The 2025 Grand Chess Tour kicks off in Poland, with Pragg, Firouzja and Topalov in the lineup

Five regulars and five wildcards

The 2025 Grand Chess Tour (GCT) begins this month with the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, the first of five events on this year’s calendar. Marking the 10^th anniversary of the prestigious series, the tournament will run from 26 to 30 April at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews (POLIN) in Warsaw. As the inaugural speed chess event of the tour, it will feature nine rounds of rapid followed by eighteen rounds of blitz.

The GCT, which celebrates a decade of high-level competition, offers a total prize fund of $1.6 million. This includes $175,000 for each rapid and blitz event and $350,000 for the two classical tournaments. A further $350,000 will be at stake in the season-ending finals, which will be held for the first time in South America, in São Paulo, Brazil. The top four performers across the regular season will qualify for this knockout finale.

The Warsaw leg will host a field of ten players: five full tour participants (referred to as ‘regulars’) and five wildcards. Regulars are expected to compete in both classical tournaments as well as in two of the three rapid and blitz events throughout the season.

The regulars playing in Warsaw are 19-year-old Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu from India, French-Iranian star Alireza Firouzja, Armenian-born veteran Levon Aronian representing the United States, Polish number one Jan-Krzysztof Duda and former world blitz champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

They will be joined by wildcards Aravindh Chithambaram (India), Vladimir Fedoseev (Slovenia), former world champion Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Romania) and David Gavrilescu (Romania).

Supported by the Superbet Foundation and the Saint Louis Chess Club, both of which are non-profit organisations committed to chess education and global outreach, the GCT continues its mission of bringing elite chess to a broad international audience.

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