The Grenke Chess Festival is an annual

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

event held in the German cities of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

and sponsored by Grenke AG. The Grenke Chess Classic was a strong closed tournament first held in 2013, which featured many of the world's top players. Since 2016, an Open tournament has been held concurrently, with the winner qualifying for the subsequent Classic tournament. In 2020, the Festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It returned in 2024 after a five-year hiatus, with the Classic tournament featuring a new rapid time control (45+10). In 2025, the Classic tournament was discontinued, and a new Grenke Freestyle Chess Open was announced in partnership with the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.

Winners

Editions

2013

Classic

Six players participated in the first edition of Grenke Chess. The winner was

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...

ahead of

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history. Born in Mia ...

; they scored 6.5 and 6 out of 10, respectively. :

2014

Classic

Arkadij Naiditsch Arkadij Naiditsch (; born 25 October 1985) is a Latvian-German chess grandmaster who currently represents Bulgaria after previously representing Latvia (until 1997), Germany (1998–2015) and Azerbaijan (2015–2024). Career In 1995 he won th ...

, the highest-rated German chess player, won the 2014 edition of Grenke Chess Classic ahead of David Baramidze. This edition was not a supertournament, but rather a national competition; all eight participants were German. It was a single

Round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

, and two spots were provided for the players to win entry into the next edition of 2015. :

2015

Classic

The tournament was played between 2–9 February 2015. With an average rating of 2752, it was the strongest edition of Grenke Chess in its history. Among the participants were

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

and

Levon Aronian Levon Grigori Aronian (; born 6 October 1982) is an Armenian chess grandmaster who has represented the United States since 2021. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at the age of 17. He is a former world rapid and blit ...

. The winner was

, who eventually won a five-game tiebreak with

with a score of 3–2 (two rapid, two blitz and one armageddon game). : ; Notes * Final rapid/blitz/armageddon tie-break:

def.

, 3–2. * FIDE Ratings as of February 2015.

2016

Open

The 2016 open tournament (section A) was won by Matthias Blübaum with a score of 7½/9. Blübaum thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2017.

2017

Classic

The 2017 tournament took place from 15 to 22 April in Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden.

Open

The 2017 open tournament (section A) was won by Nikita Vitiugov with a score of 7½/9. He thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2018.

2018

Classic

The tiebreaks were as follows: 1) number of wins; 2) number of black wins; 3) head-to-head.

Open

The 2018 open tournament (section A) was won by 13-year-old IM Vincent Keymer with a score of 8/9, who also achieved a grandmaster norm in the process. He thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2019.

2019

Classic

Open

The 2019 open tournament (section A) was won by Daniel Fridman with a score of 7½/9. Fridman thus qualified for the next edition of the Grenke Chess Classic, which wasn't held until 2024.

2020–2023

The 2020 edition was cancelled on short notice due to

, which continued to prevent the event from being held in subsequent years until 2024.

2024

Classic

The tournament returned in 2024 after a five-year hiatus. For the first time, the tournament was played in a rapid time control (45+10) instead of the former classical time control. The format was also changed into a double

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

(2 games with reversed colors against each player), followed by playoffs to decide places 1, 3 and 5. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament.

Open

The 2024 open tournament (section A) was won by Hans Niemann with a score of 8/9. Niemann thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2025. Since that edition was cancelled following the announcement of a new Freestyle open, he was invited to the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam to compensate for the lost invite. However, he later withdrew from that event due to personal reasons.

2025

Freestyle Open

The 2025 Freestyle (

Chess960 Chess960, also known as Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant that randomizes the starting position of the pieces on the back rank. It was introduced by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer in 1996 to reduce the emphasis on opening prepa ...

) open tournament (section A) was won by

with a perfect score of 9/9. Parham Maghsoodloo finished second on tiebreaks and qualified for the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, since Carlsen had already qualified.

Open

The 2025 regular open tournament (section A) was won by 17-year-old IM Aswath S with a score of 8/9, who earned his maiden grandmaster norm in the process.

References

External links

Official website
{{Chess tournaments Invitational chess tournaments International sports competitions hosted by Germany Chess in Germany Baden-Baden Sport in Karlsruhe Recurring sporting events established in 2013 2013 establishments in Germany