GRAND PRIX

Series of tournaments where results are cumulated to a final standing. In 1993 and 1994 Intel sponsored two Rapid Chess Grand Prix. FIDE Commerce, the FIDE commercial company at that time, started one in 2002, Peter Leko won the first tournament in Dubai and Garry Kasparov succeed in Moscow but the lack of finance made the event collapsing few months later. In 2008 Global Chess announced a new cycle of 6 tournaments on 2 year calendar starting from April 2008 and finishing in May 2010. Levon Aronian led the final standing ahead of Teimur Radjabov and Alexander Grischuk. Baku hosted the first tournament which saw the victory of Vugar Gashimov, Wang Yue and Magnus Carlsen. Sochi, the second tournament was won by Levon Aronian. Dmitry Jakovenko, Teimur Radjabov, and Alexander Grischuk shared the first place in Elista. Levon Aronian won the fourth round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik. Vassily Ivanchuk scored an undefeated 8.5 out of 13 to win the Jermuk leg and finally Pavel Eljanov succeeded in the last tournament organized in Astrakhan.

FIDE Grand-Prix 2012-2013 was a series of six chess tournaments, played in London, Tashkent, Zug, Thessaloniki, Beijing and Paris. Veselin Topalov, Boris Gelfand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov shared the first place in London, while Sergey Karjakin, Wang Hao and Alexander Morozevich won the tournament in Tashkent. Veselin Topalov was the winner of the third leg of the Grand Prix in Zug, Leinier Domínguez won the tournament in Thessaloniki and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov arrived first in Beijing. Finally, Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand shared the first place in Paris. Veselin Topalov finished first in the overall standings.

One year later, the FIDE Grand Prix 2014-2015 was held in Baku, Tashkent, Tbilisi and Khanty-Mansiysk. Fabiano Caruana and Boris Gelfand shared the first place in Baku. Dmitry Andreikin was the winner of the second tournament in Tashkent and Evgeny Tomashevsky the winner in Tbilisi. The first place in Khanty-Mansiysk was shared by Hikaru Nakamura, Dmitry Jakovenko and Fabiano Caruana, who finished first in the overall standings.

The four tournaments which formed the FIDE Grand Prix 2017 were played in Sharjah, Moscow, Geneva and Palma. Alexander Grischuk, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov shared the first place in Sharjah, while Ding Liren was the winner in Moscow. Teimour Radjabov finished first in Geneva and Levon Aronian and Dmitry Jakovenko shared the first place in Palma. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was the winner of the Grand Prix 2017.

The FIDE Grand Prix 2019 was a series of four chess tournaments which were held in Moscow, Riga, Hamburg and Jerusalem. The winners were Ian Nepomniachtchi in Moscow, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Riga, Alexander Grischuk in Hamburg and Ian Nepomniachtchi in Jerusalem. Alexander Grischuk won the FIDE Grand Prix 2019.

A similar cycle for women started in 2009. Humpy Koneru won the first leg in Istanbul, former Women’s World Champion, GM Xu Yuhua won the second tournament in Nanjing, Tatiana Kosintseva triumphed in Nalchik, Nana Dzagnidze was undefeated in Jermuk, Hou Yifan won the first women international tournament in Ulaanbaata and finally Humpy Koneru and Elina Danielian shared the victory in Doha. Yifan Hou (410 pts) won FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2010-2011 with a small advantage on Koneru Humpy (390 pts) and Nana Dzagnidze (390 pts). The second Women’s Grand Prix cycle 2011-2012 started in August 2011 with the tournament of Rostov (Russia). The World Championship Hou Yifan won the first event ahead of Kateryna Lahno. She won also the second tournament in Shenzhen, while the thrid leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in Nalchik was won by Zhao Xue. Koneru Humpy and Anna Muzychuk shared the first place at the fourth tournament in Kazan. The fifth tournament, held in Jermuk, was won again by Hou Yifan, while Koneru Humpy was the winner in Ankara. Hou Yifan finished first in the overall standings.

The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2013–14 was held in Geneva, Dilijan, Tashkent, Khanty-Mansiysk,Lopota Resort and Sharjah. Bela Khotenashvili was the winner of the first tournament, while the second and the third one were won by Koneru Humpy. Hou Yifan won the fourth and in the fifth tournaments, but shared the first place with Ju Wenjun in the sixth and last tournament, resulting the winner of the Women’s Grand Prix 2013-2014.

One year later, the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2015-2016 was played in Monte Carlo, Tehran, Batumi, Chengdu and Khanty-Mansiysk. Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun won respectively the first and the second tournament. Valentina Gunina was the winner of the third tournament, while Harika Dronavalli and Koneru Humpy shared the first place in Chegdu. The last tournament was won by Ju Wenjun, who became the winner of the Women’s Grand Prix 2015-2016.

The fifth Women’s Grand Prix cycle is currently taking place. The first leg of the tournament was played in Skolkovo in 2019 and was won by Koneru Humpy, while the second leg, held in Monaco in 2019, was won by Alexandra Kosteniuk. The third leg of the tournament took place in Lausanne in 2020, the winner was Nana Dzagnidze.