2018 Paris Grand Chess Tour Tournament Betting Odds
–Chess is a surprisingly popular game among bettors–particularly in Europe.
–World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the 2017 Paris GCT tournament
–The tournament runs June 20 through June 24 in Paris.
The second stop on the 2018 Grand Chess Tour is the ‘City of Lights’ aka Paris, France. The 2018 Paris Grand Chess Tournament runs from June 20 through June 24 with a total prize pool of $150,000. Like the first stop on this year’s Grand Chess Tour in Leuven, Belgium the defending champion of the 2018 Paris GCT is not here to defend his title. That would be World Champion Magnus Carlsen who evidently has ‘bigger fish to fry’ as he prepares to defend his ‘belt’ in December against challenger Fabiano Caruana. Interestingly, Caruana *is* participating in the 2018 Grand Chess Tour. This could be a bit of gamesmanship by Carlsen who might not want to give Caruana the chance to gain confidence with a win. Alternately, it could be like preseason NFL football in his view and Carlsen might not want to give Caruana any ‘tape’ to study in an effort to find weaknesses. Since there’s not an active chess player on the planet that has had his game dissected as often and completely as Carlsen’s that’s unlikely. Chess.com points out the fact that the the Sinquefield Cup and the London Chess Classic each have a ‘wildcard’ entry spot meaning that Carlsen or even legit legend Gary Kasparov could show up and compete for the hefty $300,000 US prize pool being offered at each event.
The Grand Chess Tour is an ambitious effort to do for chess what the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour did for Texas Hold’em. While the prizes offered by chess don’t come close to what poker offers as noted above the prize pools for the GCT events are not insignificant. In addition, players receive points for their participation at the events and the top finishers compete for a full season prize pool worth another $150,000. Magnus Carlsen also won the overall points prize in 2017.
The Grand Chess tour might not have been embraced by the mainstream like Texas Hold’em back in the ‘poker boom’ years but their ambitions remain lofty as outlined in this blurb from their website:
We plan and execute the best chess events in the world. From superior organization and amenities to a full-blown spectator experience, we show professional chess as it’s meant to be enjoyed. Watch your favorites battle it out over the coming months. Paris, Leuven, Saint Louis and London… Chess has arrived.
The 2017 Grand Chess Tour brings 23 of the world’s strongest chess professionals together through a cycle of five international tournaments, each representing the new gold standard for professional chess. Every pivotal move will be broadcast live alongside world-class grandmaster commentary, watching the world’s best players compete for lucrative tournament prize funds and race for the additional Tour prize.
Even without the participation of Magnus Carlsen the field is still pretty solid. The field for the 2018 Paris GCT consists of the 9 players that have committed to playing the full schedule–Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave , Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So–along with the ‘wildcard’ entrant for this event, Vladimir Kramnik.
The format for this event will have the 10 competitors playing 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess in a ’round robin’ format. The tournament will crown a single champion based on overall performance but I thought it would be fun to also have markets for the top finisher in blitz and rapid as well as the overall winner. The competition begins June 20th and runs through the 24th meaning it’ll be a lot of chess in a short span of time. Here are the odds for the 2018 Paris Grand Chess Tour event:
2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS BETTING ODDS
TO WIN 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS
Hikaru Nakamura: +450
Viswanathan Anand: +500
Fabiano Caruana: +500
Sergey Karjakin: +700
Alexander Grishchuk: +700
Levon Aronian: +700
Wesley So: +1000
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +1000
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +1000
Vladimir Kramnik: +1000
TO WIN 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS RAPID
Hikaru Nakamura: +350
Wesley So: +500
Levon Aronian: +500
Sergey Karjakin: +650
Viswanathan Anand: +750
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +750
Alexander Grishchuk: +950
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +950
Vladimir Kramnik: +1250
Fabiano Caruana: +1250
TO WIN 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS BLITZ
Hikaru Nakamura: +350
Sergey Karjakin: +500
Alexander Grishchuk: +500
Wesley So: +750
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +750
Fabiano Caruana: +900
Levon Aronian: +900
Viswanathan Anand: +900
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +1150
Vladimir Kramnik: +1150
TO FINISH TOP TWO 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS
Hikaru Nakamura: +200
Viswanathan Anand: +250
Fabiano Caruana: +250
Sergey Karjakin: +450
Alexander Grishchuk: +450
Levon Aronian: +450
Wesley So: +600
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +600
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +600
Vladimir Kramnik: +600
TO FINISH TOP TWO 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS RAPID
Hikaru Nakamura: +175
Wesley So: +250
Levon Aronian: +250
Sergey Karjakin: +350
Viswanathan Anand: +350
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +350
Alexander Grishchuk: +500
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +500
Vladimir Kramnik: +700
Fabiano Caruana: +700
TO FINISH TOP TWO 2018 GRAND CHESS TOUR PARIS BLITZ
Hikaru Nakamura: +150
Sergey Karjakin: +250
Alexander Grishchuk: +250
Wesley So: +450
Maximie Vachier-Lagrave: +450
Fabiano Caruana: +500
Levon Aronian: +500
Viswanathan Anand: +500
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov: +750
Vladimir Kramnik: +750