Gukesh Dommaraju won the 2024 World Chess Championship, becoming the youngest undisputed world chess champion at the age of 18.
The Candidates Tournament and Women's Candidates Tournament were held concurrently for the first time to determine the challengers for the reigning world champions Ding Liren and Ju Wenjun. The winners, Gukesh and Tan Zhongyi, advanced to the World Chess Championship 2024 and Women's World Chess Championship 2025 respectively.
Fabiano Caruana won the 2024 FIDE Circuit, encompassing major tournaments held in 2024, and qualified for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. The World Championship runner-up, Ding Liren, will no longer get an automatic Candidates spot in the 2024–2026 cycle. Instead, the World Championship match will be an eligible tournament for the 2025 FIDE Circuit.
Timeline +January 2024 FIDE Rankings Rank Prev Player Rating Change11 Magnus Carlsen2830022 Fabiano Caruana2804 +1033 Hikaru Nakamura2788044 Ding Liren2780055 Ian Nepomniachtchi2769 -266 Alireza Firouzja2759 -478 Wesley So2757 +5811 Leinier Domínguez2752 +799 Sergey Karjakin27500107 Anish Giri2749 -5
January
Jan 1 – Alireza Firouzja confirms his position above Wesley So in the January rating list and qualifies for the Candidates Tournament 2024. Jan 5 – Adani Group announces a long term sponsorship agreement with R Praggnanandhaa. Jan 9 – The President of India Droupadi Murmu confers the Arjuna Award on grandmaster-elect R Vaishali and the Dronacharya Award on grandmaster and coach RB Ramesh. Jan 21 – Leonid Ivanovic becomes the youngest player in history to beat a grandmaster in classical chess at the age of 8 years, 11 months, and 7 days. Jan 28 – Wei Yi wins the 2024 Tata Steel Masters after beating Gukesh Dommaraju in the tiebreak final. Leon Luke Mendonca wins the Challengers' section, qualifying to next year's Masters. Jan 30 – 13-year-old Andy Woodward earns his final grandmaster norm and becomes the youngest grandmaster in the world and the tenth youngest in history.
+February 2024 FIDE Rankings Rank Prev Player Rating Change11 Magnus Carlsen2830022 Fabiano Caruana2804 033 Hikaru Nakamura2788044 Ding Liren2762 -18510 Anish Giri2762 +1366 Alireza Firouzja2760 +175 Ian Nepomniachtchi2758 -1187 Wesley So2757 0916 Wei Yi2755 +15108 Leinier Domínguez2752 0
February
Feb 1 – After the results of Tata Steel, Anish Giri climbs to world number five while Wei Yi debuts in the world's top ten. Feb 2 – FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich posthumously awards the honorary grandmaster title to the late Sultan Khan. Feb 7 – Magnus Carlsen wins the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the Champions Chess Tour, after beating Alireza Firouzja in the Grand Final. Feb 16 – Magnus Carlsen beats Fabiano Caruana in the final to win the inaugural Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge, the first major classical Fischer random chess tournament. Feb 18 – Ashwath Kaushik becomes the youngest player in history to beat a grandmaster in classical chess at the age of 8 years, 6 months, and 11 days. Feb 25 – Daniel Dardha and Hans Niemann tie for first at the Djerba Masters, with Dardha taking first on tiebreaks.
+March 2024 FIDE Rankings Rank Prev Player Rating Change11 Magnus Carlsen2830022 Fabiano Caruana2804 033 Hikaru Nakamura2789 +144 Ding Liren2762 055 Anish Giri2762 066 Alireza Firouzja2760 077 Ian Nepomniachtchi2758 088 Wesley So2757 099 Wei Yi2755 01012 Viswanathan Anand2751 +3
March
Mar 2 – FIDE makes an urgent appeal to the Canadian government, 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 wins the Prague Masters with a round to spare. Ediz Gürel wins the Challengers' section and completes his third grandmaster norm. Mar 7 – Bu Xiangzhi wins the Shenzhen Masters on tiebreaks, ahead of Yu Yangyi and Arjun Erigaisi. Mar 18 – Bassem Amin wins the African Chess Championship. Jesse February wins the title in the women's section. Mar 20-21 – Levon Aronian defeats Wesley So in the grand final to win the American Cup. 14-year-old Alice Lee beats Irina Krush in blitz playoffs to win the women's section.
+April 2024 FIDE Rankings Rank Prev Player Rating Change11 Magnus Carlsen2830022 Fabiano Caruana2803 -133 Hikaru Nakamura2789 0411 Nodirbek Abdusattorov2765 +1554 Ding Liren2762 066 Alireza Firouzja2760 077 Ian Nepomniachtchi2758 088 Wesley So2757 0914 Arjun Erigaisi2756 +8109 Wei Yi2755 0
April
Apr 1 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Arjun Erigaisi debut in the world's top ten. Apr 1 – Magnus Carlsen wins his third Grenke Chess Classic after beating Richárd Rapport in the final. Hans Niemann wins the Open section. Apr 1 – Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş becomes the youngest grandmaster in the world and the fourth youngest in history, at the age of 12 years, nine months, and 29 days. Apr 7 – Arjun Erigaisi wins the Menorca Open on tiebreaks . Apr 21 – Gukesh Dommaraju wins the Candidates Tournament 2024, advancing to the World Chess Championship 2024. Apr 21 – Tan Zhongyi wins the Women's Candidates Tournament 2024, advancing to the Women's World Chess Championship 2025.
June Jun 1 – Ethan Pang becomes the youngest player to surpass a FIDE rating of 2200.
July Jul 18 – Shama Yisrael becomes the first African-American woman to achieve the rank of National Master.
August Aug 6 – Jessica Hyatt becomes the second African-American woman to achieve the rank of National Master.
November Nov 1 – Ethan Pang becomes the youngest player to surpass a FIDE rating of 2300. Nov 1 – Anish Sarkar becomes the youngest FIDE-rated player, with a rating of 1556 at the age of 3 years, 8 months, and 19 days.
Events
World Championship The World Chess Championship was held in Singapore from 25 November to 12 December. It was played to a best of 14 games, with tiebreaks if required. The match was won by Gukesh 7½–6½ after 14 games. +World Chess Championship 2024RatingMatch gamesPoints123456789101112131427830½1½½½½½½½10½17½27281½0½½½½½½½01½06½
Major tournaments TournamentCitySystemDatesPlayers (2700+)WinnerRunner-upThirdTata Steel Masters Wijk aan ZeeRound robin13 – 28 Jan14 (10) Wei Yi Gukesh Dommaraju Anish Giri Nodirbek AbdusattorovPrague Masters PragueRound robin27 Feb – 7 Mar10 (7) Nodirbek Abdusattorov Thai Dai Van Nguyen Parham MaghsoodlooShenzhen Masters ShenzhenRound robin29 Feb – 7 Mar8 (5) Bu Xiangzhi Yu Yangyi Arjun ErigaisiCandidates Tournament TorontoDouble round robin3 – 22 Apr8 (7) Gukesh Dommaraju Hikaru Nakamura Ian NepomniachtchiTePe Sigeman & Co tournament MalmöRound robin27 Apr – 3 May8 (3) Nodirbek Abdusattorov Arjun Erigaisi Peter SvidlerNorway Chess StavangerDouble round robin29 May – 7 Jun6 (6) Magnus Carlsen Hikaru Nakamura R PraggnanandhaaUzChess Cup Masters TashkentRound robin6 – 14 Jun10 (8) Nodirbek Yakubboev Nodirbek Abdusattorov Yu YangyiGCT Romania BucharestRound robin24 Jun – 6 Jul10 (9) Fabiano Caruana Alireza Firouzja Gukesh DommarajuBiel Chess Festival Biel/BienneMulti-stage14 – 25 Jul6 (3) Le Quang Liem Haik M. Martirosyan R PraggnanandhaaAkiba Rubinstein Festival Polanica-ZdrójRound robin17 – 25 Aug10 (3) Vincent Keymer David Navara Sam ShanklandSinquefield Cup St. LouisRound robin19 – 28 Aug10 (10) Alireza Firouzja Fabiano Caruana Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Nodirbek AbdusattorovChess Olympiad BudapestSwiss10 – 23 SepTeams India United States UzbekistanWR Chess Masters Cup LondonSingle elimination14 – 17 Oct16 (9) Arjun Erigaisi Maxime Vachier-Lagrave R Praggnanandhaa Alireza FirouzjaChennai Grand Masters ChennaiRound robin5 – 11 Oct8 (6) Aravindh Chithambaram Levon Aronian Arjun Erigaisi
Opens TournamentCityDatesPlayersWinnerRunner-upThirdAeroflot Open Moscow2 – 8 Mar142 Amin Tabatabaei Andrey Esipenko Nodirbek YakubboevGrenke Open Karlsruhe26 Mar – 1 Apr935 Hans Niemann Ivan Šarić Vladimir FedoseevMenorca Open Menorca2 – 7 Apr284 Arjun Erigaisi Kirill Alekseenko Maksim ChigaevDubai Police Global Chess Challenge Dubai3 – 13 May135 Pranav V Aravindh Chithambaram Pranesh MSharjah Masters Sharjah13 – 23 May88 Bardiya Daneshvar Volodar Murzin Sam ShanklandVladimir Dvorkovich Memorial Aktobe25 May – 2 Jun90 Parham Maghsoodloo Alexandr Predke Alexey SaranaAbu Dhabi Masters Abu Dhabi15 – 24 Aug217 Nodirbek Yakubboev David Paravyan Shamsiddin VokhidovEuropean Championship Petrovac7 – 20 Nov388 Aleksandar Inđić Daniel Dardha Frederik SvaneInternational President Cup Tashkent21 – 29 Nov120 Nihal Sarin Javokhir Sindarov Parham MaghsoodlooSaint Louis Masters St. Louis3 – 7 Dec59 Fabiano Caruana Alexander Donchenko Samuel SevianQatar Masters Open Doha3 – 12 Dec138 Andrey Esipenko Arjun Erigaisi Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Women's events TournamentCitySystemDatesPlayers (2500+)WinnerRunner-upThirdCandidates Tournament TorontoDouble round robin3 – 22 Apr8 (6) Tan Zhongyi Humpy Koneru Lei TingjieNorway Chess StavangerDouble round robin29 May – 7 Jun6 (4) Ju Wenjun Anna Muzychuk Lei TingjieCairns Cup St. LouisRound robin13 – 23 Jun10 (5) Tan Zhongyi Anna Muzychuk Harika Dronavalli Mariya Muzychuk Nana Dzagnidze Alexandra KosteniukTbilisi FIDE Grand Prix TbilisiRound robin14 – 25 Aug10 (3) Alina Kashlinskaya Bibisara Assaubayeva Stavroula TsolakidouChess Olympiad BudapestSwiss10 – 23 SepTeams India Kazakhstan United StatesHoogeveen Crown group HoogeveenDouble round robin28 Oct – 2 Nov4 (1) Eline Roebers Alexandra Kosteniuk Mariya MuzychukShymkent FIDE Grand Prix ShymkentRound robin30 Oct – 8 Nov10 (4) Aleksandra Goryachkina Tan Zhongyi Bibisara Assaubayeva
National events TournamentCitySystemDatesPlayersWinnerRunner-upThirdArmenian Championship YerevanRound robin12 – 20 Jan10Robert HovhannisyanManuel PetrosyanZaven AndriasianAmerican Cup St. LouisDouble elimination12 – 21 Mar8Levon AronianWesley SoRay RobsonAzerbaijani Championship BakuMulti-stage11 – 26 Apr20Aydin SuleymanliMahammad MuradliVugar RasulovChinese Championship XinghuaRound robin6 – 16 May12Wang YueZhao ChenxiXu XiangyuPolish Championship RzeszówRound robin22 – 30 May10Radosław WojtaszekJacek TomczakMateusz BartelSerbian Championship SentaRound robin17 – 25 Jun10Aleksandar InđićRobert MarkušAlexey SaranaDutch Championship UtrechtSingle elimination6 – 13 Jul16Max WarmerdamSergei TiviakovBenjamin BokIvan SokolovBelgian Championship LierRound robin6 – 13 Jul10Daniel DardhaStefan BeukemaMher HovhannisyanBritish Championship HullSwiss27 Jul – 4 Aug86Gawain JonesDavid HowellMatthew WadsworthIndian Championship GurgaonSwiss17 – 27 Aug341Karthik VenkataramanSurya Shekhar GangulyNeelash SahaRussian Championship BarnaulRound robin17 – 28 Aug12Vladislav ArtemievAndrey EsipenkoDaniil DubovGerman Championship OstfildernRound robin19 – 27 Aug10Dmitrij KollarsNiclas HuschenbethDennis WagnerFrench Championship Alpe d'HuezSingle elimination18 – 27 Aug16Jules MoussardLaurent FressinetRomain ÉdouardUS Championship St. LouisRound robin11 – 23 Oct11Fabiano CaruanaRay RobsonAwonder LiangSpanish Championship MarbellaSwiss11 – 19 Dec104Daniil YuffaMaksim ChigaevEduardo Iturrizaga
Deaths 28 March — Igors Rausis 1 May — Juzefs Petkēvičs 8 June — Sergei Beshukov 5 July — Ziaur Rahman 31 July — Constantin Ionescu 31 July — Krum Georgiev 28 August — Andreas Dückstein 1 October — Zenón Franco Ocampos 9 November — Viesturs Meijers
See also 2024 FIDE Circuit Grand Chess Tour 2024 Champions Chess Tour 2024 Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge World Rapid Chess Championship 2024 World Blitz Chess Championship 2024 World Rapid and Blitz Team Chess Championships Global Chess League 2024
Notes
References