Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a particular variation of fast chess in which different rules apply for each of the two players.
Levon Grigori Aronian is an Armenian-American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at age 17. He is a former world rapid and blitz champion and has held the No. 2 position in the March 2014 FIDE world chess rankings with a rating of 2830, becoming the fourth highest-rated player in history.
Fabiano Luigi Caruana is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning three-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history.
The World Blitz Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships. The current world blitz champion is the Norwegian Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. Valentina Gunina from Russia is the current women's blitz world champion. Magnus Carlsen has won the event a record seven times.
Daniil Dmitrievich Dubov is a Russian chess grandmaster. He achieved his final norm for the Grandmaster title at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 14 days in 2011. Dubov won the 2018 World Rapid Chess Championship held in Saint Petersburg.
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, including seven of the ten highest rated players in the world per the May 2013 FIDE World Rankings. It was won by Sergey Karjakin, with Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura tied for second place. Norway Chess 2014 took place in mid-June 2015 and was a part of the inaugural Grand Chess Tour. The tournament has since decided to withdraw from the Grand Chess Tour.
The Zurich Chess Challenge (ZCC) is one of the major recurring international chess tournaments, combining rapid chess with classical or blitz chess. Zurich shows an exhibition type of tournament, similar at the former Amber chess tournament ambience, which explains some laxness and a comparatively brief duration of the whole event. It takes place in Zurich, Switzerland. The main sponsor is Russian businessman Oleg Skvortsov.
The Sinquefield Cup is an annual, closed chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Saint Louis Chess Club. Since 2015, the Sinquefield Cup has been a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Gashimov Memorial is a chess supertournament played in Azerbaijan in memory of Vugar Gashimov.
The Candidates Tournament 2018 was an eight-player double round-robin chess tournament, which was held in Berlin, Germany, between 10–28 March 2018. The winner, Fabiano Caruana, earned the right to challenge the defending world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, in the World Chess Championship 2018 match.
The Chess World Cup 2019 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament that took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 9 September to 4 October 2019. It was won by Azerbaijani grandmaster Teimour Radjabov. He and the runner-up, Ding Liren, both qualified for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2021. It was the 8th edition of the Chess World Cup.
Alireza Firouzja is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months.
The FIDE Grand Prix 2019 was a series of four chess tournaments that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2021. The top two finishers who had not yet qualified, qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020–21. The top non-qualifying finisher is eligible for the wild card. The series is organized by World Chess, formerly known as Agon. Alexander Grischuk won the FIDE Grand Prix 2019 and thus became the first player to qualify for the Candidates Tournament via the event. Ian Nepomniachtchi, who finished in second place, was the other qualifier, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, by finishing third, became eligible for the wild card. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave eventually got a place in the Candidates after Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the tournament as he was the first reserve.
The FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2019 (WFRCC) was the first world championship in Fischer random chess officially recognized by the international chess federation FIDE. Previous unofficial championships had been held, with the most recent winner being Magnus Carlsen in 2018. The competition started on April 28, 2019, with the first qualifying tournaments, which took place online and were open to all interested participants; and continued with further rounds up to the quarter-finals, which were also online. The semi-finals and final were played over the board between October 27 to November 2, 2019, in the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Bærum, Norway. The winner of the final was Wesley So, defeating Magnus Carlsen 13.5–2.5, to become the first FIDE world champion in Fischer random chess. Over the course of the competition, various time controls were applied, with longer games being weighted more heavily.
The Magnus Carlsen Invitational 2020 was an online chess tournament that ran from 18 April to 3 May 2020 as the first round of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour.
The Champions Chess Tour 2021, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, was a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world's top players, playing for a prize money pool of US$1.5 million. The tournament games are held on chess24.com and are broadcast on Twitch, YouTube, chess24.com itself, and the tour's official website. The tour started on November 22, 2020, and lasted until October 4, 2021. The tournaments were not rated by FIDE.
The 2022 Candidates Tournament was an eight-player chess tournament to decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2023. The tournament took place at the Palacio de Santoña in Madrid, Spain, from June 16 to July 5, 2022, with the World Championship finishing in April 2023. As with every Candidates tournament since 2013, it was a double round-robin tournament.
The FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship 2022 (WFRCC) was the second official world championship in Fischer Random Chess. The competition followed a similar format to the first championship in 2019, with qualifying stages open to all interested participants taking place online on chess.com and Lichess, and four qualified players joined four invited players in the over-the-board final, which took place at the Berjaya Reykjavik Natura Hotel in Reykjavík, Iceland from 25 to 30 October 2022.
Magnus Carlsen (5)
