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Your Next Move 2016 is a series of Rapid and Blitz games among the top chess grandmasters in the world, and is part of the Grand Chess Tour 2016.

Grand Chess Tour 2016 Standings (After Paris, Leuven, and St. Louis)

As we have mentioned before, Wesley So now leads the Grand Chess Tour 2016 race with 30 GCT points:

But let’s find out how did the rest of the players fared so far:

Grand Chess Tour 2016 Ranking After Paris, Leuven, and St. Louis

PlayerParisLeuvenSt LouisTotalPrize Money
Wesley So7.0010.0013.0030.00$120,000
Magnus Carlsen*10.0013.00-23.00$67,500
Levon Aronian6.008.007.7521.75$66,250
Hikaru Nakamura13.004.004.5021.50$62,500
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave8.005.004.5017.50$40,000
Fabiano Caruana3.006.007.7516.75$58,750
Viswanathan Anand-7.007.7514.75$51,250
Veselin Topalov 2.001.007.7510.75$51,250
Anish Giri5.002.501.008.50$30,000
Vladimir Kramnik4.002.50-6.50$15,000
Ding Liren*--3.003.00$15,000
Peter Svidler*--2.002.00$15,000
Laurent Fressinet*1.00--1.00$7,500
These are GCT (Grand Chess Tour) points earned by each player from the last three legs and the total GCT points. Prize money is the total prize earned so far from the tour.

* Considered as wildcards for the tour.

Grand Chess Tour 2016 Standings — after Paris and Leuven

Carlsen Wins Grand Chess Tour Leuven

After winning the rapid rounds with an impressive 4/4 performance on Day 2 of the tournament, World Champion Magnus Carlsen even cemented his dominance with an 11/18 performance in the blitz rounds.

leuven-blitz-2016-final-crosstable

Thus, making him the runaway winner of the combined rapid and blitz games that comprise the whole of the Grand Chess Tour 2016 — Your Next Move — Leuven, Belgium. Final combined results follow:

combined-results-leuven-2016-final

Wesley So makes it to the 2nd place at the conclusion of this Leuven leg. He is followed, this time closely behind, by Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand, by half a point each.

Wesley So in great shape so far in Grand Chess Tour 2016

Wesley So finished the first half of the blitz rounds of Your Next Move — Grand Chess Tour 2016 at second place with 5 points out of 9, although, tied with Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, and Hikaru Nakamura. Levon Aronian is slightly ahead at 5.5 points.

Crosstable after nine rounds of blitz games:

gct-your-next-move-2016-blitz-cross

With three-quarters through the tournament, Carlsen is still ahead in the combined score (rapid scores are multiplied by two):

Leuven Rapid Day 2: An Impressive 4/4 Performance by Carlsen

The rapid rounds are over for the Grand Chess Tour 2016: Your Next Move in Leuven, Belgium. A great performance was posted by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, as he won all of his 4 games against three of the former world champions: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik, plus Anish Giri. In the process, he clinched the top spot with 18 rounds of blitz games to go in the tournament.

Chessbase:

If day one of the rapid games in Leuven was full of surprises, day two was no less so, though thankfully not due to record numbers of blunders. Vishy Anand started the day with a win, but after two losses lost the lead as he was caught up by Wesley So. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen showed he was back and managed to win the rapid phase after a fabulous 4/4.

The final crosstable of the rapid games follows:

Blunderfest in Leuven

Chess.com describes the first day of the rapid games in Your Next Move, Grand Chess Tour 2016, in Leuven, Belgium, as bluderfest:

Viswanathan Anand leads the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour after five rounds of rapid chess. The first day of rapid saw a number of huge blunders that made the playing hall seem haunted.

That’s actually what makes the tournament more exciting and attract more spectators in the process. I guess that’s the purpose of rapid games, to bring out the human-nature in the world’s top grandmasters.

Remember, you can catch the rest of the rapid games in GCT Leuven 2016 LIVE here.

Photo credit: Grand Chess Tour.