FIDE Grand Prix 2022: All The Information

GM Hikaru Nakamura won the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix. With this victory, he qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament along with the event's runner-up GM Richard Rapport.

The 2022 FIDE Grand Prix was a series of chess tournaments and part of the world championship cycle. Three tournaments were held in Berlin, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia between February and April 2022.

Nakamura won the first leg of the 2022 FIDE GP, after defeating GM Levon Aronian in the final. Rapport defeated GM Dmitry Andreikin in the final of the second leg. The third and final leg of the GP took place in Berlin, Germany, with GM Wesley So winning in the tiebreaks against Nakamura.

• Players
• Grand Prix Final Standings
• Schedule
• Location
• Format
• Grand Prix Points
• First Leg
• Second Leg
• Third Leg
• Prize Fund
• Regulations
• Broadcast
• Community Contest
• History

Players

A total of 24 players qualified for the 2022 Grand Prix. The quarterfinalists and semifinalists at the July 2021 FIDE World Cup (except for World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen) qualified, as did the third- through eighth-place finishers at the October 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The top 11 players on the December 2021 FIDE rating list qualified next, and the last two players to reach the final total of 24 were one FIDE nominee and one organizer nominee.

Each qualifier plays in two of the three Grand Prix events, each of which will have a 16-player field.

Grand Prix Final Standings

Below you can see the final standings of the Grand Prix.

Schedule

The first Grand Prix event runs from February 3 to 17, 2022. The second tournament is held from February 28 to March 14, and the third and final Grand Prix event goes from March 21 to April 4.

Location

Berlin, Germany won a fan vote to host the 2022 Grand Prix, FIDE announced in August 2021. The first and final tournaments will be held there. Belgrade, Serbia was announced as the host of the second tournament.

Format

In each tournament, the field of 16 is divided into four groups of four players. They play a double round-robin within the groups, for a six-round group stage. The four group winners advance to the knockout stage of two-game matches.

The time control throughout the Grand Prix (except in tiebreaks) is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, with 30 minutes for the rest of the game after move 40. There is a 30-second increment starting from move one.

Any ties, either in the group or knockout stage, are broken in rapid games (15 minutes plus 10-second increment) and, if still tied, in blitz games (three minutes plus two-second increment). The full tiebreak system is found in Appendix 2 of the FIDE Regulations.

Grand Prix Points

Each player earns points for their finish in the individual tournaments, which are added up at the end of the event to determine the final standings.

With two of the three legs complete as of March 14, the standings are as follows:

First Leg

The first leg of the event takes place from February 3 to February 17 at Unter den Linden 26-30, Berlin. Rounds start at 6 a.m. PST/15:00 CET.

Leg 1 Players

*Andrey Esipenko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek replaced Ding Liren and Dmitry Andreikin

Group A

• GM Alexander Grischuk
• GM Hikaru Nakamura
• GM Andrey Esipenko
• GM Etienne Bacrot

Group B

• GM Richard Rapport
• GM Vladimir Fedoseev
• GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek
• GM Grigory Oparin

Group C

• GM Levon Aronian
• GM Vidit Gujrathi
• GM Daniil Dubov
• GM Vincent Keymer

Group D

• GM Wesley So
• GM Leinier Dominguez
• GM Pentala Harikrishna
• GM Alexey Shirov

Leg 1 Pairings

Leg 1 Schedule

Leg 1 Crosstable

Leg 1 Bracket

Second Leg

The second leg occurs from February 28 to March 14 at Belgrade’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. Rounds start at 6 a.m. PST/15:00 CET.

Leg 2 Players

* Dmitry Andreikin replaced Ding Liren.

Group A

• GM Alexander Grischuk
• GM Dmitry Andreikin
• GM Sam Shankland
• GM Etienne Bacrot

Group B

• GM Anish Giri
• GM Nikita Vitiugov
• GM Pentala Harikrishna
• GM Amin Tabatabaei

Group C

• GM Richard Rapport
• GM Vidit Gujrathi
• GM Vladimir Fedoseev
• GM Alexei Shirov

Group D

• GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• GM Yu Yangyi
• GM Alexandr Predke

Leg 2 Pairings

Leg 2 Schedule

Leg 2 Crosstable

Leg 2 Bracket

Third Leg

Group A

• GM Levon Aronian
• GM Hikaru Nakamura
• GM Andrey Esipenko
• GM Grigory Oparin

Group B

• GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
• GM Leinier Dominguez
• GM Daniil Dubov
• GM Vincent Keymer

Group C

• GM Wesley So
• GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
• GM Sam Shankland
• GM Alexandr Predke

Group D

• GM Anish Giri
• GM Nikita Vitiugov
• GM Yu Yangyi
• GM Amin Tabataei

Leg 3 Pairings

Leg 3 Schedule

Leg 3 Crosstable

Leg 3 Bracket

Prize Fund

The top two finishers at the Grand Prix will round out the field for the 2022 Candidates.

Each player earns points for their finish in the individual tournaments, which are added up at the end of the event to determine the final standings.

Each tournament also has a monetary prize fund of €150,000.

Prize Distribution

Regulations

The complete list of FIDE regulations for the 2022 Grand Prix can be found here.

Broadcast

You can keep up with the Grand Prix at our Events page. You can also watch the live broadcast on Chess.com/TV or on our Twitch and YouTube channels. WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili will lead the live coverage, along with GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Hess. On Saturday, February 12 GM Viswanathan Anand will be joining the commentary team!

Community Contest

Chess.com is running a Grand Prix Fantasy Contest with $3,000 in prizes. Follow this link for more instructions.

Past Grand Prix

The Grand Prix was first held in 2008 as part of the world championship (WCC) cycle. Every Grand Prix has had at least one spot in the Candidates at stake.

The only player to win a Candidates Tournament after qualifying via the Grand Prix was GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021. No Grand Prix winner has ever advanced from the Candidates to the World Championship.