# 2021 in chess

The 2021 chess calendar was again disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and because of this many chess OTB tournaments were stopped, but major events that took place included the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, won by Jorden van Foreest.
The Candidates Tournament 2020–21, disrupted by the pandemic, concluded on 27 April 2021. It was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi.
In November, Nepomniachtchi subsequently faced defending champion Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship title in Dubai, UAE during Expo 2020. Carlsen won the match 71⁄2–31⁄2 to retain the title with three games to spare and become a five-time world champion.
The International Chess Federation, FIDE, admitted four new member federations: Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Niger, and Belize.

## 2021 tournaments

This is a list of significant 2021 chess tournaments:

### Supertournaments

| Tournament | System | Dates | Players (2700+) | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 | Round robin | 15–31 Jan | 14 (8) | Jorden van Foreest | Anish Giri | Andrey Esipenko |
| Champions Chess Tour Opera Euro Rapid 2021 | Hybrid | 6–14 Feb | 16 (14) | Wesley So | Magnus Carlsen | Teimour Radjabov |
| Champions Chess Tour Magnus Carlsen Invitational | Hybrid | 13–21 Mar | 16 (12) | Anish Giri | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Magnus Carlsen |
| 2020–2021 Candidates Tournament | Double round robin | 17–25 Mar 2020 and 19–27 Apr | 8 (7) | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Anish Giri |
| Champions Chess Tour New In Chess Classic | Hybrid | 24 Apr – 2 May | 16 (12) | Magnus Carlsen | Hikaru Nakamura | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
| Chess World Cup 2021 | Single-elimination tournament | 12 Jul – 6 Aug | 206 (25) | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Sergey Karjakin | Magnus Carlsen |
| Women's Chess World Cup 2021 | Single-elimination tournament | 12 Jul – 3 Aug | 103 (-) | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Aleksandra Goryachkina | Tan Zhongyi |
| World Chess Championship 2021 | Best-of-14 match, with tie breaks | 24 Nov – 16 Dec | 2 | Magnus Carlsen | Ian Nepomniachtchi | - |

### FIDE Events

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| FIDE Grand Swiss | Riga | Swiss | 27 Oct – 7 Nov | 154 | Alireza Firouzja | Fabiano Caruana | Grigoriy Oparin |
| World Rapid Chess Championship | Warsaw | Swiss | 26–28 Dec | 204 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Magnus Carlsen |
| World Blitz Chess Championship | Warsaw | Swiss | 29–30 Dec | 206 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Alireza Firouzja |
| Womens World Rapid Chess Championship | Warsaw | Swiss | 26–28 Dec | 102 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Bibisara Assaubayeva | Valentina Gunina |
| Womens World Blitz Chess Championship | Warsaw | Swiss | 29–30 Dec | 105 | Bibisara Assaubayeva | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Valentina Gunina |

### Team events

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Teams | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Women's World Team Chess Championship | Sitges | Round robin | 26 Sep – 3 Oct | 10 | Russia | India | Georgia |
| European Team Chess Championship | Čatež ob Savi | Round robin | 11–22 Nov | 40 | Ukraine | France | Poland |
| Women's European Team Chess Championship | Čatež ob Savi | Round robin | 11–22 Nov | 32 | Russia | Georgia | Azerbaijan |

### Rapid & Biltz Tournaments

| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Superbet Rapid & Blitz | Bucharest | Round robin | 3–15 Jun | 10 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Alexander Grischuk Wesley So Levon Aronian | - |
| Paris Rapid & Blitz | Paris | Round robin | 20–24 Jun | 10 | Wesley So | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Alireza Firouzja |
| Croatia Rapid & Blitz | Zagreb | Round robin | 7–11 Jul | 10 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Viswanathan Anand | Anish Giri |
| Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz | St. Louis | Round robin | 11–16 Aug | 10 | Hikaru Nakamura | Fabiano Caruana | Richard Rapport |
| Sinquefield Cup | St. Louis | Round robin | 17–27 Aug | 12 (12) | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Fabiano Caruana Leinier Domínguez Wesley So | - |
| Shamkir Chess | Shamkir | Round robin | 17–24 Dec | 10 (10) | Fabiano Caruana | Richard Rapport | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |

## Deaths

* 14 January – Yrjö Rantanen
* 15 January – Gildardo García
* 18 January – Lubomir Kavalek
* 13 March – Nikola Spiridonov
* 1 June – Román Hernández Onna
* 1 July – Yury Dokhoian
* 28 July – István Csom
* 18 August – Evgeny Sveshnikov
* 11 October – Boris Pineda
* 14 November – Marek Vokáč
* 19 December – Boško Abramović
* 31 December – Gábor Kállai