The exciting finale of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour was once again part of the London Chess Classic with participants competing in knockout format for a $300,000 prize fund. The semi-final battles featured the 4 top players from the Grand Chess Tour qualifying events in Paris, Leuven and St. Louis, was hosted by the pioneering artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, at Google’s London headquarters. Then the action moved to the London Chess Classic’s traditional venue, Kensington Olympia, for the tournament finals with Hikaru Nakamura facing off against Maxime Vachier-LaGrave.

Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won his first Grand Chess Tour with a clutch victory in the last round over Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The newly crowned champion earned an additional $120,000 for his efforts, bringing his 2018 winnings to a total of $225,000.