FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15

The FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 was a series of four chess tournaments that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2016. Fabiano Caruana finished first, and Hikaru Nakamura second in the overall standings. Both therefore qualified for the 2016 Candidates Tournament.

In contrast to the two previous Grand Prix cycles the number of tournaments was decreased from six to four and players playing just three tournaments. As a result there is no more strike result, but each tournament result counts toward the total points. Sixteen players were selected to compete in the tournaments.

Each tournament is a 12-player, single round-robin tournament. In each round players scored 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand Prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 170 Grand Prix points for first place, 140 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points by steps of 10. In case of a tie in points the Grand Prix points are shared evenly by the tied players.

The Grand Prix consists of 16 players. FIDE announced 11 qualifiers as per regulations, with four more nominees from the organisers and one from the FIDE President to be announced at a later date.

Five original invitees declined to participate: Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. The first four of these had similarly declined to participate in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012–13. In a later interview, Aronian said "I found it quite insulting to compete in a tournament with the first prize half as large as my participation fee [for] almost any other tournament [at] that time." Moreover, there was no prize money for overall standings, as there had been in previous Grand Prixes.

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