WA chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.
WThis article depicts many of the strongest chess tournaments in history.
WFast chess is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is further subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a particular variation in which different rules apply for each of the two players.
WThe Airthings Masters was an online rapid chess tournament that took place from December 26, 2020 to January 3, 2021. It is the second tournament of the Champions Chess Tour 2021 and its first Major. It was preceded by the Skilling Open and will be followed by a currently un-announced tournament. Teimour Radjabov defeated Levon Aronian in the final to take home the $60,000 prize and an automatic spot in the Champions Chess Tour Finals. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Daniil Dubov to claim third place in the tournament.
WThe Alekhine Memorial was a recurring chess tournament, organized in different cities and irregular intervals, honoring the former world chess champion Alexander Alekhine.
WAmsterdam 1956 was a chess tournament won by Vasily Smyslov. It was the Candidates Tournament for the 1957 World Chess Championship match between Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik.
WThe AVRO tournament was a famous chess tournament held in the Netherlands in 1938, sponsored by the Dutch broadcasting company AVRO. The event was a double round-robin tournament between the eight strongest players in the world.
WThe Bilbao Chess Masters Final is an annual chess tournament which between 2008-12 brought together the strongest players from the previous year's "Grand Slam" events. Series organisers Grand Slam Chess Association (GSCA) became defunct in 2012 due to the demise of the Grand Slam hosts and scheduling problems but the Bilbao Masters continued as an annual invitational event until 2016.
WThe 1904 Cambridge Springs International Chess Congress was the first major international chess tournament in America in the twentieth century. It featured the participation of World Champion Emanuel Lasker, who had not played a tournament since 1900 and would not play again until 1909. After the tournament Lasker moved to America and started publishing Lasker's Chess Magazine, which ran from 1904 to 1907. However, that was not the only chess magazine spawned by the tournament. The Daily Bulletins produced by Hermann Helms proved so popular that Helms started the American Chess Bulletin as a direct consequence of the tournament. Volume 1, Issue 1 of the magazine was devoted to Cambridge Springs. Helms was somewhat more successful than Lasker as a publisher and American Chess Bulletin would be edited and published by Helms from 1904 until his death in 1963. The surprising upset victory of Frank Marshall marked his rise to prominence in American chess and he would eventually reign as champion of the United States for twenty-six years.
WThe Torre Memorial is an annual chess tournament played in honour of the chess legend Carlos Torre Repetto (1905–1978). It is played in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. The first edition was played in 1987, and from a relatively weak tournament, it has now grown into a strong international tournament.
WThe Chess Classics were chess tournaments initiated by Hans-Walter Schmitt, they were organized in the years 1994 to 2010. Among other things, the world champions in rapid chess and - also under rapid chess time control - the world champion in Chess960 and the computer Chess960 world champion were determined.
WChess of the Grandmasters is a former German TV programme. The programme was devised, supervised and presented by Claus Spahn.
WThe Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held a one-off Online Chess Olympiad with a rapid time control that affected players' online ratings.
WThe Chigorin Memorial is a chess tournament played in honour of Mikhail Chigorin (1850–1908), founder of the Soviet Chess School and one of the leading players of his day. The first and most important edition was the one played in 1909 in St. Petersburg. Later on, an international invitation Memorial tournament series was established, and mainly played in the Black Sea resort Sochi. Further irregular tournaments had been held in 1947, 1951, 1961, and 1972, played in diverse venues. From 1993 the venue returned to his hometown, the Memorial is now played as an Open event.
WDeep Blue versus Garry Kasparov was a pair of six-game chess matches between the world chess champion Garry Kasparov and an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue. The first match was played in Philadelphia in 1996 and won by Kasparov. The second was played in New York City in 1997 and won by Deep Blue. The 1997 match was the first defeat of a reigning world chess champion by a computer under tournament conditions.
WThe Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund is awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow.
WThe EU Individual Open Championship was first contested in Cork, Ireland in 2005, under the auspices of organising body, the European Chess Union (ECU). The event is open to members of chess federations within the European Union. Exceptionally, at the discretion of the organisers, guest players have also been allowed to compete; for example, when the host nation has non-EU neighbours.
WThe Gibraltar International Chess Festival is a chess tournament held annually at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. Its eleven days of competition usually run from late January to early February. The inaugural edition, then known as the Gibtelecom Gibraltar Chess Festival, took place in 2003, when fifty-nine competitors took part, of whom 24 held the FIDE Grandmaster title. In 2011 the festival was renamed to the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival when Tradewise Insurance Company Ltd became the new primary sponsor. Beginning in 2019 Tradewise no longer sponsored the tournament and the name was changed to the Gibraltar International Chess Festival.
WThe Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted at the Brassey Institute in Hastings, England from 5 August to 2 September 1895.
WThe Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee Steel Chess Tournament 1983 was the 45th edition of the Wijk aan Zee Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee in January 1983. The tournament was won by Ulf Andersson.
WThe Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee Steel Chess Tournament 1984 was the 46th edition of the Wijk aan Zee Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee in January 1984. The tournament was won by Alexander Beliavsky and Viktor Korchnoi.
WThe Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee Steel Chess Tournament 1985 was the 47th edition of the Wijk aan Zee Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee in January 1985. The tournament was won by Jan Timman.
WThe Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament was an annual chess tournament held between 2003 and 2009 in honour of the English chess player Howard Staunton (1810–1874).
WThe IBM international chess tournament was a series of very strong chess tournaments held in the Amsterdam, Netherlands from 1961 to 1981, and was sponsored by IBM. The list of winners of the main group includes five world champions.
WThe La Bourdonnais – McDonnell chess matches were a series of chess matches in 1834 between Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais of France and Alexander McDonnell of Ireland. These matches confirmed La Bourdonnais as the leading chess player in the world. They are sometimes seen as having been unofficial World Chess Championship matches, before the title of World Chess Champion existed.
WThe Linares International Chess Tournament was an annual chess tournament, usually played around the end of February, which takes its name from the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain, in which it was held. It is sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess, being one of the strongest annual tournaments held on the de facto chess tour, along with the "Tata Steel", Tal Memorial and Dortmund events.
WLondon 1851 was the first international chess tournament. The tournament was conceived and organised by English player Howard Staunton, and marked the first time that the best chess players in Europe would meet in a single event. Adolf Anderssen of Germany won the sixteen-player tournament, earning him the status of the best player in the world.
WThe London 1883 chess tournament was a strong chess tournament among most of the leading players of the day. It was won convincingly by Johannes Zukertort ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz. Remarkably, Zukertort was already assured of victory with three rounds to go, having scored an astonishing 22/23. He then lost his last three games against relatively weak players, probably due to exhaustion. The tournament established Zukertort as rivalling Steinitz to claim to be the best player in the world, and led to the World Chess Championship 1886 match between the two. The event was a double round-robin tournament. Marmaduke Wyvill contributed to organizing the tournament.
WThe London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cover a wide range of chess activities, including tournaments suitable for norm and title seekers, junior events, amateur competitions, simultaneous exhibitions, coaching, and lectures.
WNew York 1924 was an elite chess tournament held in the Alamac Hotel in New York City from March 16 to April 18, 1924. It was organized by the Manhattan Chess Club. The competitors included world champion José Raúl Capablanca and his predecessor Emanuel Lasker. Nine other top players from Europe and America were also invited. Emanuel Lasker met Alexander Alekhine, Efim Bogoljubow, Géza Maróczy, Richard Réti, Savielly Tartakower and Frederick Yates in Hamburg. They steamed with the SS Cleveland on February 28, 1924, and joined Capablanca, Frank Marshall, Dawid Janowski and Edward Lasker in New York. The tournament was played as a double round robin, with each player meeting every other one twice. Emanuel Lasker won $1500 for first prize, plus generous payment for travel expenses. Capablanca won $1000, compensation for expenses, and an extra payment.
WThe tournament at Nürnberg 1896 should have become 10. Deutschen Schachbund Kongreß, but the local chess club took over the organisation and included no minor groups. Finally, the 10th DSB Congress was held in Eisenach in 1896.
WThe Paul Keres Memorial Tournament is a chess tournament played in honour of chess grandmaster Paul Keres (1916–1975). It usually takes place in Vancouver, Canada and Tallinn, Estonia.
WPogChamps is a series of online amateur chess tournaments hosted by Chess.com. Players in the tournament are internet personalities, primarily Twitch streamers. PogChamps takes place over the course of two weeks. The first and second PogChamps had prize pools of $50,000 each, and the third iteration has a prize pool of $100,000.
WThe President's Cup determines the U.S. college team chess champion. Hosted in part by the United States Chess Federation (USCF), the President's Cup is an annual invitational team championship, open to the top four U.S. schools from the most recent Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (Pan-Am). It is run as a fixed-roster team round-robin tournament, scored by individual points. The President's Cup usually takes place in early Spring.
WThe Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) is a professional chess league in the Philippines.
WShamkir Chess is a chess supertournament played in Shamkir, Azerbaijan in memory of Vugar Gashimov (1986–2014).
WThe Sinquefield Cup is an annual, invite-only chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
WThe Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group in 1999, after which the tournament was called the Corus chess tournament. Corus Group became Tata Steel Europe in 2007. Despite the name changes, the series is numbered sequentially from its Hoogovens beginnings; for example, the 2011 event was referred to as the 73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
WThe Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2019 was the 81st edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee, Alkmaar and Leiden from 11–27 January 2019. The tournament was won by Magnus Carlsen.
WThe Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2020 was the 82nd edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee from 10–26 January 2020. The tournament was won by Fabiano Caruana.
WThe Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 was the 83rd edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. It was held in Wijk aan Zee from 15-31 January 2021, but was not open to visitors. The tournament was won by Jorden van Foreest, who defeated Anish Giri in an Armageddon playoff.
WThe second international Vienna 1882 chess tournament was one of the longest and strongest chess tournaments ever played. According to the unofficial Chessmetrics ratings, the tournament was the strongest tournament in history, on the basis that nine of the ten top players in the world participated, including all of the top eight.
WThe tournament celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria's accession to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Main organiser was Baron Albert Freiherr von Rothschild who also financed the Vienna tournaments of 1873, 1882, 1903, and 1908. The players visited his Heugasse palace on 31 May 1898. Rounds were played in the club house of the Wiener Schachklub at Schottengasse 7. Hugo Fahndrich was the tournament director at Kaiser Jubiläumsturnier 1898. The time limit was thirty moves in two hours, and fifteen moves per hour after this. Twenty great masters played double rounds from 1 June to 25 July.