The first event of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour, Superbet Chess Classic 2021, will take place from June 3-15, 2021 in Bucharest, Romania.
The event will be hosted in Stejarii County Club, with 10 participants playing a 9 rounds round robin tournament. The total prize fund is 325.000$. In the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, the Superbet event was played in rapid and blitz format, but this year switches to classical time control.
Classical events of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour will gather the full tour participants and the 10 wildcards will be extended to selected players for blitz and rapid events.
Initial full tour participants list:
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Liren Ding
Fabiano Caruana
Wesley So
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Teimour Radjabov
Anish Giri
However, although the full tour participants should participate in Classical events such as Superbet Classic, Ding Liren was replaced by Hungarian Grandmaster Richard Rapport.
With the press release from May 26, 2021, the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has confirmed new players in the field for the upcoming Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania and Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament.
Hungarian Grandmaster Richard Rapport has been confirmed as a full tour player to replace Grandmaster Ding Liren from China and Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi will become a wildcard player for specific Grand Chess Tour events as he prepares for the World Championship title match later this year.
The Superbet Chess Classic will now include a wildcard player, Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu.
Due to a last-minute illness, GM Richard Rapport has withdrawn from the GCT Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania. He will be replaced by Romanian No. 2 GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac.
Superbet Chess Classic 2021 participants:
Superbet Romania Chess Classic, June 3-15, 2021
| # | Player Name | Player Type | Country | FIDE Rating |
| 1 | Caruana, Fabiano | Full Tour Player | USA | 2820 |
| 2 | Aronian, Levon | Full Tour Player | ARM | 2781 |
| 3 | Giri, Anish | Full Tour Player | NED | 2780 |
| 4 | Grischuk, Alexander | Full Tour Player | RUS | 2776 |
| 5 | So, Wesley | Full Tour Player | USA | 2770 |
| 6 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | Full Tour Player | AZE | 2770 |
| 7 | Radjabov, Teimour | Full Tour Player | AZE | 2765 |
| 8 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | Full Tour Player | FRA | 2760 |
| 9 | Rapport, Richard | Full Tour Player | HUN | 2763 |
| 10 | Lupulescu, Constantin | Wildcard | ROU | 2656 |
Continually looking for new ways to innovate, the GCT selected split wildcards for Paris. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik will compete in the blitz portion while French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot will team up with Kramnik to represent the duo in the rapid phase of the tournament. Their combined score will be used to determine final standings. Three additional wildcards will round out the field for the Paris Rapid & Blitz leg. These wildcards include World Champion Challenger, Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, and Grandmaster Peter Svidler. The Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament is sponsored by Vivendi, Colliers, and Kasparov Chess and will include 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a total prize fund of $150,000.
2021 Grand Chess Tour events and schedule:
- Superbet Chess Classic Romania: June 2-15, 2021, Bucharest
- Paris Rapid&Blitz: June 16-23, 2021, Paris/France
- Croatia Rapid&Blitz: July 5-12, 2021, Zagreb
- St Louis Rapid&Blitz: August 9-16, 2021, St.Louis Missouri USA
- Sinquefield Cup: August 16-28, 2021, St.Louis Missouri USA
