English Chess Forum

Press release just issued confirming that there will be GCT events at Paris, Leuven, St Louis and London with a possibility that there may be other cities to come in 2017.

http://grandchesstour.org/press-release ... -save-date

A fourteen day window for 2017

Wednesday 29 November - Tuesday 12 December

I suppose it makes room for the celebrity events, or to increase the number of participants beyond 10.

Sinquefield is 18 days, so even longer.

Roger de Coverly wrote:A fourteen day window for 2017

Wednesday 29 November - Tuesday 12 December

I suppose it makes room for the celebrity events, or to increase the number of participants beyond 10.

I don't have any inside information, but I imagine that that includes the arrival and departure dates.

On that basis the 2016 event runs from Wednesday 7th December to Tuesday 20th December, so it's the same period of time.

5th event is another rapid/blitz, coming in St Louis straight after the Sinquefield Cup

Press release

Not much detail but the GCT are about to trial a new Universal Grading System from next month. Press release from yesterday:

http://grandchesstour.org/press-release ... ing-system

Some discussion of that here:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8828

I'll add my comments on the GCT 2017 from there to this thread.

Those who qualified for the Grand Chess Tour 2017 are: So, Nakamura, Caruana, Carlsen, Kramnik and Vachier-Lagrave.

Good prospects for exciting chess?

Maybe each event will still have wildcards as well?

http://grandchesstour.org/join-tour

GCT wrote:"We are already working on adding additional tournaments to the 2017 tour roster and we would be happy to hold discussions with potential event organisers or sponsors who are interested in bringing a Grand Chess Tour tournament to their own country in 2017. In particular, we are now actively looking for partners in Africa, South America and Asia in order to ensure that the tour is truly global in the future."

http://grandchesstour.org/press-release ... ifth-event

(This one dates from 11 December, as stated in the pdf document, though the web page carelessly leaves out the press release date.)

GCT wrote:"A total of nine players will be selected as full 2017 Grand Chess Tour participants. Three spots will be awarded to the top finishers in the 2016 GCT, another three to the top players by average 2016 rating and the final three shall be determined by the GCT as tour wildcards. Players are required to participate in both classic events and two of the three rapid and blitz events. [...] The GCT further expands its scope by including 14 event wildcard positions in 2017. These coveted invitations allow up to 14 additional players to vie for a share of the $1.2 million in prizes."

It is a bit confusing, but you have three "tour wildcards" and 14 "event wildcards". The table sort of explains it. I am sure things will come out in the wash after the tour organisers have got the players to sign on the dotted lines (or not, as the case may be).

The logical next step would be a Grand Chess Tour rapid event in London...

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:The logical next step would be a Grand Chess Tour rapid event in London...

Which would be great, but I bet everyone involved with the LCC is knackered now, and a longer event might not be what they want

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:Those who qualified for the Grand Chess Tour 2017 are: So, Nakamura, Caruana, Carlsen, Kramnik and Vachier-Lagrave.

Good prospects for exciting chess?

GCT wrote:"A total of nine players will be selected as full 2017 Grand Chess Tour participants. Three spots will be awarded to the top finishers in the 2016 GCT, another three to the top players by average 2016 rating and the final three shall be determined by the GCT as tour wildcards. Players are required to participate in both classic events and two of the three rapid and blitz events. [...] The GCT further expands its scope by including 14 event wildcard positions in 2017. These coveted invitations allow up to 14 additional players to vie for a share of the $1.2 million in prizes."

It is a bit confusing, but you have three "tour wildcards" and 14 "event wildcards". The table sort of explains it. I am sure things will come out in the wash after the tour organisers have got the players to sign on the dotted lines (or not, as the case may be).

As noted on the thread about their new 'combined-across-time-controls' (?) Universal rating system, the suggestion is that the three 'Tour Wild Cards' (who presumably get the automatic right to play multiple GCT events) will be selected via that.

Looking at the 2700+ rating site, and taking a rough crude average of slowplay, rapid and blitz, Karjakin would seem the obvious top pick as his rapid and blitz ratings are both over 2800. Given he ran Carlsen so close, it would be a travesty if he weren't offered a slot on the tour, IMO.

I suppose the interesting question is whether any of the 'rapidplay specialists' would get enough rapid/blitz credit to displace the next two or three obvious picks on slowplay rating, who are Anand, Aronian and Giri. Given Giri's 'Draw King Snoozemeister' tendencies, one suspects there might be some spectators/kibitzers who wouldn't be too unhappy if he weren't to make the Tour WildCards.

Anyone care to argue a case for replacing Aronian, or even Anand, with fastplay wizards Nepomniatchi and/or Mamedyarov, who are next in line on current slowplay rating?

That's a seriously rough two to replace, but Nepo is very easy to at least argue for - he's a fairly new player to these super GM events which is always welcome as they can be much too much of a closed shop for their own good at times. He also won the very strong Tal memorial this year.

Mamedyarov doesn't quite have either of those going for him, but he's obviously a distinctly interesting player style wise.

Giri being left out seems a forgone conclusion:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/wesley-so- ... -in-london

Chessbase News wrote: "Not much of a chance for Giri to join the Grand Chess Tour next year. In a conspicuously relaxed attitude, Giri said, he would have to seek out for a life on the streets next year, playing with the hustlers, or play some other tournaments. Should help to work on his street fighting spirits."

Aronian's loss to Topalov seems to have made the difference between him (Aronian) and Caruana (who qualified for the GCT 2017 after finishing in third place in the GCT 2016). It is tough to see Anand or Aronian lose out (or both), but I think it would be refreshing to see new faces. Mamedyarov might lose a bit too much, though.

I agree Karjakin should be included, and it is good to see MVL qualify by right after he came so close in 2015.

If the wildcards are all younger faces, Kramnik (41) will be by far the oldest on the tour. Mamedyarov (of those mentioned above) is 31 and Nakamura would be the next oldest at 29 (three years older than Carlsen and Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi and Vachier-Lagrave, who are all 26).

I'd add Ding Liren into the mix as well.

Grand Chess Tour Press Release, 18 December 2016 wrote:The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is pleased to announce that the selection of the 2017 GCT Tour wildcards will be based on a new rating system.

I took this to mean that the wildcards would be top three URS-rated players not already qualified. However, the announced wildcards are Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin and Anand and the top three URS-rated players not already qualified are Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin and Grischuk (not Anand). So why has Anand qualified and not Grischuk?

Top URS-rated players, January 2017: Also: why has Anand been selected ahead of Aronian when they have the same URS rating?

Angus French wrote:

Grand Chess Tour Press Release, 18 December 2016 wrote:The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) is pleased to announce that the selection of the 2017 GCT Tour wildcards will be based on a new rating system.

I took this to mean that the wildcards would be top three URS-rated players not already qualified. However, the announced wildcards are Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin and Anand and the top three URS-rated players not already qualified are Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin and Grischuk (not Anand). So why has Anand qualified and not Grischuk?

Top URS-rated players, January 2017:
URSRatingsJan2017.png
Also: why has Anand been selected ahead of Aronian when they have the same URS rating?

"based on" doesn't imply that they were the sole criterion. It was possibly even done subjectively. The other possibility for Anand being ahead of Aronian is on a decimal place that we don't see published.

Alex Holowczak wrote:"based on" doesn't imply that they were the sole criterion. It was possibly even done subjectively.

Exactly.

The press release issued on 3rd January, available at http://www.grandchesstour.org/press-rel ... selections, gives a short explanation for the selection of each of the three GCT wildcards.

David Sedgwick wrote:

Alex Holowczak wrote:"based on" doesn't imply that they were the sole criterion. It was possibly even done subjectively.

Exactly.

The press release issued on 3rd January, available at http://www.grandchesstour.org/press-rel ... selections, gives a short explanation for the selection of each of the three GCT wildcards.

Pah! So you're using the rules for who qualifies to play in the Grand Chess Tour to advertise this wonderful new rating system... and then you're ignoring the results of the new rating system (when they produce the wrong answer).