FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15


The FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 was a series of four chess tournaments that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2016. Fabiano Caruana finished first, and Hikaru Nakamura second in the overall standings. Both therefore qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2016.

Format

In contrast to the two previous Grand Prix cycles, the number of tournaments was decreased from six to four, and players played three tournaments instead of four. As a result, no results were discarded, but each tournament result counted toward the total points. Sixteen players were selected to compete in the tournaments.
Each tournament was a 12-player, single round-robin tournament. In each round players scored 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand Prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 170 Grand Prix points for first place, 140 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points by steps of 10. In case of a tie in points the Grand Prix points were shared evenly by the tied players.

Players

The Grand Prix consisted of 16 players. FIDE announced 11 qualifiers as per regulations, plus one nominee from each of the four organisers, and one FIDE President nominee.
Five original invitees declined to participate: Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. The first four of these had also declined to participate in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13. In a later interview, Aronian said "I found it quite insulting to compete in a tournament with the first prize half as large as my participation fee almost any other tournament that time." Moreover, there was no prize money for overall standings, as there had been in previous editions.
All five Grand Prix replacements were determined by the rating list as per regulations.
The final list of players was announced on 9 September 2014. Iranian player Ehsan Ghaem-Maghami was replaced by Georgian Baadur Jobava after the third stop was moved from Tehran to Tbilisi.
InviteeCountryQualifying method
Dmitry AndreikinChess World Cup 2013
Evgeny TomashevskyChess World Cup 2013
Maxime Vachier-LagraveChess World Cup 2013
Fabiano CaruanaFIDE rating list
Alexander GrischukFIDE rating list
Hikaru NakamuraFIDE rating list
Sergey KarjakinFIDE rating list
Leinier DomínguezFIDE rating list
Shakhriyar MamedyarovFIDE rating list
Boris GelfandFIDE rating list
Peter SvidlerFIDE rating list
Dmitry Jakovenkoorganiser's nominees
Teimour Radjabovorganiser's nominees
Rustam Kasimdzhanovorganiser's nominees
Baadur Jobavaorganiser's nominees
Anish GiriFIDE President's nominee

Prize money and Grand Prix points

The prize money was €120,000 per single Grand Prix and there was no financial bonus for the overall standings.
PlaceSingle Grand Prix eventGrand Prix points
1€20,000170
2€15,000140
3€13,000110
4€11,00090
5€10,00080
6€9,50070
7€9,00060
8€8,50050
9€7,50040
10€6,50030
11€5,50020
12€4,50010

Tie breaks

With the objective of determining qualifiers to play in the Candidates Tournament 2016, and in the case that two or more players had equal cumulative points at the top, the following criteria were utilized to decide the overall Series winner and other overall placings:
  1. Number of actual game result points scored in the three tournaments entered.
  2. Number of games played with black.
  3. Number of wins.
  4. Number of black wins.
  5. Drawing of lots.

Schedule

The third stop was initially to be played in Tehran, Iran but a move was announced in October. The fourth stop moved from Moscow to Khanty-Mansiysk.
No.Host cityDate
1Baku, Azerbaijan1–15 October 2014
2Tashkent, Uzbekistan20 October – 3 November 2014
3Tbilisi, Georgia14–28 February 2015
4Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia14–26 May 2015

Grand Prix standings

Grand Prix points in bold indicate a tournament win. Green indicates qualifiers of the 2016 Candidates Tournament
PlayerFIDE rating
May 2015		BakuTashkentTbilisiKhanty-
Mansiysk		Total
1Fabiano Caruana.png" />Fabiano Caruana|ITA