Grand Chess Tour Leuven

[Tim Harding]

The not so grand any more Chess Tour starts on Tuesday with the Leuven rapid and blitz.

According to chess24 the ten players involved are:
Caruana, Mamedyarov, MVL, Karjakin, So, Giri, Nakamura, Grischuk, Aronian, Anand

A few days after that ends, chess24 says the Paris rapid and blitz will feature nine of the same players but Kramnik instead of Giri.

Is this information correct? What day does Paris start? And what is the rate of play in the rapid?

NB: https://grandchesstour.org/news-press-r ... egulations says the event in Belgium starts tomorrow, Sunday 10th, but that is evidently wrong/not been updated

[Chris Rice]

According to the Chess24 countdown clock the Leuven event starts at noon on Tuesday 12 June and the Paris event on the GCT website starts 8 days later on Wednesday 20 June. GCT are not exactly going overboard on the marketing it seems as I can't find any other traces elsewhere. Perhaps these events are so successful its not needed. I suspect a post from Mr Sedgwick may be imminent...

[Mick Norris]

TWIC has

Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz YourNextMove in Leuven, Belgium Tuesday 12th Jun 2018 to Saturday 16th Jun 2018. Grischuk, Caruana, Nakamura, Aronian, MVL, Mamedyarov, Karjakin, Anand, Wesley So and Giri.

[David Sedgwick]

I suspect a post from Mr Sedgwick may be imminent...

I have been known to post during the night, but not on this occasion.

Good morning Chris and good morning everyone.

It's a question of choosing the right link.

The Regulations, quoted by Tim in the initial post, are designed to indicate the players' commitments and the dates quoted are those of arrival in and departure. The players will indeed by arriving in Leuven on Sunday 10th June (today) and departing on Sunday 17th June as indicated.

Would-be online spectators need to refer to the event information at https://grandchesstour.org/2018-grand-c ... -next-move and https://grandchesstour.org/2018-grand-c ... -paris-gct for Your Next Move (Leuven) and for Paris respectively. The details shown are correct to the best of my knowledge.

To summarise, and giving the times in BST rather than in CEST:

Your Next Move Rapid: Tuesday 12th June to Thursday 14th June
Your Next Move Blitz: Friday 15th June and Saturday 16th June
Paris Rapid: Wednesday 20th June to Friday 22nd June
Paris Blitz: Saturday 23rd June and Sunday 24th June

Play starts at 1300 each day, except on the final day of each event and additionally on Thursday 21st June in Paris. On those three days the starting time is 1100. The early start on Thursday 21st June is to avoid a clash with the France v Peru World Cup game (kick-off 1600 BST).

Those hoping to see me on stage or in the TV studio - and I know there is at least one - will be disappointed. I shall be performing my duties entirely offsite this year. You may catch sight of the excellent arbiters at each event, but otherwise you will have to make due with players such as Fabio Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Each of the two events features 10 of the top 13 players in the world and I look forward to some exciting and entertaining chess. Tim is entitled to his negative opinion of the Tour, but I don't share it, not surprisingly.

David Sedgwick
Chief Arbiter
Grand Chess Tour 2018

[Tim Harding]

Thanks for the very detailed info, David.

I actually love watching rapid events online, but blitz is hard to follow and such a lottery that I feel its inclusion downgrades the GCT concept.

Also of course the omission of Norway Chess and the new minimalist London Chess Classic are disappointing to my eye, but maybe the idea of the latter is that you only want players in the London event who have a chance of winning the whole thing?

I do realise that this being the year of a World Championship match was a complicating factor but in non-match years I would prefer to see something like the original concept.

[Chris Rice]

ChessBase article confirms who is playing and the scoring system plus:

"Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik were initially invited, but both opted to decline their spots this year due to heavy scheduling commitments and the requirement that players be available to compete in all tour events throughout the year. Consequently, Sergey Karjakin was invited as a replacement and each tournament will also include a single "wildcard" player, who will not compete for overall tour points. (Kramnik will be the wild card in Paris.)
Aside from Giri, Alexander Grischuk is the only player in Leuven who did not fly in from Stavanger after competing in Norway Chess. So, he should be well rested — provided he doesn't tire himself out first."

[Chris Rice]

Chess Mind article though Dennis Monokroussos has a slightly different take on proceedings:

"Unfortunately, they're once again using the idiotic time delay rather than increments; I offer apologies for my country to people of good will and good sense everywhere. There's a slight justification for it as a time-saving device in U.S. Swiss system events with multiple rounds per day, but why Rex Sinquefield or whoever thinks it's a great idea to impose this on elite players in some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world is beyond me."

[Chris Rice]

Photo op with the players in front of the superb venue.

[Brian Towers]

Chess Mind article though Dennis Monokroussos has a slightly different take on proceedings:

"Unfortunately, they're once again using the idiotic time delay rather than increments; I offer apologies for my country to people of good will and good sense everywhere. There's a slight justification for it as a time-saving device in U.S. Swiss system events with multiple rounds per day, but why Rex Sinquefield or whoever thinks it's a great idea to impose this on elite players in some of the most prestigious tournaments in the world is beyond me."

Strong stuff from Dennis Monokroussos. I suspect that when it is done in elite tournaments it is done for entertainment reasons so that the public can see more blunders in time trouble.

I've always wondered what the delay time control equivalent is for the common G90+30 for FIDE rated tournaments. The FIDE requirement is that players have a minimum of 120 minutes for 60 moves. Presumably game in 90 minutes plus 30 second delay doesn't qualify as nobody takes at least 30 seconds for all of their moves, particularly in the opening, so nobody actually gets 120 minutes for 60 moves. Does anybody know?

[David Sedgwick]

Strong stuff from Dennis Monokroussos.

I was interested to see such comments being made by an American.

Not surprisingly, the issue has been hotly debated in GCT circles, but I must keep those discussions private.

I can confirm the accuracy of the information about players in the ChessBase article.

[Mick Norris]

You don't have to agree with him all (or any) of the time, but Dennis is quite fair in his comments normally (on chess, at least, less so about Notre Dame in US college football) ad pretty forthright too

[Tim Harding]

The most surprising innovation in round 1 is Yasser's beard!

[Tim Harding]

First round results:
Nakamura 1 Giri 0
Anand 0 Mamedyarov 1 (very exciting fight)
Caruana 0 So 1
Grischuk-Aronian draw
MVL-Karjakin draw in over 100 moves

Round 2 at 2.30 BST:
So v Mamedyarov
Giri v Anand
Aronian v Nakamura
Karjakin v Grischuk
Caruana v MVL

Also today round 3 at 4pm BST

[AustinElliott]

Photo op with the players in front of the superb venue.

Hmm. That looks like the town hall. Once went to a reception in there when I was at a scientific conference in Leuven a decade or so back. We got plied with an extensive and excellent selection of, er, local liquid produce. If the same hospitality is extended to the chess players then it may make for some unusual games...

[Chris Rice]

Standings after Rd 6 (2 pts for a win, 1 for a draw):
1 So 10
2 Aronian 8
3= Karjakin, Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave 7
6 Nakamura 6
7= Giri, Grischuk, Anand 4
10 Caruana 3

Round 7 at 3pm on Thursday.