World number-one will play the , while 50-year-old former world number-one returns to top-level chess to play the . Other wildcards announced for the first three events of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour include the fast-rising Indian GM and GM .
Earlier this month, the for the 2025 season and revealed that for the first time since 2019, a Tour Finals will be held. That’s set to take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from September 25 to October 2.
Now, the for the first three events of the season, starting with the opener in Poland.
Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland: Warsaw, April 26-30
Player
FED
March Rating
World Rank
Role
1
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
2758
8
Full Tour
2
Alireza Firouzja
2757
9
Full Tour
3
Levon Aronian
2748
13
Full Tour
4
Vladimir Fedoseev
2739
16
Wildcard
5
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
2739
17
Full Tour
6
Aravindh Chithambaram
2731
22
Wildcard
7
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2725
23
Full Tour
8
Veselin Topalov
2717
26
Wildcard
9
Bogdan-Daniel Deac
2692
36
Wildcard
10
David Gavrilescu
2543
343
Wildcard
There will be no defense of his title for Carlsen, who needed a to edge GM into second place in 2024. Carlsen will be getting some rest after playing Freestyle Chess events in Paris and Karlsruhe one after the other. In fact only two players return: Polish number-one GM and GM , who finished third and fourth in 2024. GM , the defending Tour Champion, does play, however.
There are no less than five wildcards, with Romanian GMs and (the 21-year-old is the reigning Romanian champion) chosen by the Romanian Superbet sponsors. There are new chances to continue their recent revival for GM and particularly Aravindh, with the Indian star now up to world number-14 on the live rating list after his . The 25-year-old has picked up an amazing 81 rating points since being rated 2662 in April 2024.
Aravindh has been arguably the player of the last year. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.
Perhaps the standout name, however, is 50-year-old Topalov, the former world number-one and FIDE world champion. Topalov has been close to retired for a number of years now, and only played two rated games in the whole of 2024, losing 2-0 to GM on . The Bulgarian star last played in the Grand Chess Tour as a wildcard in Croatia in 2022, so it’s going to be a challenge to roll back the years in Warsaw!
Superbet Chess Classic Romania: Bucharest, May 7-16
Player
FED
March Rating
World Rank
Role
1
Gukesh Dommaraju
2787
3
Full Tour
2
Fabiano Caruana
2783
4
Full Tour
3
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
2773
6
Full Tour
4
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
2758
8
Full Tour
5
Alireza Firouzja
2757
9
Full Tour
6
Wesley So
2748
12
Full Tour
7
Levon Aronian
2748
13
Full Tour
8
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
2739
17
Full Tour
9
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
2725
23
Full Tour
10
Bogdan-Daniel Deac
2692
36
Wildcard
There’s no surprise in the line-up for the , where GM will aim to win for a third year in a row. The nine full-tour players are all required to play in this event as well as the second classical tournament, the Sinquefield Cup in August. The one wildcard spot again goes to the Romanian number-one, Deac.
SuperUnited Croatia Rapid & Blitz: Zagreb, July 2-6
Player
FED
March Rating
World Rank
Role
1
Magnus Carlsen
2833
1
Wildcard
2
Gukesh Dommaraju
2787
3
Full Tour
3
Fabiano Caruana
2783
4
Full Tour
4
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
2773
6
Full Tour
5
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
2758
8
Full Tour
6
Alireza Firouzja
2757
9
Full Tour
7
Wesley So
2748
12
Full Tour
8
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
2739
17
Full Tour
9
Anish Giri
2737
19
Wildcard
10
Ivan Saric
2652
77
Wildcard
There are only three wildcards for Croatia—Croatian number-one GM , Giri, a tour regular from previous years, and the one who, of course, stands out, Carlsen, who tops a lineup featuring six of the world’s top-10. Carlsen is a three-time champion in Zagreb, winning in 2019, 2022, and 2023, with that latter win featuring .
Magnus Carlsen celebrates beating all nine of his rivals on day one of the 2023 blitz. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour.
Carlsen would have played in 2024 as well, but sadly had to pull out at the last moment to be with his mother when she .
There are still wildcard spots to be announced for the (August 11-15) and the (August 18-28).
