The 2021 chess calendar was again disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and because of this many chess OTB tournaments were stopped, but major events that took place included the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, won by Jorden van Foreest.

The Candidates Tournament 2020–21, disrupted by the pandemic, concluded on 27 April 2021. It was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi.[1]

In November, Nepomniachtchi subsequently faced defending champion Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship title in Dubai, UAE during Expo 2020. Carlsen won the match 712–312 to retain the title with three games to spare and become a five-time world champion.[2]

The International Chess Federation, FIDE, admitted four new member federations: Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Niger, and Belize.[3]

2021 tournaments

edit

This is a list of significant 2021 chess tournaments:

Supertournaments

edit
Tournament System Dates Players (2700+) Winner Runner-up Third
Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Round robin 15–31 Jan 14 (8)   Jorden van Foreest   Anish Giri   Andrey Esipenko
Champions Chess Tour Opera Euro Rapid 2021 Hybrid 6–14 Feb 16 (14)   Wesley So   Magnus Carlsen   Teimour Radjabov
Champions Chess Tour Magnus Carlsen Invitational Hybrid 13–21 Mar 16 (12)   Anish Giri   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Magnus Carlsen
2020–2021 Candidates Tournament Double round robin 17–25 Mar 2020
and 19–27 Apr
8 (7)   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Maxime Vachier-Lagrave   Anish Giri
Champions Chess Tour New In Chess Classic Hybrid 24 Apr – 2 May 16 (12)   Magnus Carlsen   Hikaru Nakamura   Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
Chess World Cup 2021 Single-elimination tournament 12 Jul – 6 Aug 206 (25)   Jan-Krzysztof Duda   Sergey Karjakin   Magnus Carlsen
Women's Chess World Cup 2021 Single-elimination tournament 12 Jul – 3 Aug 103 (-)   Alexandra Kosteniuk   Aleksandra Goryachkina   Tan Zhongyi
World Chess Championship 2021 Best-of-14 match, with tie breaks 24 Nov – 16 Dec 2   Magnus Carlsen[2]   Ian Nepomniachtchi -

FIDE Events

edit
Tournament City System Dates Players Winner Runner-up Third
FIDE Grand Swiss   Riga Swiss 27 Oct – 7 Nov 154   Alireza Firouzja   Fabiano Caruana   Grigoriy Oparin
World Rapid Chess Championship   Warsaw Swiss 26–28 Dec 204   Nodirbek Abdusattorov   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Magnus Carlsen
World Blitz Chess Championship   Warsaw Swiss 29–30 Dec 206   Maxime Vachier-Lagrave   Jan-Krzysztof Duda   Alireza Firouzja
Womens World Rapid Chess Championship   Warsaw Swiss 26–28 Dec 102   Alexandra Kosteniuk   Bibisara Assaubayeva   Valentina Gunina
Womens World Blitz Chess Championship   Warsaw Swiss 29–30 Dec 105   Bibisara Assaubayeva   Alexandra Kosteniuk   Valentina Gunina

Team events

edit
Tournament City System Dates Teams Winner Runner-up Third
Women's World Team Chess Championship   Sitges Round robin 26 Sep – 3 Oct 10   Russia   India   Georgia
European Team Chess Championship   Čatež ob Savi Round robin 11–22 Nov 40   Ukraine   France   Poland
Women's European Team Chess Championship   Čatež ob Savi Round robin 11–22 Nov 32   Russia   Georgia   Azerbaijan

Rapid & Biltz Tournaments

edit
Tournament City System Dates Players Winner Runner-up Third
Superbet Rapid & Blitz   Bucharest Round robin 3–15 Jun 10   Shakhriyar Mamedyarov   Alexander Grischuk
  Wesley So
  Levon Aronian
-
Paris Rapid & Blitz   Paris Round robin 20–24 Jun 10   Wesley So   Ian Nepomniachtchi   Alireza Firouzja
Croatia Rapid & Blitz   Zagreb Round robin 7–11 Jul 10   Maxime Vachier-Lagrave   Viswanathan Anand   Anish Giri
Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz   St. Louis Round robin 11–16 Aug 10   Hikaru Nakamura   Fabiano Caruana   Richard Rapport
Sinquefield Cup   St. Louis Round robin 17–27 Aug 12 (12)   Maxime Vachier-Lagrave   Fabiano Caruana
  Leinier Domínguez
  Wesley So
-
Shamkir Chess   Shamkir Round robin 17–24 Dec 10 (10)   Fabiano Caruana   Richard Rapport   Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Deaths

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Candidates Tournament 2020-2021: A happy and tired winner". Chess News. 27 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Magnus Carlsen wins 5th World Championship title". chess24.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  3. ^ 92nd FIDE General Assembly: results and decisions, FIDE, 29 December 2021
  4. ^ "Suurmestari Yrjö Rantanen on kuollut". Suomen Shakkiliitto (in Finnish). 14 January 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  5. ^ Tiempo, Casa Editorial El (15 January 2021). "Luto en el ajedrez colombiano: muere el Gran Maestro Gildardo García". El Tiempo (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  6. ^ Langer, Emily. "Lubomir Kavalek, international chess grandmaster, dies at 77". Washington Post. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  7. ^ "Nikola Spiridonov nous a quittés". www.echecs.asso.fr. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  8. ^ "Fallece el Gran Maestro cubano de ajedrez Román Hernández". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). 1 June 2021. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Yuri Dokhoian passes away". www.fide.com.
  10. ^ I, K. T. (28 July 2021). "Gyász: elhunyt Csom István sakkolimpiai bajnok - NSO". NSO.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Ушел из жизни Евгений Эллинович Свешников (1950-2021)". Федерация шахмат России (in Russian). Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  12. ^ Miguel Zometa (15 October 2021). "Homenaje a Boris Pineda" (in Spanish). Diario Co Latino. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  13. ^ "Ve věku 62 let zemřel šachový velmistr Marek Vokáč - Sport.cz". www.sport.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  14. ^ "IN MEMORIAM – VELEMAJSTOR BOŠKO ABRAMOVIĆ (1951-2021) - Šahovski savez Srbije" (in Serbian). Retrieved 2 January 2022.
  15. ^ "Meghalt Kállai Gábor nemzetközi sakknagymester". telex (in Hungarian). 31 December 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2022.