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The 2021 Grand Chess Tour is ready to kick off

Press Release

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has confirmed new players in the field for the upcoming Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania and Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament.

Hungarian Grandmaster Richard Rapport has been confirmed as a full tour player to replace Grandmaster Ding Liren from China and Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi will become a wildcard player for specific Grand Chess Tour events as he prepares for the World Championship title match later this year. The Superbet Chess Classic will now include a wildcard player, Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu. The Superbet Chess Classic is sponsored by Superbet Foundation and will feature a 10 player round-robin battle for a total of $325,000 in prize money.

Continually looking for new ways to innovate, the GCT selected split wildcards for Paris. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik will compete in the blitz portion while French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot will team up with Kramnik to represent the duo in the rapid phase of the tournament. Their combined score will be used to determine final standings. Three additional wildcards will round out the field for the Paris Rapid & Blitz leg. These wildcards include World Champion Challenger, Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, and Grandmaster Peter Svidler. The Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament is sponsored by Vivendi, Colliers, and Kasparov Chess and will include 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a total prize fund of $150,000.

"Although COVID-19 has continued to impact the chess community, we are pleased that this years tour will continue as planned with our five over the board tournaments," said GCT Executive Director, Michael Khodarkovsky. "Fans will certainly enjoy watching legends like Vladimir Kramnik square off against a new generation of young top players like Alireza Firouzja and Richard Rapport."

Additionally, International Arbiter David Sedgwick from England has been reappointed as the GCT Chief Arbiter for 2021.

The field for the two upcoming international events are finalized and are as follows:

#

Player Name

Player Type

Country

FIDE Rating

URS Rating

1

Caruana, Fabiano

Full Tour Player

USA

2820

2800

2

Aronian, Levon

Full Tour Player

ARM

2781

2784

3

Giri, Anish

Full Tour Player

NED

2780

2769

4

Grischuk, Alexander

Full Tour Player

RUS

2776

2785

5

So, Wesley

Full Tour Player

USA

2770

2792

6

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar

Full Tour Player

AZE

2770

2771

7

Radjabov, Teimour

Full Tour Player

AZE

2765

2770

8

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

Full Tour Player

FRA

2760

2799

9

Rapport, Richard

Full Tour Player

HUN

2763

2748

10

Lupulescu, Constantin

Wildcard

ROU

2656

2652

#

Player Name

Player Type

Country

FIDE Rating

URS Rating

1

Caruana, Fabiano

Full Tour Player

USA

2820

2800

2

Aronian, Levon

Full Tour Player

ARM

2781

2784

3

So, Wesley

Full Tour Player

USA

2770

2792

4

Radjabov, Teimour

Continued here:
The Grand Chess Tour 2021 begins - with tournaments in Bukarest and Paris - Chessbase News