FIDE Grand Prix 2019
The FIDE Grand Prix 2019 is a series of four chess tournaments that forms part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2020. The top two finishers who have not yet qualified qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2020. The top non-qualifying finisher is eligible for the wild card. The series is organized by World Chess, formerly known as Agon. Alexander Grischuk won the FIDE Grand Prix 2019 and thus became the first player to qualify for the Candidates Tournament via the event. Ian Nepomniachtchi, who finished in second place, was the other qualifier, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, by finishing third, became eligible for the wild card. Maxime Vachine-Lagrave eventually qualified for the Candidates after Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the tournament.
Format
There are four tournaments in the cycle; each consisting of 16 players. There are 21 contestants, who each play in 3 of the 4 tournaments.The tournaments are knock-out tournaments, in the same style as the Chess World Cup. At each round of the tournament, players play a best-of-2 game knock-out match. The regular games are:
- best-of-2 games at a time limit of 90 minutes, + 30 minutes added after move 40, + 30 second per move increment from move 1.
- best-of-2 games at a time limit of 25 minutes, + 10 second per move increment from move 1.
- best-of-2 games at a time limit of 10 minutes, + 10 second per move increment from move 1.
- best-of-2 games at a time limit of 5 minutes, + 3 second per move increment from move 1.
- a single armageddon chess game: white receives 5 minutes + 2 second per move increment from move 61; black receives 4 minutes + 2 second per move increment from move 61; black wins the match in the case of a draw.
Scoring and tie breaks
| Round | Grand Prix points |
| Winner | 8 |
| Runner-Up | 5 |
| Semi-final loser | 3 |
| Round 2 loser | 1 |
| Round 1 loser | 0 |
| Each match won without a tie-break | +1 |
The two players with most Grand Prix points qualify for the 2020 Candidates tournament. In the event of a tie on Grand Prix points, the following tie breaks are applied, in order:
- most tournament wins;
- most tournament second places;
- most points won in standard time control games;
- head-to-head score, in terms of matches, between players tied;
- drawing of lots.
Dates and locations
- Moscow, Russia, 17-29 May 2019;
- Jurmala/Riga, Latvia, 12-24 July 2019;
- Hamburg, Germany, 5-17 November 2019;
- Jerusalem, Israel, 11-23 December 2019.
[|Prize money]
For each individual tournament, the prize money is: €24,000 for the winner, €14,000 for the runner-up, €10,000 for the semi-final losers, €8,000 for the Round 2 losers, and €5,000 for the Round 1 losers.
For the final standings, the prize money is €50,000 for 1st, €45,000 for 2nd, and so on down in steps of €5,000 to €10,000 for 9th, and also €10,000 for 10th. Prize money for players on equal Grand Prix points is shared.
Players
22 players will be playing in the Grand Prix. 20 qualify by rating, and one player is nominated per tournament by the organizer. World Chess nominated the same player, Daniil Dubov, for the first three tournaments, and he will therefore be entitled to participate in the Grand Prix series ranking.The list of rating qualifiers was released on 25 January 2019. Five players qualified but declined their invitations: Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen and Caruana had no need to play in the tournament ; while Kramnik had recently announced his retirement. This resulted in the first five reserves being invited.
The main list of 21 players, and their schedule, were released on 19 February.
One more player was nominated for the Jerusalem tournament only, in coordination with the Israel Chess Federation; their result will not be counted in the Grand Prix series ranking;
Boris Gelfand was announced as Jerusalem nominee on 25 October.
Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian withdrew from the last stage of Grand Prix for medical reasons and are replaced by Wang Hao and Dmitry Andreikin.
| Invitee | Country | Qualifying method | Average rating | Plays in tournaments |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | rating | 2812 | 1,2,4 | |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | rating | 2783 | 2,3,4 | |
| Anish Giri | rating | 2779 | 1,2,4 | |
| Wesley So | rating | 2778 | 1,2,4 | |
| Levon Aronian | rating | 2773 | 1,2 | |
| Alexander Grischuk | rating | 2767 | 1,2,3 | |
| Hikaru Nakamura | rating | 2767 | 1,2,3 | |
| Sergey Karjakin | rating | 2766 | 1,2,4 | |
| Yu Yangyi | rating | 2761 | 2,3,4 | |
| Ian Nepomniachtchi | rating | 2758 | 1,3,4 | |
| Peter Svidler | rating | 2751 | 1,2,3 | |
| Teimour Radjabov | rating | 2751 | 1,3 | |
| Veselin Topalov | rating | 2744 | 2,3,4 | |
| Dmitry Jakovenko | rating | 2739 | 1,3,4 | |
| David Navara | rating | 2737 | 2,3,4 | |
| Radosław Wojtaszek | rating | 2734 | 1,3,4 | |
| Wei Yi | rating | 2733 | 1,3,4 | |
| Jan-Krzysztof Duda | rating | 2733 | 1,2,3 | |
| Pentala Harikrishna | rating | 2732 | 2,3,4 | |
| Nikita Vitiugov | rating | 2726 | 1,2,3 | |
| Wang Hao | rating | 2715 | 4 | |
| Dmitry Andreikin | Organizer nominee | 2711 | 4 | |
| Daniil Dubov | Organizer nominee | 2698 | 1,2,3 | |
| Boris Gelfand | Organizer nominee | 2691 | 4 |
Events results
Moscow, May 2019
The first tournament was held in Moscow, Russia, from May 17 to 29. Each round had a day each for the two regular games, and a third day for tie-breaks; and there was a rest day before the final round. Games began at 3.00 pm Moscow time.Players were seeded according to their rating at the start of the tournament, the May 2019 ratings list. The top four seeds were placed into different quarters of the draw, and the remaining starting positions were decided by the drawing of lots at the opening ceremony on May 16.
Riga, July 2019
2nd stage, Riga, Latvia, 12-24 July 2019Hamburg, November 2019
The third tournament was played in Hamburg, Germany, from 5-17 November 2019. Each round had three days of play: two for the regular time control matches, and one for tie breaks, if required. Round 1 was November 5-7, Round 2 was November 8-10, Round 3 was November 11-13, November 14 was a rest day, and Round 4 was November 15-17.Jerusalem, December 2019
4th stage, Jerusalem, Israel, 11-23 December 2019. On November 30, 2019, FIDE announced that Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian will be replaced in FIDE Grand Prix Jerusalem for medical reasons by Wang Hao and Dmitry Andreikin from the reserve list of Grand Prix participants.Grand Prix standings
The following table shows the overall Grand Prix standings. Best two players qualified for the Candidates Tournament.| Player | Moscow | Riga | Hamburg | Jerusalem | Total GP points | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | Prize money | |
| 1 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 12½ | €98,000 | ||
| 2 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 10 | €94,000 | ||
| 3 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 11½ | €74,000 | ||
| 4 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 6½ | €69,000 | ||
| 5 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 8 | €57,000 | ||
| 6 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6½ | €52,000 | ||
| 7 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | €46,000 | ||
| 8 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | €34,666.66 | ||
| 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 6 | €34,666.66 | ||
| 10 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5½ | €34,666.66 | ||
| 11 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5½ | €21,000 | ||
| 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4½ | €21,000 | ||
| 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | €20,000 | ||
| 14 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4½ | €21,000 | ||
| 15 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | €21,000 | ||
| 16 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | €18,000 | ||
| 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2½ | €15,000 | ||
| 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2½ | €15,000 | ||
| 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2½ | €15,000 | ||
| 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | €10,000 | |||
| 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1½ | €10,000 |
Teimour Radjabov qualified for the Candidates via the World Cup, but withdrew before the tournament began. He was replaced by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.