Grand Chess Tour 2021
The Grand Chess Tour 2021 was a series of chess tournaments, which was sixth edition of Grand Chess Tour. It consisted five tournaments, including two tournaments with classical time control and three tournaments with faster time controls. It was won by American grandmaster Wesley So.
Format
Tour consists five tournaments, two classicals and three rapid & blitz, respectively. Rapid & Blitz tournaments consisted two parts – rapid and blitz. Combined result for both portions was counted in overall standings.The tour points are awarded as follows:
- If a player wins 1st place outright, they are awarded 13 points instead of 12.
- Tour points are shared equally between tied players.
Lineup
The lineup was announced on January 13, 2021. Initially, ten players were invited as regular participants, with only difference from cancelled 2020 edition being the absence of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura and participation of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov. Later, Ding Liren has withdrawn from the Tour due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in China, being replaced by Richárd Rapport. After winning the Candidates Tournament 2020–2021 and qualifying for the World Chess Championship 2021, Ian Nepomniachtchi also withdrew from the Tour, reducing number of regular participants to nine.| Player | Country | FIDE Rating |
| Fabiano Caruana | 2823 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2784 | |
| Wesley So | 2770 | |
| Alexander Grischuk | 2777 | |
| Levon Aronian | 2781 | |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2770 | |
| Teimour Radjabov | 2765 | |
| Anish Giri | 2764 | |
| Richárd Rapport | 2759 |
Tournaments
Superbet Chess Classic
The first leg of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour was held in Bucharest, Romania in 3–15 June. It was won by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan.Paris Rapid & Blitz
The second leg of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour was won by Wesley So.Croatia Rapid & Blitz
The third leg of the Grand Chess Tour was held in Zagreb, Croatia in 7-11 July, 2021. It had a lot of attention from media because of participation of former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. The event was won by French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.Standings
The wildcards are not counted in overall standings.| Player | ROU | PAR | CRO | STL | SIN | Total points | Prize money | |
| 1 | ''' Wesley So.png" />Wesley So|United Statesn/a |