The 2016 Grand Chess Tour (www.GrandChessTour.org) has ended with a grand victory by American, via the Philippines, Wesley So. This past week, So won the London Chess Classic by a half point over Fabiano Caruana, winning $75,000 and adding 13 points to his already leading Grand Prix total, which secured his first place finish, earning him $100,000.

This combined with winning the Sinquefield Cup in August ($75,000) and his strong performances in June’s rapid and blitz events, Paris GTC, and “Your Next Move’’ Belgium, ($45,000) brought his 2016 Grand Chess Tour prize total to an amazing $295,000. Coming in second and third in the Grand Tour were fellow Americans Hikaru Nakamura ($144,166) and Fabiano Caruana ($108,750).

The Grand Chess Tour has also just announced that not only will the Parisian and Belgian events be back in 2017, but the Tour will be adding a new event at the St. Louis Chess Club, called St. Louis Rapid, which will be a rapid and blitz event, following right after the Sinquefield Cup in August. This new addition will raise the total 2017 Grand Prix prize fund to $1.2 million.

 The National K-12 Grade Championships, a 14-section, 1544-player event, has just concluded in Nashville, and just scanning the crosstable, there were a disappointing number of Massachusetts players listed but we did notice some successes. Maya Figelman from Brookline came in a surprising second place in the first-grade section. Other top 10 Massachusetts finishers were Loring Lauretti (seventh in 12th grade), Danila Poliannikov (seventh in sixth grade). It should be mentioned that Maximillian Lu of Connecticut won the fifth grade section.

We wrote recently about the great success of eightth-grader Nikhil Kumar at the World Cadets, where not only did he overcome the thousands of miles of travel but also the clear favorite, Indian prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa, to win the U12 group. He also won the recent National Chess Congress in Philadelphia. Though his rating was just 2210, Kumar managed to beat two grandmasters and drew two other titled players, for an undefeated score of 5/6. For this, he gained 110 rating points and won $1,925. We will have to keep a close eye on him in the future as we may have another star.

Winners: MIT Winter Open: 1st: Nithin Kavi, 4-0, U1800: 1st: Linh Nguyen, 4-0, U1400: 1st (tie) Isaac Chen, Hoyin Chu, Jason Wyckoff, 3-1

Coming events: Jan. 6-8, 5th annual, Boston Chess Congress, Hyatt Boston Harbor at Logan Airport, http://www.chesstour.com/bcc17.htm

 Answer to problem: 1.Qxd7! Rxd7 2.Re8+! (Not 2.Rc8+ Rd8! defends) 2…Kh7 3.Rcc8. The mate threat on h8 forces either Qc1+ or Rd8, leaving White a rook up.

Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@gmail.com.