2024 in chess explained

The Candidates Tournament 2024 and Women's Candidates Tournament 2024 will be held concurrently for the first time to determine the challengers for the World Chess Champion Ding Liren and Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun.^[1] The winner of the Candidates Tournament will play Ding in the World Chess Championship 2024, while Ju will defend her title in 2025.

The World Championship runner-up will no longer get an automatic Candidates spot in the 2024–2026 cycle. Instead, he will be awarded bonus points in the 2024 FIDE Circuit, the winner of which will qualify of the Candidates Tournament 2026.^[2]

Timeline

January 2024 FIDE Rankings! Rank! Prev! Player! Rating! Change

1	1	Magnus Carlsen	2830	0
2	2	Fabiano Caruana	2804	+10
3	3	Hikaru Nakamura	2788	0
4	4	Ding Liren	2780	0
5	5	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2769	-2
6	6	Alireza Firouzja	2759	-4
7	8	Wesley So	2757	+5
8	11	Leinier Domínguez	2752	+7
9	9	Sergey Karjakin	2750	0
10	7	Anish Giri	2749	-5

January

• Jan 1 – Alireza Firouzja confirms his position above Wesley So in the January rating list and qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2024.
• Jan 5 – Adani Group announces a long term sponsorship agreement with R Praggnanandhaa.^[3]
• Jan 9 – The President of India Droupadi Murmu confers the Arjuna Award on grandmaster-elect R Vaishali and the Dronacharya Award on grandmaster and coach RB Ramesh.^[4]
• Jan 28 – Wei Yi wins the 2024 Tata Steel Masters after beating Gukesh D in the tiebreak final. Leon Luke Mendonca wins the Challengers' section, qualifying to next year's Masters.^{[5] [6]}
• Jan 30 – 13-year-old Andy Woodward earns his final grandmaster norm and becomes the youngest grandmaster in the world and the tenth youngest in history.^[7]

February

February 2024 FIDE Rankings! Rank! Prev! Player! Rating! Change

1	1	Magnus Carlsen	2830	0
2	2	Fabiano Caruana	2804	0
3	3	Hikaru Nakamura	2788	0
4	4	Ding Liren	2762	-18
5	10	Anish Giri	2762	+13
6	6	Alireza Firouzja	2760	+1
7	5	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2758	-11
8	7	Wesley So	2757	0
9	16	Wei Yi	2755	+15
10	8	Leinier Domínguez	2752	0

• Feb 1 – After the results of Tata Steel, Anish Giri climbs to world number five while Wei Yi debuts in the world's top ten.^[8]
• Feb 2 – FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich posthumously awards the honorary grandmaster title to the late Sultan Khan.^[9]
• Feb 7 – Magnus Carlsen wins the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the Champions Chess Tour, after beating Alireza Firouzja in the Grand Final.^{[10] [11]}
• Feb 16 – Magnus Carlsen beats Fabiano Caruana in the final to win the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, the first major classical Fischer random chess tournament.^{[12] [13]}
• Feb 18 – 8-year-old Ashwath Kaushik becomes the youngest player in history to beat a grandmaster in classical chess.^{[14] [15]}
• Feb 25 – Daniel Dardha and Hans Niemann tie for first at the Djerba Masters, with Dardha taking first on tiebreaks.^[16]

March

March 2024 FIDE Rankings! Rank! Prev! Player! Rating! Change

1	1	Magnus Carlsen	2830	0
2	2	Fabiano Caruana	2804	0
3	3	Hikaru Nakamura	2789	+1
4	4	Ding Liren	2762	0
5	5	Anish Giri	2762	0
6	6	Alireza Firouzja	2760	0
7	7	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2758	0
8	8	Wesley So	2757	0
9	9	Wei Yi	2755	0
10	12	Viswanathan Anand	2751	+3

• Mar 2 – FIDE makes an urgent appeal to the Canadian government, urging them to expedite the visa process for several players ahead of the Candidates Tournament.^{[17] [18]}
  • Mar 7 – FIDE confirms that all visas have been approved in time and the event will go ahead in Toronto as planned.^[19]
• Mar 6-7 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins the Prague Masters with a round to spare.^[20] Ediz Gurel wins the Challengers' section and completes his third grandmaster norm.^[21]
• Mar 7 – Bu Xiangzhi wins the Shenzhen Masters on tiebreaks, ahead of Yu Yangyi and Arjun Erigaisi.
• Mar 15 – Magnus Carlsen and Jan Henric Buettner announce the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Fischer random chess tournaments that will run across five continents, starting with an event in India in November 2024.^{[22] [23]}
• Mar 18 – Bassem Amin wins the African Chess Championship. Jesse February wins the title in the women's section.^[24]
• Mar 20-21 – Levon Aronian defeats Wesley So in the grand final to win the American Cup. 14-year-old Alice Lee beats Irina Krush in blitz playoffs to win the women's section.^[25]

Events

FIDE World Championship cycle

Tournament	City	System	Dates	Players	Winner	Runner-up	Third
Candidates Tournament	Toronto	Double round robin	3–22 Apr	8	Gukesh D	Hikaru Nakamura	Ian Nepomniachtchi
Women's Candidates Tournament	Toronto	Double round robin	3–22 Apr	8	Tan Zhongyi	Humpy Koneru	Lei Tingjie

World Chess Championship 2024

World Chess Championship 2024

Players	City	Rating	Match games														Points
			1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
	Singapore	TBC
		TBC

Major tournaments

Tournament	City	System	Dates	Players (2700+)	Winner	Runner-up	Third
Tata Steel Masters	Wijk aan Zee	Round robin	13 – 28 Jan	14 (10)	Wei Yi	Gukesh D	Anish Giri Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Prague Masters	Prague	Round robin	27 Feb – 7 Mar	10 (7)	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Thai Dai Van Nguyen	Parham Maghsoodloo
Shenzhen Masters	Shenzhen	Round robin	29 Feb – 7 Mar	8 (5)	Bu Xiangzhi	Yu Yangyi	Arjun Erigaisi
TePe Sigeman & Co tournament	Malmö	Round robin	27 Apr – 3 May	8 (3)	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Arjun Erigaisi	Peter Svidler
Norway Chess	Stavanger	Double round robin	29 May – 7 Jun	6 (6)	Magnus Carlsen	Hikaru Nakamura	R Praggnanandhaa
UzChess Cup Masters	Tashkent	Round robin	6–14 Jun	10 (8)	Nodirbek Yakubboev	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Yu Yangyi
GCT Romania	Bucharest	Round robin	24 Jun – 6 Jul	10 (9)	Fabiano Caruana	Alireza Firouzja	Gukesh D

Opens

Tournament	City		Dates	Players	Winner	Runner-up	Third
Aeroflot Open	Moscow		2 – 8 Mar	142	Amin Tabatabaei	Andrey Esipenko	Nodirbek Yakubboev
Grenke Open	Karlsruhe		26 Mar – 1 Apr	935	Hans Niemann	Ivan Šarić	Vladimir Fedoseev
Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge	Dubai		3–13 May	135	Pranav V	Aravindh Chithambaram	Pranesh M
Sharjah Masters	Sharjah		13–23 May	88	Bardiya Daneshvar	Volodar Murzin	Sam Shankland

National events

Tournament	City	System	Dates	Players	Winner	Runner-up	Third
Romanian Championship	Eforie Nord	Swiss	24 Feb – 2 Mar	69	Mircea Pârligras	Constantin Lupulescu	David Gavrilescu
American Cup	St. Louis	Double elimination	12 – 21 Mar	8	Levon Aronian	Wesley So	Ray Robson

Deaths

• 28 March — Igors Rausis^[26]
• 1 May — Juzefs Petkēvičs^[27]
• 8 June — Sergei Beshukov^[28]
• 5 July — Ziaur Rahman^[29]
• 31 July — Constantin Ionescu^[30]
• 31 July — Krum Georgiev^{[31] [32]}

See also

• Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge

Notes and References

1. Web site: FIDE publishes the regulations for 2024 World Candidates Tournaments . 2024-03-08 . www.fide.com . en.
2. Web site: Changes to qualification paths for the Candidates Tournament . 2024-03-08 . www.fide.com . en.
3. News: Bureau . Sports . 2024-01-05 . Praggnanandhaa receives backing from Adani Group . 2024-03-08 . The Hindu . en-IN . 0971-751X.
4. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-01-10 . Vaishali, Ramesh Receive Awards, Pragg Backed By India's 2nd Richest Man . 2024-03-08 . Chess.com . en-US.
5. Web site: Wei Yi wins 2024 Tata Steel Masters . 2024-03-08 . www.fide.com . en.
6. News: Barden . Leonard . 2024-02-02 . Chess: Wei Yi wins at Wijk aan Zee as former prodigy emerges from shadows . 2024-03-08 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
7. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-02-01 . Woodward World's Youngest GM, 12-Year-Old Close To Polgar's Record . 2024-03-08 . Chess.com . en-US.
8. Web site: FIDE February 2024 rating list: Wei Yi debuts in top 10 Open . 2024-03-09 . www.fide.com . en.
9. Web site: Doggers (PeterDoggers) . Peter . 2024-02-05 . Honorary Grandmaster Title Posthumously Awarded To Sultan Khan . 2024-03-09 . Chess.com . en-US.
10. Web site: Magnus Carlsen strikes back to win 2024 Chessable Masters . 2024-03-09 . www.fide.com . en.
11. News: Barden . Leonard . 2024-02-09 . Chess: Carlsen beats Firouzja to secure another Champions Tour title . 2024-03-09 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
12. Web site: Magnus Carlsen wins inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge . 2024-03-09 . www.fide.com . en.
13. News: Barden . Leonard . 2024-02-16 . Chess: Carlsen beats Caruana in freestyle final while Ding finishes last . 2024-03-09 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
14. News: 2024-02-21 . Eight-year-old Indian-origin boy becomes youngest to beat grandmaster . 2024-03-09 . The Economic Times . 0013-0389.
15. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-02-20 . 8-Year-Old Ashwath Kaushik Beats Chess Grandmaster To Break World Record . 2024-03-09 . Chess.com . en-US.
16. Web site: Lang . J. J. . 2024-03-01 . Youth Triumphs as Dardha, Niemann Take Top Honors at Djerba Masters . 2024-03-09 . US Chess.org . en.
17. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-03-01 . FIDE Makes 'Urgent Visa Appeal' To Canadian Government Regarding Candidates . 2024-03-24 . Chess.com . en-US.
18. Web site: Chess: FIDE raises alarm on visas for Toronto Candidates – DW – 03/04/2024 . 2024-03-24 . dw.com . en.
19. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-03-07 . Candidates Given Green Light As Visa Issues Resolved Just In Time . 2024-03-24 . Chess.com . en-US.
20. Web site: Doggers (PeterDoggers) . Peter . 2024-03-06 . Abdusattorov Wins Prague Masters With Round To Spare As New World Number 4 . 2024-03-24 . Chess.com . en-US.
21. Web site: 2024-03-07 . Prague: Ediz Gurel wins Challengers, grabs third GM norm . 2024-03-24 . Chess News . en.
22. Web site: Svensen (TarjeiJS) . Tarjei J. . 2024-03-15 . Carlsen, Buettner Unveil Extravagant Chess960 Grand Slam Tour Across Five Continents . 2024-03-24 . Chess.com . en-US.
23. News: Barden . Leonard . 2024-03-22 . Richest chess tour announced for 2025 as freestyle wins global appeal . 2024-03-24 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
24. Web site: African Championship 2024: Bassem Amin and Jesse February win titles . 2024-03-24 . www.fide.com . en.
25. Web site: 2024-03-22 . Aronian and Lee clinch American Cup titles! . 2024-03-24 . Chess News . en.
26. Web site: Lorenz . Roger . 2024-04-05 . Remembering Igors Rausis (*7 April 1961, †28 March 2024) . 2024-06-17 . Chess News . en.
27. https://www.sahafederacija.lv/raksti/2165/muziba-devies-juzefs-petkevics/ Mūžībā devies Juzefs Petkēvičs
28. Web site: Ушел из жизни Сергей Асланович Бешуков (1971 - 2024) . 2024-08-01 . Федерация шахмат России . ru.
29. Web site: Reporter . Sports . 2024-07-05 . Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman no more after suffering heart attack mid-match . 2024-08-01 . The Daily Star . en.
30. Web site: Popa . Andrada . 2024-07-31 . Marele Maestru Constantin Ionescu s-a stins din viață . 2024-08-01 . Federația Română de Șah . ro-RO.
31. Web site: Grivas . Efstratios . Krum Ivanov Georgiev, 1958-2024 . 2 August 2024 . . 8 August 2024.
32. Web site: Ganev . Milen . 31 July 2024 . fakti.bg . Chess player Krum Georgiev died . 8 August 2024.