For the third year in a row, the Grand Chess Tour will be without the two arguably biggest stars of the chess world, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. The lack of variety in the field has also drawn criticism from chess fans.

The organizers of the Grand Chess Tour announced the full tour participants for the 2023 edition on Thursday, with three invitations based on results in the previous year and the other six invited based on factors such as rating, fighting spirit and sportsmanship.

As in 2022, the players are competing for a total prize fund of $1.4 million, $350,000 for the classical events and $175,000 for the speed chess events. In addition, a bonus prize fund totaling $175,000 will be awarded to the top three overall tour finishers.

The nine players will take part in both classical events as well as two of the three rapid and blitz events.

2023 field (world classical rank in brackets):

In a statement, GCT Executive Director Michael Khodarkovsky called the field "one of the strongest fields in the tour's history" and thanked the sponsors the Superbet Foundation, run by Sacha Dragic, the CEO of Superbet Romania, and the Saint Louis Chess Club, headed by billionaire Rex Sinquefield.

Remarkably, the two World Championship challengers, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, will actually be playing in the Superbet Chess Classic in Romania less than a week after going through a grueling 14-game match in Astana, Kazakhstan

Also confirmed for the tour is the reigning champion, Alireza Firouzja, who already hinted at his participation when he talked about how his new career in the fashion industry takes time away from chess.

With the inclusion of Tata Steel Chess winner Anish Giri, struggling in the ongoing WR Masters in Dusseldorf, two-time tour winner Wesley So and former World #2 Fabiano Caruana, a total of six of the world's top 10 are in. Hungarian star Richard Rapport, who turned down an invitation to the Sinquefield Cup last year, which led to Hans Niemann replacing him, is also back, as is French ace Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Poland's #1 Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

Triple World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who will keep his classical title for a few more months, has once again decided to skip the tour. It's hardly a surprise, considering he also declined an invitation in 2021 and 2022. There is still a chance Carlsen will join as a wild card for one of the events, but the two-time tour winner has expressed an intention to focus on the $2 million Champions Chess Tour, with five more events taking place before December.

World #6 Hikaru Nakamura is also missing this year, but the US star has, despite his success over-the-board in the last two years, decided to prioritise his career as a chess streamer and play online events such as the Champions Chess Tour.

The line-up has received mixed reactions among chess fans, with some praising the organisers for having the best players available. Others would prefer more variety as in Wijk aan Zee, where they have a strategy of inviting some of the world's leading youngsters.

One fan said:

Another one agreed:

Another fan is also critical of the format.

Another fan pointed out the high number of draws when the strongest players face each other, and suggested more variety.

One fan thinks several players could be invited as wild cards for one or more of the events.

Some of the above-mentioned players have already been confirmed for other events. The traditional Biel Chess Festival is back with a strong field from July 15-30. In their press release, the Swiss organisers described difficulties securing sponsorship due to the absence of a major private sponsor.

The players are:

Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi are also playing in TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament in Malmö, May 4-10, along with veterans Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, rising star D. Gukesh, Sweden's #1 Nils Grandelius, Dutch star Jorden van Foreest and the world's youngest ever grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra.

The second event in the Champions Chess Tour is set to begin with a Play-In on March 13.