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 The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...

Ding Liren Ding Liren (; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the highest rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vac ...

and

Women's World Chess Champion The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

Ju Wenjun Ju Wenjun (; born 31 January 1991) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. She is the current Women's World Chess Champion. In March 2017 she became the fifth woman to achieve a rating of 2600. She is a three-time Women's World Chess Champion having wo ...

. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will play Ding in the

World Chess Championship 2024 The World Chess Championship 2024 will be a chess match to determine the World Chess Champion. It will be played between the defending champion, Ding Liren of China, and the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2024. It will be a best of 14 games, ...

, 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.

Timeline

January

* Jan 1 –

Alireza Firouzja Alireza Firouzja ( fa, علی‌رضا فیروزجا, ; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest ever 2800- rated player, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months ...

confirms his position above

Wesley So Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was rank ...

in the January rating list and qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2024. * Jan 5 –

Adani Group Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...

announces a long term sponsorship agreement with grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa. * Jan 9 – The

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

Droupadi Murmu Droupadi Murmu (, born 20 June 1958) is an Indian politician who has been serving as the 15th president of India since 25 July 2022. She is the first person belonging to the tribal community and also the second woman after Pratibha Patil to hol ...

confers the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, on ...

on grandmaster-elect

R Vaishali Rameshbabu Vaishali (born 21 June 2001) is an Indian chess player from Chennai who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Personal life Vaishali Rameshbabu born in a Tamil family in Chennai. She is the ...

and the

Dronacharya Award The Dronacharya Award, officially known as Dronacharya Award for Outstanding Coaches in Sports and Games, is sports coaching honour of the Republic of India. The award is named after Drona, often referred as "Dronacharya" or "Guru Drona", a c ...

on grandmaster and coach RB Ramesh. * Jan 28 – Grandmaster

Wei Yi Wei Yi (born 2 June 1999) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. Wei became a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days, the 9th youngest in history. He is the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, accomplishing this feat ...

wins the 2024 Tata Steel Masters after beating grandmaster

Gukesh D Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006), better known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March 2019. On 16 Oc ...

in the tiebreak final.

Leon Luke Mendonca Leon Luke Mendonca (born 13 March 2006) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is the sixty-seventh Indian to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in January 2021. Chess career Mendonca became an International Master (IM) in ...

wins the Challengers' section and qualifies to next year's Masters. * Jan 30 – 13-year-old

Andy Woodward Andrew Woodward (born 23 September 1973) is an English former professional footballer who played in the English Football League for Crewe Alexandra, Bury, Sheffield United, Scunthorpe United (two loan spells) and Halifax Town. Later a serv ...

earns his final grandmaster

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

and becomes the youngest grandmaster in the world and the tenth youngest in history.

February

* Feb 1 – After the results of Tata Steel,

Anish Giri Anish Kumar Giri ( ne, अनीश कुमार गिरी; russian: Аниш Кумар Гири; born 28 June 1994) is a Russian-born Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he completed the requirements for the title Grandmaster at ...

climbs to world number five while

debuts in the world's top ten. * Feb 2 –

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

President

Arkady Dvorkovich Arkady Vladimirovich Dvorkovich (russian: Арка́дий Влади́мирович Дворко́вич; born 26 March 1972) is a Russian politician and economist, who was Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's Cabinet from 21 May 2012 ...

posthumously awards the honorary grandmaster title to the late

Sultan Khan Sultan Khan may refer to: *Sultan Khan (chess player) (1903–1966), Indian chess player *Sultan Khan (musician) (1940–2011), Indian sarangi player *Sultan Mohammed Khan (1919–2010), Pakistani civil servant and British India Army officer *Sult ...

. * Feb 7 –

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 ...

wins the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the Champions Chess Tour, after beating

in the Grand Final. * Feb 16 –

beats

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 ...

in the final to win the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, the first major classical

Fischer random chess Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 (often read in this context as 'chess nine-sixty' instead of 'chess nine hundred sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer announc ...

tournament. * Feb 18 – 8-year-old Ashwath Kaushik becomes the youngest player in history to beat a grandmaster in classical chess. * Feb 25 –

Daniel Dardha Daniel Dardha (born 1 October 2005) is a Belgian chess grandmaster. He won the Belgian Chess Championship in 2019 at age 13, becoming the youngest player to do so. Chess career In 2017, aged 12, he won the U-14 Blitz Chess Championship. He earn ...

and

Hans Niemann Hans Moke Niemann (born June 20, 2003) is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He was awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. Niemann first ...

tie for first at the Djerba Masters, with Dardha taking first on tiebreaks.

March

* Mar 2 – FIDE makes an urgent appeal to the

Canadian government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the Corporation sole#The Crown, corporation sole, assuming distinct ro ...

, urging them to expedite the visa process for several players ahead of the Candidates Tournament. ** Mar 7 – FIDE confirms that all visas have been approved in time and the event will go ahead in Toronto as planned. * Mar 6-7 –

Nodirbek Abdusattorov Nodirbek Abdusattorov (born 18 September 2004) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and the 2021 World Rapid Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he qualified for the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 1 month, and 11 days. FIDE awarded him the ...

wins the Prague Masters with a round to spare. Ediz Gurel wins the Challengers' section and completes his third

grandmaster norm A norm in chess is a high level of performance in a chess tournament. The level of performance is typically measured in tournament performance rating above a certain threshold (for instance, 2600 for GM norm), and there is a requirement on the leve ...

. * Mar 7 –

Bu Xiangzhi Bu Xiangzhi (; born December 10, 1985) is a Chinese chess player. In 1999, he became the 10th grandmaster from China at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua be ...

, Yu Yangyi and

Arjun Erigaisi Arjun Erigaisi (born 3 September 2003) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is the reigning Indian national chess champion. He earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days, making him the 32nd youngest person ever t ...

tie for first at the

Shenzhen Masters The Shenzhen Masters is an annual chess tournament held in the Longgang District of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. In 2021, an online edition was held on chess.com due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Winners Event crosstables 2017 : 2018 : 2 ...

, with Bu winning on tiebreaks. * Mar 15 –

and

Jan Henric Buettner Jan Henric Buettner (born 1964) is a German entrepreneur. Born in Hamburg, Buettner studied business management there and did an internship at a precursor of Vodafone, then started his career as a trainee at Axel Springer AG, where he worked on in ...

announce the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of

tournaments that will run across five continents, starting with an event in India in November 2024. * Mar 18 –

Bassem Amin Bassem Amin (; born 9 September 1988) is an Egyptian chess player and medical doctor. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006. Amin is the highest rated Egyptian and African player and the only medical doctor to have a FIDE peak ra ...

wins the

African Chess Championship The first African Chess Championship was played in 1998. Ibrahim Hasan Labib and Mohamed Tissir both shared first place with 7/10, but the former took the title. The 2007 championship was the FIDE Zone 4 qualifier for the Chess World Cup 2007, th ...

Jesse February Jesse February (born 1997) is a South African chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master (WIM, 2016). She is a two-time South African women's chess champion and a one-time African women's chess champion. Chess career Feb ...

wins the title in the women's section. * Mar 20-21 –

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian ( hy, Լևոն Գրիգորի Արոնյան, Levon Grigori Aronyan; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster, who currently plays for the United States Chess Federation. A chess prodigy, he earned the title ...

defeats

in the grand final to win the American Cup. 14-year-old

Alice Lee Alice Lee is the name of: * Alice Lee (actress) (born 1989), American actress * Alice Lee (chess player) (born 2009), American chess player * Alice Lee (civic leader) (1854–1943), civic leader in San Diego * Alice Lee (mathematician) (1858–1939 ...

beats

Irina Krush Irina Borisivna Krush ( uk, Ірина Борисівна Круш; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the first woman, and as of August 2022 the only woman, to earn the GM title while playing for the United States ...

in blitz playoffs to win the women's section. * Mar 21 – Bogdan-Daniel Deac defeats Alisher Suleymenov in the last round to win the Reykjavik Open half a point ahead of seven runner-ups.

Events

FIDE World Championship cycle

World Chess Championship 2024

Major tournaments

National events

Deaths

* 28 March —

Igors Rausis Igors Rausis (born April 7, 1961) is a retired chess International Master. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, but the title was stripped away after he was caught cheating in 2019. He won the Latvian Chess Championship in ...

* 1 May — Juzefs PetkēvičsMūžībā devies Juzefs Petkēvičs
/ref>

Notes

References

{{Reflist 2024 in chess 21st century in chess Chess by year 2024 sport-related lists