The 2020

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

calendar was disrupted by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, but major events that took place included the

Tata Steel Chess Tournament The 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 Ste ...

, won by

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United St ...

, and

Norway Chess Norway Chess is an annual closed chess tournament, typically taking place in the May to June time period every year. The first edition took place in the Stavanger area, Norway, from 7 May to 18 May 2013. The 2013 tournament had ten participants, in ...

, won by

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has ...

. The

Candidates A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

began in March, but, due to the pandemic, was postponed at the half-way stage with

Ian Nepomniachtchi Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi ( rus, Ян Алекса́ндрович Непо́мнящий, r=Yan Aleksandrovich Nepomnyashchiy, p=ˈjan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈpomnʲɪɕːɪj, a=Ru-Ian Alexandrovich Nepomnyashchij.ogg; born 14 J ...

and

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (; born 21 October 1990), often referred to by his initials, MVL, is a French chess grandmaster who is the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2819, Vachier-Lagrave is the seventh-highest ...

leading.

2020 tournaments

This is a list of significant 2020

chess tournament A 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 am ...

Supertournaments

Open events

Deaths

* 28 February —

Gennady Kuzmin Gennady Pavlovich Kuzmin (, ; January 19, 1946 – February 28, 2020) was a Ukrainian chess player and trainer. He reached his peak strength in the early to mid-1970s and in 1973, was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE, th ...

* 5 March —

Stanislav Bogdanovich Stanislav Eduardovich Bogdanovich (4 February 1993 – 5 March 2020) was a Ukrainian chess player who also competed for Russia. Early life Bogdanovich graduated from the National University Odessa Law Academy. Chess career * Silver medalis ...

* 20 April —

Arsen Yegiazarian Arsen Yegiazarian ( hy, Արսեն Եղիազարյան; 18 June 1970 – 20 April 2020) was an Armenian chess player who received the FIDE titles of Grandmaster (GM) in 2000 and FIDE Senior Trainer (FST) in 2011. Career Yegiazarian graduated ...

* 22 August —

Miron Sher Miron Naumovich Sher (russian: Мирон Наумович Шер; June 29, 1952 – August 20, 2020) was a Soviet-born American chess player, who was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM) by FIDE in 1992. Towards the end o ...

* 24 August —

Wolfgang Uhlmann Wolfgang Uhlmann (29 March 193524 August 2020) was a German chess grandmaster. He was East Germany's most successful chess player, reaching the 1971 Candidates Tournament. During his career, Uhlmann played many of the top players of the time a ...

* 4 September —

Dmitry Svetushkin Dmitry Svetushkin (; ro, Dumitru Svetuşchin; 25 July 1980 – 4 September 2020) was a Moldovan chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002; Svetushkin played for the Moldovan national team in the Chess Olympiad and the ...

* 1 November —

Markus Stangl Markus Stangl (24 April 1969 – 1 November 2020) was a German chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and lawyer. He also wrote for the magazines Schach-Magazin 64 and Schach. Career In 1988 he received the title of International Master and in 1 ...

* 17 December — Krzysztof Bulski

References

21st century in chess Chess by year 2020 sport-related lists {{sport-year-stub