The GCT Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2026 begins tomorrow at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, USA. The event runs from August 2 to 7, and first matches start at 5:10 PM UTC. The tournament features 10 players from 5 countries.

Tournament lineup:

  • 🇺🇸 Fabiano Caruana (2792)
  • 🇺🇿 Javokhir Sindarov (2777)
  • 🇩🇪 Vincent Keymer (2767)
  • 🇺🇸 Wesley So (2765)
  • 🇳🇱 Anish Giri (2764)
  • 🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa R (2750)
  • 🇺🇸 Leinier Dominguez (2732)
  • 🇳🇱 Jorden van Foreest (2728)
  • 🇺🇸 Levon Aronian (2721)
  • 🇺🇸 Awonder Liang (2690)

The event consists of a Rapid single Round-Robin and a Blitz double Round-Robin. Points for both tournaments are summed up in a single leaderboard. Rapid and Blitz tournaments feature 25+10 and 5+2 time controls respectively. Rapid will take place from August 2 to 4 and Blitz from August 5 to 8. The event features a $200,000 prize pool.

The Grand Chess Tour is an annual circuit of international tournaments, featuring Classical, Rapid, and Blitz formats. The GCT: Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2026 is the fourth event in the 2026 Tour. The 2025 edition of the tournament was won by Levon Aronian.

Credit: Lennart Ootes