$	2,3,4
Ian Nepomniachtchi	Russia	rating (15)	2758	1,3,4
Peter Svidler	Russia	rating (16)	2751${\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{4}}}$	1,2,3
Teimour Radjabov	Azerbaijan	rating (17)	2751${\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{4}}}$	1,3
Veselin Topalov	Bulgaria	rating (18)	2744${\displaystyle {\tfrac {7}{12}}}$	2,3,4
Dmitry Jakovenko	Russia	rating (19)	2739${\displaystyle {\tfrac {3}{4}}}$	1,3,4
David Navara	Czech Republic	rating (20)	2737${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}}$	2,3,4
Radosław Wojtaszek	Poland	rating (1st reserve)	2734${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}}$	1,3,4
Wei Yi	China	rating (2nd reserve)	2733${\displaystyle {\tfrac {11}{12}}}$	1,3,4
Jan-Krzysztof Duda	Poland	rating (3rd reserve)	2733	1,2,3
Pentala Harikrishna	India	rating (4th reserve)	2732${\displaystyle {\tfrac {11}{12}}}$	2,3,4
Nikita Vitiugov	Russia	rating (5th reserve)	2726${\displaystyle {\tfrac {11}{12}}}$	1,2,3
Wang Hao	China	rating (10th reserve)	2715${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{3}}}$	4
Dmitry Andreikin	Russia	Organizer nominee	2711${\displaystyle {\tfrac {2}{3}}}$	4
Daniil Dubov	Russia	Organizer nominee	2698${\displaystyle {\tfrac {5}{12}}}$	1,2,3
Boris Gelfand	Israel	Organizer nominee	2691${\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{3}}}$	4

The following table shows the overall Grand Prix standings. Best two players qualified for the Candidates Tournament.

	Player	Moscow	Riga	Hamburg	Jerusalem	Total GP points	TB1	TB2	TB3	Prize money
1	Alexander Grischuk (RUS)	7	3	10		20	1	1	12½	€98,000
2	Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS)	9		0	10	19	2	0	10	€94,000
3	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)		8	5	3	16	0	1	11½	€74,000
4	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE)	0	10		0	10	1	0	6½	€69,000
5	Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL)	0	1	7		8	0	1	8	€57,000
6	Wei Yi (CHN)	2		0	5	7	0	1	6½	€52,000
7	Wesley So (USA)	1	3		2	6	0	0	7	€46,000
8 (tie)	Daniil Dubov (RUS)	2	0	3		5	0	0	6	€34,666.66
8 (tie)	Radosław Wojtaszek (POL)	5		0	0	5	0	0	6	€34,666.66
10	David Navara (CZE)		0	1	4	5	0	0	5½	€34,666.66
11	Peter Svidler (RUS)	2	0	2		4	0	0	5½	€21,000
12	Veselin Topalov (BUL)		1	2	0	3	0	0	4½	€21,000
13	Hikaru Nakamura (USA)	3	0	0		3	0	0	4	€20,000
14	Sergey Karjakin (RUS)	0	1		1	2	0	0	4½	€21,000
15	Yu Yangyi (CHN)		1	1	0	2	0	0	4	€21,000
16	Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS)	0		0	1	1	0	0	3	€18,000
17 (tie)	Anish Giri (NED)	0	0		0	0	0	0	2½	€15,000
17 (tie)	Nikita Vitiugov (RUS)	0	0	0		0	0	0	2½	€15,000
17 (tie)	Pentala Harikrishna (IND)		0	0	0	0	0	0	2½	€15,000
20	Teimour Radjabov (AZE)	0		0		0	0	0	2	€10,000
21	Levon Aronian (ARM)	0	0			0	0	0	1½	€10,000

Teimour Radjabov qualified for the Candidates via the World Cup, but withdrew before the tournament began. He was replaced by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

• Guide to Moscow Grand Prix 2019, official site of the 1st Grand Prix tournament, Moscow, 17-29 May 2019.
• Guide to Riga Grand Prix 2019, official site of the 2nd Grand Prix tournament, Riga, July 2019
• FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Riga 2019, site of TeleSchach, July 2019