2 December 2021

FIDE Grand Prix Begins in Berlin on 3 February

Three legs will be held in three months in two cities.


The FIDE Grand Prix Series, the final qualifier for the Candidates Tournament, will start on the 3rd of February, 2022, in Berlin, Germany. It consists of three legs that span over 3 months and two cities:

First leg: February 3 — 17, Berlin, Germany
Second leg: February 28 — March 14, 2022, Belgrade, Serbia
Third leg: March 21 — April 4, 2022, Berlin, Germany.

The Series will feature 24 players. Each player will compete in two out of three events. At this point, a diversified group of players has qualified for the FIDE Grand Prix:

Ding Liren (China), Levon Aronian (USA), Anish Giri (The Netherlands), Wesley So (USA), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Richard Rapport (Hungary), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Leinier Dominguez (USA), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia), Wei Yi (China), Vidit Gujrathi (India), Dmitry Andreikin (Russia)*, Yu Yangyi (China), Sam Shankland (USA), Alexei Shirov (Spain), Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), Alexandr Predke (Russia), Grigoriy Oparin (Russia), Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), Etienne Bacrot (France), and Vincent Keymer, the first German player to qualify for the Grand Prix Series.

*Andreikin qualifies in the likely event of the FIDE Championship runner-up accepting his automatic ticket in the Candidates Tournament and opting out of the Grand Prix Series.

Each event will consist of a group stage followed by a knockout semi-final and final. 

The prize fund for each event is EUR 150,000, which is a EUR 20,000 increase from 2019.

Official website