The Grand Chess Tour organizers announced wildcards for the GCT Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2026. The event will take place in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, from July 31 to August 7.

Wildcards:

  • 🇺🇸 Levon Aronian
  • 🇺🇸 Leinier Dominguez
  • 🇺🇸 Awonder Liang

The event will consist 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 will feature 25+10 and 5+2 time controls respectively. The event will feature a $200,000 prize pool. The main field for the event will be announced later.

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

Credit: Lennart Ootes