This year’s Chess Grand Tour will have a slightly different appearance after it was announced in January that Norway was pulling out of the three-venue competition. The London Chess Classic and the Sinquefield Cup continue as before and the organisers have acted quickly to find alternatives, and rapid and blitz tournaments in Paris and Brussels have been added to the tour. Unfortunately, World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, has decided not to play in London or St Louis in order to prepare for his title defence in November although he will play in Paris and Brussels. The most notable absentee from all four tournaments is Sergey Karjakin, Carlsen’s title challenger. Otherwise, nine of the top ten players in the world will play in all four tournaments.
| 1 | Vladimir | Kramnik | 2801 | Russia |
| 2 | Fabiano | Caruana | 2787 | USA |
| 3 | Anish | Giri | 2798 | Netherlands |
| 4 | Hikaru | Nakamura | 2787 | USA |
| 5 | Maxime | Vachier-Lagrave | 2785 | France |
| 6 | Levon | Aronian | 2792 | Armenia |
| 7 | Veselin | Topalov | 2780 | Bulgaria |
| 8 | Wesley | So | 2773 | USA |
| 9 | Viswanathan | Anand | 2784 | India |
Each tournament can pick one wild card. The London organisers have yet to decide, St. Louis have picked the Chinese number one, Ding Liren, while Brussels and Paris chose Magnus Carlsen. The tour kicks off with the rapid and blitz tournaments in Paris from June 7th-13th.