Grand Chess Tour 2016
Grand Chess Tour 2016 was a second edition of Grand Chess Tour, a series of chess tournaments, that took place from June to December 2016. It consisted of four tournaments and was won by Wesley So.
On January 6, 2016, the Grand Chess Tour saw the withdrawal of Norway Chess, one of three tournaments that were parts of the tour, along with Sinquefield Cup and London Chess Classic. The reason was different views on the funding issue. However, on February 11, Grand Chess Tour announced an inclusion of two fast chess events in Paris and Leuven.
Format
The tour consisted of four events, two fast chess and two classical chess events, with each tournament having one wildcard. Eegular tour players were scheduled to participate in every event, with the exception of Viswanathan Anand, with three best results going into account. The point system was as follows:Lineup
2016 Grand Chess Tour included nine participants. Among notable absentees were incumbent World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and World Chess Championship 2016 challenger Sergey Karjakin. The roster was selected based on several criteria, including top-three finish in previous tour, average rating for 2015 and personal invitation.| Player | Country | Rating | Qualification |
| Anish Giri | 2790 | Runner-up of 2015 Grand Chess Tour | |
| Levon Aronian | 2784 | Third place in 2015 Grand Chess Tour | |
| Veselin Topalov | 2754 | Average rating for 2015 | |
| Viswanathan Anand | 2770 | Average rating for 2015 | |
| Fabiano Caruana | 2795 | Average rating for 2015 | |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 2787 | Average rating for 2015 | |
| Vladimir Kramnik | 2801 | Average rating for 2015 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2788 | Wildcard | |
| Wesley So | 2773 | Replacement for Magnus Carlsen |