Grand Chess Tour 2019
The Grand Chess Tour 2019 was a series of chess tournaments, held in from 6 May to 10 December 2019. It was the fifth edition of Grand Chess Tour. The tour consisted of 8 tournaments, including 2 classical, 5 fast tournaments and tour final in London, the United Kingdom. It was won by Ding Liren of China.
Format
The tour featured 8 tournaments, and total number of 26 players, including 12 full participants and 14 wildcard. Top 4 after 7 tournaments qualifies to the tour finals in London.The points awarded as follows:
Lineup
Participants of 2019 edition were announced on January 24, 2019. Players were selected by different criterias, including top three finish in previous edition, Universal Rating System, average FIDE rating and personal selection by organizers. Total number of participants were 12, largest since the introduction of tour in 2015.| Player | Country | FIDE Rating | Selection criteria |
| Hikaru Nakamura | 2749 | Winner of Grand Chess Tour 2018 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2780 | Runner-up of 2018 Grand Chess Tour | |
| Fabiano Caruana | 2828 | Third place in 2018 Grand Chess Tour | |
| Magnus Carlsen | 2835 | URS | |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2817 | URS | |
| Ding Liren | 2813 | URS | |
| Levon Aronian | 2767 | URS | |
| Anish Giri | 2783 | Average FIDE rating | |
| Wesley So | 2765 | Average FIDE rating | |
| Viswanathan Anand | 2773 | Average FIDE rating | |
| Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2763 | Wild card | |
| Sergey Karjakin | 2753 | Replacement for Vladimir Kramnik |
Tournaments
Paris Rapid & Blitz
Paris Grand Chess Tour was held on July 27–August 1, 2019, in Paris, France. It was won by French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who scored 21 points.Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz
Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz took place in St. Louis, Missouri on August 10–14. It was won by Levon Aronian. Tournament is notable for somewhat poor performance by incumbent World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who finished on sixth place, which was his worst result since 2017.Superbet Rapid & Blitz
Superbet Rapid and Blitz took place in Bucharest, Romania on November 6–11. It was won by Levon Aronian, who defeated Sergey Karjakin in play-off and secured place in Grand Chess Tour finals after this victory.Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz
Tata Steel India 2019 was played in Kolkata, India on November 22–26. It was won by Magnus Carlsen, who achieved biggest victory in Grand Chess Tour event by scoring 27 points.Grand Chess Tour Finals
In 2019, the London Chess Classic once again served as the semifinals and finals for the top 4 players from the 2019 Grand Chess Tour.The players played 2 classical games, 2 rapid games, and 4 blitz games. 6 points was awarded for a win, 3 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss in classical play. In the rapid games, 4 points was awarded for a win, 2 points for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. In the blitz games, 2 points was awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.
Vachier-Lagrave won the rapid playoff against Carlsen 1½-½ to advance to the final.