Carlsen, Ding To Clash As GRENKE Chess Classic Returns

World Champion GM Ding Liren and World Rapid Champion GM Magnus Carlsen top the field for the GRENKE Chess Classic, which returns March 26-31 after a five-year hiatus. Carlsen will be looking to win a third title to add to his wins in 2015 and 2019, with GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport, Vincent Keymer, and Daniel Fridman completing the six-player field. The games will be played at an unusual "slow rapid" format, with two 45-minute games each day.

Carlsen and Ding are already set to meet in a German Baltic Sea resort for the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge 2024 that starts in just one week’s time. That's a Chess960 event, and now it turns out we'll also be seeing them play normal chess in Karlsruhe, Germany.

The GRENKE Chess Classic will be part of what is billed as the largest chess tournament in Europe: The accompanying GRENKE Open, always held over the long Easter weekend, attracted 2,000 players for its last edition in 2019. In 2020, pandemic restrictions forced the event to be cancelled at the last minute, but now it’s back, with this year’s open tournament featuring a €70,000 ($75,000) prize fund.

This will be the seventh edition of the Classic, which first took place in Baden-Baden in 2013. Below is a list of the previous winners:

This year marks a return to the original six-player event, with the organizers explaining that the format was curtailed so that it doesn’t overlap with the Candidates Tournament in Toronto that starts on April 4. That doesn’t mean fewer games, however, since the players will play two 45-minute games each day, with a 10-second increment per move. The slow-rapid (fast-classical?) format is one that Carlsen has championed as a potentially better way to decide world championship matches.

The GRENKE Chess Classic will be rated for the FIDE rapid rating list, which makes it fitting that it features the three highest-rated rapid players: reigning World Rapid Champion and number-one Carlsen, as well as number-two Ding, and number-three Vachier-Lagrave.

Rapport, like Ding, is making his debut in the GRENKE Chess Classic, with the pair having bonded while working together for the 2023 FIDE World Championship match victory against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Keymer is the German number-one and at 19 is already in the world top-20. Although his rapid rating is currently modest, that should fool no one, especially as he finished runner-up to Carlsen in the 2022 World Rapid Championship. He also has happy and perhaps not-so-happy memories of Karlsruhe. His 8/9 score to win the GRENKE Chess Open in 2018 was one of the all-time best results by a 13-year-old, and it won him a spot in the 2019 Classic. That proved a true baptism of fire, however, as he finished last, with one win, two draws, and six losses.

A lot has changed in five years, however, and the organizers likely don’t need to worry about their man. GRENKE CEO Dr. Sebastian Hirsch commented on the official website: "We are pleased with the top-class international field of participants in the Classic, and I will keep my fingers crossed for Vincent Keymer."

Fridman is the clear underdog, and plays in this year’s event as the winner of the 2019 Open. It also brings some continuity to the tournament, since he’s the one player who took part in the first ever GRENKE Chess Classic back in 2013, when GM Viswanathan Anand took the title, half a point ahead of GM Fabiano Caruana.

Will Carlsen win his third title? Whatever happens, it’s sure to provide audiences a perfect warmup for the Candidates Tournament in Toronto, where eight contestants will be competing for the right to play Ding in a world championship match.