# 2025 in chess

Major chess events in 2025 include the annual Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January, Norway Chess in May–June, and Grand Chess Tour from May–October. The Women's World Chess Championship 2025 will be played in Shanghai and Chongqing in April between defending champion Ju Wenjun and challenger Tan Zhongyi. The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament in Samarkand in September will determine two qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament 2026, while the Chess World Cup in New Delhi in November will determine three qualifiers. The 2025 FIDE Circuit, comprising top tournaments in 2025, will determine one qualifier. The annual World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships will take place in Doha in December.

## Timeline

January 2025 FIDE Rankings :
| Rank | Prev | Player | Rating | Change |
| 1 | 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2831 | 0 |
| 2 | 2 | Fabiano Caruana | 2803 | -2 |
| 3 | 3 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2802 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2801 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2777 | -6 |
| 6 | 6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2768 | -9 |
| 7 | 7 | Alireza Firouzja | 2763 | 0 |
| 8 | 8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2754 | -1 |
| 9 | 9 | Wei Yi | 2751 | -2 |
| 10 | 10 | Viswanathan Anand | 2750 | 0 |

### January

* Jan 4 – World number one Magnus Carlsen married Ella Victoria Malone in a ceremony in Oslo.
* Jan 8 – Vladimir Fedoseev won the Freestyle Chess play-in to qualify for the Weissenhaus Grand Slam, the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.
* Jan 11 – 9-year-old Roman Shogdzhiev became the youngest player to score an International Master norm.
* Jan 11 – Magnus Carlsen made his debut for FC St. Pauli in the Chess Bundesliga, where he played for the first time since 2008, scoring 1½/2.
* Jan 17 – The President of India, Droupadi Murmu conferred the Khel Ratna Award on World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju.
* Jan 24 – The FIDE Council decided to allow the participation of teams consisting of neutral athletes, particularly Russian and Belarusian athletes, in youth competitions and events for players with disabilities.
* Jan 27 – In a decision by the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, Andrejs Strebkovs' ban from all FIDE-rated events was extended to 12 years, and his FIDE title of International Master was revoked.
February 2025 FIDE Rankings :
| Rank | Prev | Player | Rating | Change |
| 1 | 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2833 | +2 |
| 2 | 2 | Fabiano Caruana | 2803 | 0 |
| 3 | 3 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2802 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2801 | 0 |
| 5 | 5 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2777 | 0 |
| 6 | 6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2766 | -2 |
| 7 | 7 | Alireza Firouzja | 2760 | -3 |
| 8 | 9 | Wei Yi | 2755 | +4 |
| 9 | 8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2754 | 0 |
| 10 | 10 | Viswanathan Anand | 2750 | 0 |

### February

* Feb 2 – R Praggnanandhaa defeated Gukesh Dommaraju 2–1 in a blitz playoff to win the Tata Steel Masters, after both players finished on 8½/13. Gukesh lost his first game as world champion in the final round against Arjun Erigaisi. Thai Dai Van Nguyen won the Challengers and qualified for the 2026 Masters.
* Feb 10 – FIDE announced that the Women's World Chess Championship 2025 between Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi would take place in Shanghai and Chongqing from April 1 to 23.
* Feb 14 – Vincent Keymer won the first leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour after defeating Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals and Fabiano Caruana in the finals.
* Feb 21 – Magnus Carlsen won the Chessable Masters, the first leg of the Champions Chess Tour 2025. The top three – Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, qualified for the 2025 Esports World Cup.
* Feb 27 – Aleksandra Goryachkina won the third leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2024–25 on tiebreaks, ahead of Koneru Humpy and Batkhuyag Munguntuul, who all scored 5½/9. Goryachkina took the lead in the Grand Prix standings.
March 2025 FIDE Rankings :
| Rank | Prev | Player | Rating | Change |
| 1 | 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2833 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2802 | 0 |
| 3 | 5 | Gukesh Dommaraju | 2787 | +10 |
| 4 | 2 | Fabiano Caruana | 2783 | -20 |
| 5 | 4 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2777 | -24 |
| 6 | 6 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | 2773 | +7 |
| 7 | 8 | Wei Yi | 2760 | +5 |
| 8 | 14 | R Praggnanandhaa | 2758 | +17 |
| 9 | 7 | Alireza Firouzja | 2757 | -3 |
| 10 | 8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2753 | -1 |

### March

* Mar 7 – Aravindh Chithambaram won the Prague Chess Festival Masters, going undefeated with three wins and six draws. Nodirbek Yakubboev won the Challengers after defeating Jonas Buhl Bjerre 1½-½ in a playoff.
* Mar 7 – Pranav V and Anna Shukhman became the World Junior Chess Champions.
* Mar 8 – Daniil Dubov played an exhibition blitz match against Hans Niemann in Moscow, winning 9½-8½.
* Mar 15 – Vidit Gujrathi won the Freestyle Chess play-in to qualify for the Paris Grand Slam, the second leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour.

## Events
### Major tournaments

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players (2700+) | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Tata Steel Masters | Wijk aan Zee | Round robin | 17 Jan – 2 Feb | 14 (9) | R Praggnanandhaa | Gukesh Dommaraju | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| Prague Chess Festival | Prague | Round robin | 25 Feb – 7 Mar | 10 (6) | Aravindh Chithambaram | Anish Giri | Wei Yi |
| GCT Romania | Bucharest | Round robin | 5 – 17 May | 10 | | | |
| TePe Sigeman & Co tournament | Malmö | Round robin | 20 – 26 May | 8 | | | |
| Norway Chess | Stavanger | Double round robin | 26 May – 6 Jun | 6 (6) | | | |
| Biel Chess Festival | Biel/Bienne | Multi-stage | 12 – 25 Jul | 6 | | | |
| Sinquefield Cup | St. Louis | Round robin | 16 – 29 Aug | 10 | | | |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Samarkand | Swiss | 3 – 15 Sep | 114 | | | |
| GCT Finals | São Paulo | Single elimination | 26 Sep – 4 Oct | 4 | | | |
| Chess World Cup | New Delhi | Single elimination | 31 Oct – 27 Nov | 206 | | | |

### Opens

| Tournament | City | TAR | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Aeroflot Open | Moscow | 2704+5⁄8 | 28 Feb – 7 Mar | 140 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Richárd Rapport | Andrey Esipenko |

### Rapid & Blitz events

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players (2700+) | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Chessable Masters | Online | Double elimination | 18 Feb – 21 Feb | 16 | Magnus Carlsen | Hikaru Nakamura | Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| CCT Leg 2 | Online | Double elimination | 28 – 23 May | 16 | | | |
| GCT Poland | Warsaw | Round robin | 24 April – 1 May | 10 | | | |
| GCT Croatia | Zagreb | Round robin | 30 Jun – 7 Jul | 10 | | | |
| Esports World Cup | Riyadh | TBD | 31 Jul – 3 Aug | 16 | | | |
| GCT St. Louis | St. Louis | Round robin | 9 – 16 Aug | 10 | | | |
| World Rapid Championship | Doha | Swiss | 25 – 31 Dec | TBD | | | |
| World Blitz Championship | Doha | Multi-stage | 25 – 31 Dec | TBD | | | |

### Women's events

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players (2500+) | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Monaco Grand Prix | Monaco | Round robin | 17 – 28 Feb | 10 | Aleksandra Goryachkina | Koneru Humpy | Batkhuyag Munguntuul |
| Nicosia Grand Prix | Nicosia | Round robin | 14 – 25 Mar | 10 | | | |
| Pune Grand Prix | Pune | Round robin | 14 – 25 Apr | 10 | | | |
| Austria Grand Prix | | Round robin | 5 – 16 May | 10 | | | |
| Norway Chess | Stavanger | Double round robin | 26 May – 6 Jun | 6 (6) | | | |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Samarkand | Swiss | 3 – 15 Sep | 114 | | | |
| Chess World Cup | Batumi | Single elimination | 5 – 29 Jul | 103 | | | |
| World Rapid Championship | Doha | Swiss | 25 – 31 Dec | TBD | | | |
| World Blitz Championship | Doha | Multi-stage | 25 – 31 Dec | TBD | | | |

### National events

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Armenian Championship | Yerevan | Round robin | 14 – 22 Jan | 10 | Robert Hovhannisyan | Artur Davtyan | Sargis Sargsyan |
| Israeli Championship | Eilat | Swiss | 20 – 28 Jan | 32 | Yair Parkhov | Yahli Sokolovsky | Yannay Ben Ari |
| Montenegrin Championship | Podgorica | Swiss | 31 Jan – 9 Feb | 50 | Nikita Petrov | Nemanja Vukcevic | Denis Kadrić |
| Georgian Championship | Tbilisi | Round robin | 3 – 12 Feb | 10 | Levan Pantsulaia | Giga Quparadze | Tornike Sanikidze |
| Azerbaijani Championship | Baku | Single elimination | 31 Jan – 15 Feb | 26 | Rauf Mamedov | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Misratdin Iskandarov |
| Singapore Chess Championship | Singapore | Swiss | 2 – 18 Feb | 30 | Tin Jingyao | Siddharth Jagadeesh | Enrique Paciencia |
| Romanian Chess Championship | Craiova | Swiss | 15 – 23 Feb | 84 | David Gavrilescu | Constantin Lupulescu | Filip Magold |

## Deaths

* 5 January — Robert Hübner, four-time World Championship candidate
* 2 February — Peter Enders, German grandmaster
* 27 February — Boris Spassky, 10th World Chess Champion