11 December 2018
Drawing of Lots of GCT Final Conducted in London
Semi-final matches: Caruana - Nakamura and Vachier-Lagrave - Aronian
Photo: Lennart Ootes
The drawing of lots for the Semi-final of Grand Chess Tour, held as part of the London Chess Classic, was conducted on December 9.
The pairings are as follows:
Fabiano Caruana - Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave - Levon Aronian.
After two classical games on December 11-12, play switches to Rapid & Blitz on December 13. The winners then go through to the 3-day Final, held at the traditional Olympia London venue on December 15-16 (Classical) & 17 (Rapid & Blitz). There will also be a Third Place Playoff.
The fantastic four will be dueling for a total of USD 300,000 in GCT prize money. The 2018 GCT champion will take home a 1st prize of USD 120,000.
The 6th Annual Pro-Biz Cup took place at the Head Office of Google in London on December 10 and was won by Rajko Vujatovic and GM David Howell. They defeated GM Levon Aronian and Justin Baptie in a playoff after both teams had tied with 2.5/3 at the end of the 3 regulation rounds. The 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov took part in the event as well.
A short report on this unique event can be accessed from the official tournament page at https://www.londonchessclassic.com/probiz/probiz18.htm.
Grand Chess Tour official website
London Chess Classic official website
