Bucharest to host second stage of International Grand Chess Tour

The second stage of the international Grand Chess Tour, one of the most important chess tournaments in the world, will take place in Bucharest from May 7 to May 16.

The first stage of will take place in Warsaw, Poland. However, the event’s opening will take place on May 6.

In addition to these two, there will be three more stages organized in Croatia, the USA, and Brazil, the latter being included for the first time in the tournament’s history this year.

The tournament will bring some of the top chess players to the Ronda Hall of the Grand Hotel Bucharest, such as Fabiano Caruana, Gukesh Dommaraju, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Praggnanandhaa Ramesh Babu, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Bogdan Daniel Deac. Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja is the overall champion of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour for the second time, having first won the title in 2022.

This year’s Grand Chess Tour circuit offers a total prize fund of USD 1,6 million, for which all participants will compete. Out of this amount, USD 350,000 is allocated for the classical chess tournament, while the rapid and blitz events each have a prize pool of USD 175,000.

In 2022, the Superbet Foundation became the global strategic partner of the Grand Chess Tour by organizing three stages of the circuit, namely Bucharest, Warsaw, and Zagreb. The Romanian Chess Federation will be a co-organizer and partner of the stage in Romania.

The 2025 tournament will conclude with a spectacular final stage, in which the top four competitors from the overall ranking will face off in knockout matches for an additional prize of USD 350,000.

(Photo source: Federația Română de Șah on Facebook)