The Grand Chess Tour 2018 was a circuit of chess tournaments, held from June to December 2018. It was the fourth edition of Grand Chess Tour. The series consisted of four events, including 1 classical and 3 fast chess tournaments, as well as Tour Final in London. It was won by Hikaru Nakamura.
The tour consisted of four events, including three rapid and blitz and one classical event, and concluded in Tour Finals in London, where four top scorers qualified. Each event consisted of 9 regular tour participants and 1 wildcard. Scoring system looked as follows:
The field was announced on January 29, 2018. The lineup was selected based on several criteria, including top three finish in previous edition, URS, average FIDE rating from February 1, 2017, to January 1, 2018, and personal invitation by GCT Advisory Board. Initially, it consisted of ten players, including reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and his predecessors â Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. However, Carlsen and Kramnik declined the invitations, with number of players reducing to nine and last spot being given to Sergey Karjakin. Both Carlsen and Kramnik later played as wildcards.
First leg of 2018 Grand Chess Tour took place on June 12âÂÂ16 in Leuven City Hall, Leuven, Belgium. The wildcard for the event was Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri, who ultimately finished on last place. The tournament was won by Wesley So.
Paris Grand Chess Tour took place on June 20âÂÂ24 in Paris, France and was second event of 2018 Grand Chess Tour. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik played as wildcard. The event was won by Hikaru Nakamura.
The Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri, United States was the last leg of 2018 Grand Chess Tour before the tour finals. Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana all shared first place by scoring 5ý out of 9.
In 2018, the London Chess Classic served as the semifinals and finals for the top 4 players from the 2018 Grand Chess Tour.
The players played 2 classical games, 2 rapid games, and 4 blitz games. 6 points were awarded for a win, 3 points for a draw and 0 points for a loss in classical play. In the Rapid games, 4 points were awarded for a win, 2 points for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. In the Blitz games, 2 points were awarded for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 point for a loss.
After seven consecutive draws that opened his final match with Vachier-Lagrave, Nakamura clinched an event victory by defeating Vachier-Lagrave in the fourth and final blitz game.