The Hand That Feeds You

The last time we saw the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) on this blog was Chess Lions in Leuven (June 2018), about the GCT leg in Belgium. The tour is back in 2019, and it's been much expanded. What do the players think?

Grand Chess Tour: 2019 Côte d’Ivoire Rapid & Blitz - GCT expands in 2019 (2:44) • 'Published on May 12, 2019'

What do you think they think? More events, more money -- what's not to like? The description to the video said,

Grandmaster Maurice Ashley feels the Grand Chess Tour Players out on how they feel towards the expansion of the Grand Chess Tour circuit into new Countries beginning with the Côte d’Ivoire Rapid & Blitz in Africa.

Starting with GM Nakamura ('more events, more players, more variety, more prize money'), followed by GMs Wesley So, Vachier-Lagrave, Topalov, Karjakin, and Carlsen ('The more the merrier!'), the players have nothing but good to say. For more about the series of events this year, see 2019 Grand Chess Tour (grandchesstour.org). Unfortunately for those of us who live in Belgium, the Belgian leg has disappeared. I should have visited last year when I had the chance!