# 2015 in chess

Events in chess during the year 2015:

## 2015 tournaments

This is a list of significant 2015 chess tournaments:
| Tournament | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament | 12–27 Jan | 14 | Magnus Carlsen | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Anish Giri |
| 2015 Grenke Chess Classic | 2–9 Feb | 8 | Magnus Carlsen | Arkadij Naiditsch | Michael Adams |
| 2015 Zurich Chess Challenge | 13–19 Feb | 6 | Hikaru Nakamura | Viswanathan Anand | Vladimir Kramnik |
| FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 Tbilisi | 14–28 Feb | 12 | Evgeny Tomashevsky | Dmitry Jakovenko | Teimour Radjabov |
| Women's World Chess Championship 2015 | 16 Mar – 7 Apr | 64 | Mariya Muzychuk | Natalia Pogonina | Dronavalli Harika Pia Cramling |
| 2015 Aeroflot Open | 27 Mar – 7 Apr | 68 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Daniil Dubov | Ivan Bukavshin |
| Shamkir Chess 2015 | 16–26 Apr | 10 | Magnus Carlsen | Viswanathan Anand | Wesley So |
| FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15 Khanty-Mansiysk | 14–26 May | 12 | Dmitry Jakovenko | Hikaru Nakamura | Fabiano Caruana |
| Norway Chess 2015 | 15–26 Jun | 10 | Veselin Topalov | Viswanathan Anand | Hikaru Nakamura |
| 2015 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting | 27 Jun – 5 Jul | 8 | Fabiano Caruana | Wesley So | Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu |
| 2015 Biel Chess Festival | 20–30 Jul | 6 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Radosław Wojtaszek | Michael Adams |
| 2015 Sinquefield Cup | 22 Aug – 3 Sept | 10 | Levon Aronian | Magnus Carlsen | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Chess World Cup 2015 | 10 Sep – 5 Oct | 128 | Sergey Karjakin | Peter Svidler | Anish Giri Pavel Eljanov |
| Millionaire Chess 2015 | 8–12 Oct | | Hikaru Nakamura | Lê Quang Liêm | Yu Yangyi |
| 2015 World Rapid Chess Championship | 10–12 Oct | 158 | Magnus Carlsen | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Teimour Radjabov |
| 2015 World Blitz Chess Championship | 13–14 Oct | 188 | Alexander Grischuk | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Vladimir Kramnik |
| 2015 Bilbao Chess Masters Final | 25 Oct – 1 Nov | 4 | Wesley So | Anish Giri | Viswanathan Anand Ding Liren |
| 2015 London Chess Classic | 4–13 Dec | 10 | Magnus Carlsen | Anish Giri | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 2015 Qatar Masters Open | 20–29 Dec | 132 | Magnus Carlsen | Yu Yangyi | Vladimir Kramnik |

## Key dates

* 26 May: Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura clinch the top two positions in the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, securing their spots in the 2016 Candidates Tournament
* 5 October: Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler place first and second, respectively, in the Chess World Cup 2015, securing two spots in the 2016 Candidates Tournament
* 12 October: Magnus Carlsen defends the World Chess Rapid Championship title
* 14 October: Alexander Grischuck wins the World Chess Blitz Championship title

## FIDE world rankings

The FIDE World Rankings in December was
| Rank | Player | Rating |
| 1 | Magnus Carlsen | 2834 |
| 2 | Veselin Topalov | 2803 |
| 3–4 | Viswanathan Anand | 2796 |
| 3–4 | Vladimir Kramnik | 2796 |
| 5 | Hikaru Nakamura | 2793 |
| 6 | Levon Aronian | 2788 |
| 7 | Fabiano Caruana | 2787 |
| 8 | Anish Giri | 2784 |
| 9 | Ding Liren | 2776 |
| 10 | Wesley So | 2775 |
| 11 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 2773 |
| 12 | Sergey Karjakin | 2766 |
| 13 | Pavel Eljanov | 2763 |
| 14 | Peter Svidler | 2751 |
| 15 | Li Chao | 2750 |
| 16 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2748 |
| 17 | Alexander Grischuk | 2747 |
| 18 | Evgeny Tomashevsky | 2744 |
| 19 | Pentala Harikrishna | 2743 |
| 20–21 | Michael Adams | 2737 |
| 20–21 | Dmitry Jakovenko | 2737 |