The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 was a series of three chess tournaments played between 4 February and 4 April 2022. The top two finishers –

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraRichárd Rapport Richárd Rapport (born 25 March 1996) is a Hungarian-Romanian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 11 months and 6 days, making him Hungary's youngest ever grandmaster. He was the Hungaria ...

(runner-up) – qualified for the

Candidates Tournament 2022 The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022,2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series Announced

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

, 17 June 2021 which is the final qualification stage for the

World Chess Championship 2023 The World Chess Championship 2023 is an upcoming chess match, taking place from 7 April to 30 April 2023 to determine the new world chess champion. The incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi, t ...

. The first and last tournament took place in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and the second one in

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

. Each player was scheduled to participate in two of three tournaments. Before the tie-break stage of the last tournament was concluded, Nakamura had already gained the score to win the series, and it was already clear that no other semi-finalist could overtake Rapport for the runner-up position.

Organization

Due to the travel restrictions imposed by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, all three tournaments were initially to be played in a single city instead of playing in various cities as in previous editions. The series was organized by

World Chess The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

. The company chose Berlin to host most of the series following a popular vote.Berlin wins popular vote; will host the Grand Prix Series and other events in 2022

, 12 August 2021 Later it was announced that two of the three tournaments would be in Berlin, with one in

Players

Twenty-four players were originally invited to the Grand Prix: * The players who placed third to eighth at the

Chess World Cup 2021 The Chess World Cup 2021 was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Sochi, Russia, beginning 12 July and ending 6 August 2021. It was the 9th edition of the Chess World Cup. The winner of this tournament was the Polis ...

who were not World Champion or already qualified for the Candidates. Five out of a possible six players qualified in this way, because World Champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

placed third in the World Cup. * The players who placed third to eighth in the

FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021 The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021 was a chess tournament that forms part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2022. It was an 11-round Swiss-system tournament, with 108 players competing, running from 25 October to 8 N ...

who were not World Champion or already qualified for the Candidates or Grand Prix. Six players qualified in this way. *

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraFIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

president. *

Daniil Dubov Daniil Dmitrievich Dubov (russian: Даниил Дмитриевич Дубов; born 18 April 1996) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He achieved his final norm for the Grandmaster title at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 14 days in 2011. He i ...

, organizer's nominee. * The remaining eleven places were filled by the top players in the December 2021

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

list so long as they had participated in the FIDE World Cup 2021 or played at least nine games which counted in the FIDE rating lists from February to December 2021. This meant

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

, Wang Hao, and

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champ ...

were not eligible because of inactivity. The list originally went down to #23 in the world, though after

Wei Yi Wei Yi (born 2 June 1999) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. Wei became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the 9th Chess prodigy#List of youngest grandmasters, youngest in history. He is the youngest ...

withdrew, world #25

Pentala Harikrishna Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He became the youngest grandmaster from India after attaining the title in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior ...

also qualified this way.

Ding Liren Ding Liren (; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the highest rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachi ...

and

Dmitry Andreikin Dmitry Vladimirovich Andreikin (russian: Дмитрий Владимирович Андрейкин, born 5 February 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster, World Junior Chess Champion in 2010 and two-time Russian Chess Champion (2012 and 2018) ...

were unable to compete in the first tournament due to health and visa issues respectively, and were replaced in the first tournament by

Andrey Esipenko Andrey Evgenyevich Esipenko (russian: Андрей Евгеньевич Есипенко; born 22 March 2002) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He won the European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Ch ...

and

Radosław Wojtaszek Radosław Wojtaszek (born 13 January 1987) is a Polish chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Polish champion. Wojtaszek has acted as Viswanathan Anand's second, assisting the former world chess champion in his successful title defence match a ...

. Ding was also unable to play in the second tournament, and Andreikin took his place. Due to personal reasons, Andreikin also withdrew from the third tournament, and was replaced by Esipenko. The replacements Esipenko and Wojtaszek were eligible to qualify for the Candidates. The table below shows the players who qualified for the Grand Prix:

Format

Each player will play in two out of three of the tournaments. Each tournament will have 16 players, and have a two-stage format.Regulations for the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022

, June 2021 * In the first stage, the players are divided into four pools of four, and the players in each pool play a double round-robin mini-tournament. The four winners of the pools progress to the second stage. * In the second stage, the four pool winners play a knock-out tournament, consisting of semi-finals and a final. Both the semi-finals and final will consist of 2 classical time limit games, plus tie-breaks if required. Players receive Grand Prix points according to their finishing position in each tournament. The two players with the most Grand Prix points qualify for the

Time controls and tie-breaks

The time control for classical games is 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus an extra 30 minutes after move 40. There is also an increment of 30 seconds per move from move 1. In the pool stage, if there is a tie for first, the tied players play tie-breaks. In the knockout stage, tie-breaks are played if the match is tied after the 2 regular time limit games. In both stages, two-way or three-way tie-breaks take the following format: * Players play two

rapid chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

games at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. In the case of a three-way tie, a single round-robin is played. * If players are still tied, they play two

blitz chess Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz ...

games at 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. In the case of a three-way tie, a single round-robin is played. * If players are still tied, a single armageddon chess game is played to decide the winner, in which black is declared the winner if the game is drawn. The time limit is 5 minutes for white, 4 minutes for black, and a 2 second per move increment from move 61. In the case of a three-way tie, lots are drawn to determine the players, and the loser of the lot shares second place with the loser of the Armageddon game. In the case of a four-way tie, the players are randomly divided into pairs by drawing of lots and each pair plays a two-player tie-break by the above method. The two tie-break winners then play a tie-break by the above method, while the losers share third and fourth place in the pool.

Grand Prix points

Grand Prix points were awarded as follows: In other words, the top three players in each pool earn 7, 4, and 2 points, respectively, and 3 additional points are awarded for winning a semifinal or final. The Grand Prix points for pool placings take into account tie-breaks played to determine first place. Players tied for other places, including players who are still tied after tie-breaks have decided first place, share Grand Prix points. If players finish tied on Grand Prix points, then the following tie-breaks are applied, in order: * number of tournament first-place finishes; * number of tournament second-place finishes; * number of points scored in regular time limit games; * number of wins in regular time limit games; * drawing of lots.

Prize money

The prize money for each event is €150,000 which will be awarded as follows: In other words, each player receives €5,000, Grand Prix points earned in the pool are worth an additional €1,000, and Grand Prix points earned in a semi-final or final are worth an additional €2,000.

Tournament 1 - Berlin, Germany

The first tournament was held in

from 4 February to 17. Due to health and visa issues,

and

were replaced with

and Radoslaw Wojtaszek, respectively.FIDE Grand Prix 2022: Ding and Andreikin replaced by Esipenko and Wojtaszek

, 1 February 2022 Hikaru Nakamura won the first leg with Levon Aronian as the runner-up.

Round-robin stage

The double round-robin stage had the six rounds of standard time control games on 4–7, 9, and 10 February with tie-breaks on 11 February. Players in bold advanced to the knockout stage.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Final

Tournament 2 - Belgrade, Serbia

The second tournament was held in

from 1 to 14 March. Russian players' flags are displayed as the FIDE flag due to FIDE's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian flags from being displayed at FIDE-rated events in response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

. Richárd Rapport won the second leg of the 2022 Grand Prix with Dmitry Andreikin as the runner-up.

Round-robin stage

The double round-robin stage had six rounds of standard time control games on 1–4, 6, and 7 March with tie-breaks on 8 March. Players in bold advanced to the knockout stage.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Final

Tournament 3 - Berlin, Germany

The third tournament was held in

from 22 March to 4 April. Due to personal reasons, Dmitry Andreikin withdrew from the third leg and was replaced by Andrey Esipenko. Wesley So won the third leg with Hikaru Nakamura as the runner-up.

Round-robin stage

The double round-robin stage had six rounds of standard time control games on 22–25, 27, and 28 March with tie-breaks on 29 March. Winners advanced to the knockout stage between March 30–April 4, 2022.

Pool A

Pool B

Pool C

Pool D

Knockout stage

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Final

Grand Prix standings

The following table shows the overall Grand Prix standings. The top two players qualified for the Candidates Tournament. Tie-breaks, in order, are as follows: tournament first places (TF), tournament second places (TS), game points in standard time control games (GP), and game wins in standard time control games (GW). If a tie persists, the final tiebreaker is drawing of lots. After the round-robin stage of the third tournament, the top two were confirmed to be

Richárd Rapport Richárd Rapport (born 25 March 1996) is a Hungarian-Romanian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 11 months and 6 days, making him Hungary's youngest ever grandmaster. He was the Hungaria ...

and

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraFIDE Grand Prix 2022 in chess 2022 in German sport 2022 in Serbian sport February 2022 sports events in Germany March 2022 sports events in Serbia March 2022 sports events in Germany April 2022 sports events in Germany Sports events affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine