The 2022 Chess Calendar begins with Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana topping the field for the Tata Steel Masters from January 15th onwards, and, if all goes to plan, it’s a year that’s going to feature another Candidates Tournament and the first over-the-board World Chess Olympiad since 2018. Whatever happens with the pandemic, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will be back, with nine high stakes events running from February 19th to November 20th.

Below we’ve gathered together all the info about the major chess events already scheduled for 2022, though we’ll be updating it during the year as more events are announced or plans change. Let us know in the comments below if there’s something we’re missing! 

Current and future events:

December 2022

December 27 - January 5 | Rilton Cup | Stockholm, Sweden

This turn-of-the-year 9-round Swiss Open is celebrating its 50th edition. 

Links: official website, chess24

Completed events:

January 2022

January 15 - 30 | Tata Steel Chess | Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Magnus Carlsen has declared reaching 2900 as his new goal in chess, and he’ll get his first chance to close in on it when he tops the field for the 14-player Tata Steel Masters. He faces tough competition from the likes of Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, while 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa makes his super-tournament debut.

The amateur events again had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, but the Challengers is back alongside the Masters, with Arjun Erigaisi, Volodar Murzin and Marc’Andria Maurizzi among the young stars competing for a place in next year’s Masters.

Links: Official website, chess24: Masters, Challengers, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

January 24 - February 3 | Gibchess Battle of the Sexes | Gibraltar

The Catalan Hotel has closed for ever, to be replaced by a Hilton Hotel, and the pandemic still makes mass Opens problematic, but chess won’t be absent from Gibraltar as teams of 10 top female players and 10 similarly rated male opponents will compete for a £100,000 prize fund in the new venue of the Garrison Library.

Some of the 20 players set to take part in the battle | image: Gibraltar Chess Festival

Links: Official website, chess24

February 2022

February 3 - 17 | FIDE Grand Prix 1 | Berlin, Germany

The final two players to compete in the 2022 Candidates Tournament will be decided in the 3-tournament FIDE Grand Prix. 24 players have been invited, including Top 10 stars Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk, with Hikaru Nakamura and Daniil Dubov given wildcards.

Last bus to the Candidates | image: World Chess

Each player competes in two of the three events, where 16 players are split into four groups of four. They play each other twice in a round-robin before the group winners advance to the semi-finals.  

Links: official website, chess24: Pool A, Pool B, Pool C, Pool D, Knockout, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

February 19 - 26 | Airthings Masters | chess24

The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is back with Magnus Carlsen looking to defend the title he won in the inaugural $1.6 million tour.

This is the first of six Regular events on the 2022 Tour, with $150,000 up for grabs as well as guaranteed places in the next Major event for the two finalists. It starts with a 16-player all-play-all battle where only the Top 8 qualify to the knockout. There's an incentive to play for a win in every game, as the winner gets $750 while the players only get $250 each for a draw. 

World Champion Magnus Carlsen is joined by five more players from the Top 10, the reigning World Rapid Champions Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alexandra Kosteniuk, and some teen sensations, including Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Hans Niemann.  

Links: official website, chess24: Prelims, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

March 2022

March 1 - 14 | FIDE Grand Prix 2 | Belgrade, Serbia

The 2nd of three events in the 24-player Grand Prix series that determines the final two places in the 2022 Candidates Tournament. The players start in pools of four players who play each other twice, with the winners of each pool going forwards to the semi-finals. 

Links: official website, chess24: Belgrade FIDE Grand Prix Pools, Belgrade FIDE Grand Prix Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, SF1, SF2, SF3, F1, F2

March 2 - 12 | Howell vs. Grandelius match | London, UK

England's David Howell will take on Swedish no. 1 Nils Grandelius in a 10-game classical match to mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the London Chess Centre. Simon Williams and 

Simon Williams and Askild Bryn will commentate on the match

Links: official website, chess24

March 19 - 26 | Charity Cup | chess24

The second of six Regular events on the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is being held as a fundraiser for UNICEF and their work helping children in and around Ukraine. Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren and Richard Rapport are the Top 10 stars in action, with Richard making his debut on the Tour. There are also debuts for David Navara and Lei Tingjie. 

Links: official website, Charity Cup Prelims, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

March 21 - April 4 | FIDE Grand Prix 3 | Berlin, Germany

The 3rd and final event of the 24-player Grand Prix series, that determines the final two places in the 2022 Candidates Tournament.

Links: official website, chess24: Groups, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2-4, 5, 6, 7, SF1, SF2, SFTB, F1, FTB

March 27 - April 6 | European Individual Chess Championship | Terme Catez, Slovenia

The European Chess Championship is a prestigious title to win, but for many players the event functions mainly as a qualifier for the FIDE World Cup. There are 20 places in that event up for grabs. 

Links: official website, chess24

March 31 - April 3 | MPL Indian Chess Tour #1 | chess24

This is the first of four 16-player tournaments on the $100,000 MPL Indian Chess Tour, from which the winner will qualify both for an 8-player knockout final and for a stage of the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The players play each other once at 15+10 rapid chess over the course of four days, with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.  

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, Final

April 2022

April 6 - 12 | Reykjavik Open | Reykjavik, Iceland

The Reykjavik Open returns to its traditional Harpa venue | photo: official website

The Reykjavik Open had to be cancelled in 2020, while in 2021 it functioned as the European Championship. In 2022 it’s returning to its old format as an Open tournament and also plans to return to its traditional venue, the Harpa Music and Conference Centre.

Links: official website, chess24

April 20 - 29 | The American Cup | Saint Louis, USA

A new event featuring two 8-player knockout tournaments, with the twist that players are only knocked out if they lose two matches. If they lose one they drop down to an elimination bracket but still have a chance to win the tournament. 

Links: official website, chess24: Open | Women

April 22 - 28 | Oslo Esports Cup | chess24/Oslo, Norway

The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is back with Magnus Carlsen looking to defend the title he won in the inaugural $1.6 million tour. This is the first Major on the 2022 Tour, with 8 players competing for a $210,000 prize fund. They're all going to be together in Oslo as they battle it out in mini-matches against each of their 7 rivals. 

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

April 30 - May 4 | World Youth Rapid and Blitz Championship | Rhodes, Greece

The World Youth Rapid and Blitz Championship will be held in Under 8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18 age categories.

Links: official website, chess24: Rapid

April 30 - May 8 | Mitropa Chess Club Cup | Corte, Corsica, France

The Mitropa Chess Club Cup is an annual team tournament organised by ten chess federations in Central Europe.

Links: official website, chess24: Open | Women

May 2022

May 1 - 10 | Russian Team Championships | Sochi, Russia

The Russian Team Championships in Sochi are traditionally one of the world’s strongest team events, though in 2021 it was notable that the top tournament featured no players at all from outside Russia.

Links: official website, chess24: Premier, Higher League, Women

May 3 - 9 | Tepe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament | Malmo, Sweden

The 8-player single round-robin is back with Swedish no. 1 Nils Grandelius joined by the likes of David Navara, Alexei Shirov, Jorden van Foreest, Salem Saleh and Arjun Erigaisi. 

Links: official website, chess24

May 5 - 14 | Superbet Chess Classic Romania | Bucharest, Romania

The first event on the 5-event $1.4 million Grand Chess Tour is a 10-player classical round-robin with a $350,000 prize fund.

Mamedyarov beat Aronian and Caruana in consecutive rounds to win the 2021 event | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

May 9 - 17 | Polish Championships | Kruszwica, Poland

The 2022 Polish Championships feature a 16-player knockout (with losers' brackets) in the Open section and a 10-player round-robin in the Women's.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women

May 19 - 26 | Chessable Masters | chess24

The 3rd edition of the Chessable Masters is the 4th event on the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. World numbers 1 and 2 Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren top a 16-player field that also features Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and teen stars Abhimanyu Mishra and Praggnanandhaa. 

The Top 8 players in the 4-day Prelims advance to the Knockout, with the finalists both qualifying for the 2nd Major of the Tour, taking place in person in Miami, Florida in August.  

Links: official website, chess24: Chessable Masters Prelims, Chessable Masters Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

May 19 - 23 | Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland | Warsaw, Poland

The second tournament of the 5-event $1.4 million Grand Chess Tour is a 10-player event featuring three days of rapid chess (25+10) followed by two days of blitz (3+2), with a $175,000 prize fund.

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4-5

May 21 - 29 | Sharjah Masters | Sharjah, UAE

The 5th edition of the Sharjah Masters is a 9-round open tournament with a mininum rating of 2300 and a top prize of $10,000.

Links: official website, chess24

May 30 - June 11 | Norway Chess | Stavanger, Norway

Norway Chess is one of the few major international chess events to continue during the pandemic, though with a reduced 6-player field in both 2020 and 2021. In 2022 it's back to 10 players, with Magnus Carlsen topping the field as he bids for a 5th Norway Chess title, and a 4th in a row.

Carlsen's win over Firouza was the 1st of a 4-game streak that gave him overall victory... but also the sign for Firouzja to go on a 4-game spurt that took him to 2nd place, and later the world no. 2 spot! | photo: Lennart Ootes, Norway Chess 

Links: official website, chess24: Blitz, Classical, Reports: Preview, Blitz, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

June 2022

June 2 - 5 | MPL Indian Chess Tour #2 | chess24

This is the second of four 16-player tournaments on the $100,000 MPL Indian Chess Tour, from which the winner will qualify both for an 8-player knockout final and for a stage of the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The players play each other once at 15+10 rapid chess over the course of four days, with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.  

Links: official website, chess24

June 7 - 17 | Prague International Chess Festival | Prague, Czech Republic

This will be the 4th edition of the Prague Chess Festival, one of the brightest recent additions to the chess calendar. As well as the Masters, won in 2020 by Alireza Firouzja and in 2021 by Sam Shankland, there’s likely to be a Challengers, Futures and also an Open.

Links: official website, chess24: Masters, Challengers, Futures

June 9 - 19 | Top 16 French Team Championship | Chartres, France

Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are among the players in the line-ups for the French Team Championship, one of the strongest chess team events. This year the system involves teams being split into two groups.

Links: official website, chess24: Pool A, Pool B, High Pool, Low Pool

June 17 - July 5 | Candidates Tournament | Madrid, Spain

The Candidates Tournament is an 8-player, 14-round event that will decide who earns the right to face Magnus Carlsen in the 2023 World Chess Championship match. A welcome change this year is that a tie for 1st place will be decided by a playoff and not by mathematical tiebreakers, though it’s worth noting that if Magnus decides not to play the match, then a tie for 2nd place would matter more, since the top two will go on to play the match. 

Can Ian Nepomniachtchi win the Candidates for a 2nd year in a row? | photo: Lennart Ootes, official website

The tournament will feature Ian Nepomniachtchi (2021 runner-up), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (World Cup winner), Ding Liren (replacing Sergey Karjakin on rating after the Russian player was banned for 6 months for his vocal support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine), Alireza Firouzja (Grand Swiss winner), Fabiano Caruana (Grand Swiss runner-up), Teimour Radjabov (wildcard after turning down his chance to play in 2020) and Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport from the FIDE Grand Prix.

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

June 26 - July 5 | Russian Championship Higher League | Bryansk, Russia

The top five Open and Women’s players from this formidable open qualify for the Russian Chess Championship Superfinals later in the year.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women

July 2022

July 7 - 16 | US Junior, Girls and Senior Championship | Saint Louis, USA

The US Junior and Senior Championship have the best prize fund of any national events of their kind around the world. One player from the US Junior and Girls events will qualify to the main US Championships. 

Links: official website, chess24: US Junior, US Girls, US Senior

July 7 - 10 | Chess Bundesliga | Bremen, Germany

This German Chess League is the strongest season-long team event in chess, featuring 16 teams who play each other over 15 rounds spread over a number of weekends in venues across Germany. The planned January start for this year’s event was put back to March over Coronavirus concerns.

The final 5 rounds will take place with all the teams together in one venue in Bremen.  

Links: official website, chess24, Final report

July 8 - 10 | León Masters | León, Spain

Vishy Anand, Boris Gelfand, Andrey Esipenko and Jaime Santos are playing in the traditional Leon Masters, with the semi-finals and final played as 4-game rapid matches.

Links: official website, chess24

July 10 - 17 | FTX Road to Miami | chess24

The 5th event on the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour sees 16 players compete for $150,000 in prize money as well as the chance to qualify for the next Major on the tour, the FTX Crypto Cup, that will take place in Miami, Florida from August 15. 

Links: official website, FTX Crypto Cup website, chess24: Prelims, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

July 11 - 22 | Biel International Chess Festival | Biel/Bienne, Switzerland

The 55th edition of the Biel International Chess Festival will again have as its centrepiece a grandmaster tournament where the players will compete in classical, rapid and blitz chess, with points combined, while a Chess960 event acts as the tiebreaker. The line-up features Andrey Esipenko, Liem Le, Salem Saleh, Gata Kamsky, Vincent Keymer, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arkadij Naiditsch and Gukesh.

Links: official website, chess24: GM Triathlon

July 16 - 24 | Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Trophy | Dortmund, Germany

The headline tournament of this traditional event will again this year feature No Castles Chess, with Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand joined by Krishnan Sasikiran and Daniel Fridman for the No Castling World Masters. There will also be a strong 8-player German Grand Prix as well as open tournaments.  

Links: official website, chess24: NC World Masters, A Open

July 20 - 24 | SuperUnited Croatia Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz | Zagreb, Croatia

The third tournament on the 5-event $1.4 million Grand Chess Tour is a 10-player event featuring three days of rapid chess (25+10) followed by two days of blitz (3+2), with a $175,000 prize fund.

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

July 29 - August 9 | World Chess Olympiad | Chennai, India

The World Chess Olympiad has been a biennial event since 1950, but the pandemic prevented it being held over-the-board in 2020 or 2021, so that the 2022 Olympiad will be the first since 2018 in Batumi, Georgia. Between the Open and Women’s events there are over 300 teams and approaching 2000 players involved. Minsk, Belarus was originally awarded the tournament, but that was then changed to Moscow, Russia and later Chennai, India.  

2018 Champions China ultimately chose not to play in the 2022 event, it seems due to pandemic travel issues | photo: official website

USA are huge favourites after Levon Aronian's switch of federation gave them a boost, while China and Russia (excluded after the invasion of Ukraine) are absent, and France are missing their stars Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

August 2022

August 12 - 21 | French Championship | Albi, France

The 2022 French Championships are being held as 16-player knockouts with both an Open and a Women's tournament. There are two classical game in each match, with rapid and blitz tiebreaks if the score is still tied.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women, Final report

August 13 - 21 | Chessable British Championship | Torquay, England

The 118th British Chess Championship is taking place at the seaside resort of Torquay.

Links: official website, chess24

August 15 - 21 | FTX Crypto Cup | Miami, USA

The second edition of the FTX Crypto Cup is the 2nd Major of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and will be played in Miami, Florida, with 8 players, including World Champion Magnus Carlsen, competing for $210,000 in prize money plus a $100,000 bitcoin bonus. 

Links: official website, FTX Crypto Cup website, chess24, Reports: Opening, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

August 16 - 27 | Isbank Turkish Super League | Ankara, Turkey

The 13-round Turkish Super League is one of the world's biggest team events and features a host of young talents such as Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. 

Links: official website, chess24

August 17 - 25 | Abu Dhabi Masters | Abu Dhabi, UAE

One of a number of very strong open tournaments played in the United Arab Emirates. The young stars in action in the 9-round tournament include Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin and Javokhir Sindarov, with Wang Hao the top seed. 

Links: official website, chess24

August 20 - 31 | European Women’s Chess Championship | Prague, Czech Republic

The European Women’s Individual Chess Championship both decides the European Women’s Champion and acts as a qualifying event for the FIDE Women’s World Cup.

Links: official website, chess24

August 26 - 30 | Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz | Saint Louis, USA

The fourth tournament on the 5-event $1.4 million Grand Chess Tour is a 10-player event featuring three days of rapid chess (25+10) followed by two days of blitz (5+2), with a $175,000 prize fund. 

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

September 2022

September 2 - 12 | Sinquefield Cup | Saint Louis, USA

The fifth and final event on the $1.4 million Grand Chess Tour is the Sinquefield Cup, a 10-player classical round-robin with a $350,000 prize fund. World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen tops the line-up as a wild card. 

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: 1, 2, 3, Carlsen withdraws, 4, Niemann interview, 6, 7, 8, 9

September 6 - 16 | World Youth (U14-U18) Championship | Mamaia, Romania

These will be the first World Youth Championships held over-the-board since 2019, after the pandemic pushed the 2020 and 2021 events online.

Links: official website, chess24: U18, G18, U16, G16, U14, G14

September 9 - 12 | MPL Indian Chess Tour Leg 3 | chess24 

This is the third of four 16-player tournaments on the $100,000 MPL Indian Chess Tour, from which the winner will qualify both for an 8-player knockout final and for the next stage of the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The players play each other once at 15+10 rapid chess over the course of four days, with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.   

Links: official website, chess24

September 11 - 23 | Russian Chess Championship | Cheboksary, Russia

The Open and Women's Russian Chess Championships are both 12-player round-robins.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women

September 14 - 16 | Chess 9LX | Saint Louis, USA

13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is back for this Chess960 event, where the starting position is chosen randomly from 960 possible positions before each round begins.

Links: official website, chess24 

September 17 - 30 | Women's Grand Prix 1 | Astana, Kazakhstan

The 1st of four Women's Grand Prix tournaments. Each event features 12 out of the 16 players, with each participant playing in three of the four tournaments. 

Links: official website, chess24

September 18 - 25 | Julius Baer Generation Cup | chess24

The 7th event on the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour features a battle of the chess generations, with Boris Gelfand and Vasyl Ivanchuk taking on some of the most promising juniors, including Arjun Erigaisi, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa, Hans Niemann and Christopher Yoo. Magnus Carlsen tops the line up as the players compete to reach the final and play in the last Major of the 2022 Tour in San Francisco this November. 

Links: official website, chess24: Prelims, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 

September 30 - October 3 | MPL Indian Chess Tour Leg 4 | chess24 

The final leg of the $100,000 MPL Indian Chess Tour is a 16-player rapid round-robin that will finalise which 8 players compete in the Tour's knockout final. The winner also gains an invite to an upcoming Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event. 

Links: official website, chess24

October 2022

October 2 - 10 | European Chess Club Cup | Mayrhofen, Austria

The annual European Chess Club Cup, which in 2018 and 2021 was the last classical event Magnus Carlsen played before a World Championship match, is a 7-round event for teams that have previously competed in European national leagues. Once again Magnus plays, with Vishy Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport, Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh among the other stars in action.

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women, Reports: Preview, 1, 2-3, 4, 5, 6-7

October 4 - 20 | US Chess Championships | Saint Louis, USA

The now 14-player US Championship and US Women's Championship are the strongest and best-funded national championships in the world, with Levon Aronian also set to be able to compete in 2022. 

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Women, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

October 12 - 22 | World Junior Chess Championship | Sardinia, Italy

The 11-round World Junior Championship is held in Open and Girls categories for players aged 20 and under. Due to the pandemic the event was last held over-the-board in 2019. 

Links: official website, chess24: Open, Girls

October 14 - 21 | Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 8 | chess24

The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour is back with Magnus Carlsen looking to defend the title he won in the inaugural $1.6 million tour. This is the sixth and final Regular event on the 2022 Tour, which also features three Majors. More details soon.

Links: official website, chess24: Prelims, Knockout, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8   

October 22 - 30 | Bangkok Chess Club Open | Chiang Mai, Thailand

Aryan Tari, Jan Gustafsson and Nigel Short are among the players in action in the Bangkok Chess Club Open, being played for the first time since 2019 after the pandemic prevented two editions from being held. 

Links: official website, chess24

October 25 - 30 | FIDE World Fischer Random Championship | Reykjavik, Iceland

Magnus Carlsen beat Fabiano Caruana in the semi-finals but was crushed by Wesley So in the 2019 final | photo: Lennart Ootes

Defending Champion Wesley So and world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen are among the players already confirmed for the second edition of the World Fischer Random Championship, where the starting position for the games will be selected at random from 960 possible options.

Links: official website, chess24: Group stage, Knockout, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

October 24 - November 6 | FIDE Women's Candidates, Pool A | Monte Carlo, Monaco

The FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament that decides Ju Wenjun's next World Championship challenger has been split in two and made a knockout as a way of FIDE avoiding a clash between Russian and Ukrainian players. Pool A sees Anna Muzychuk play Humpy Koneru and Mariya Muzychuk take on Lei Tingjie.  

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: 1, 2, 3

November 2022

November 2 - 7 | Chess.com Global Championship | Toronto, Canada

After a long online qualifying stage, 8 players compete over-the-board for a $200,000 top prize. Hikaru Nakamura, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So, Dmitry Andreikin, Teimour Radjabov, Anish Giri, Nihal Sarin and Levon Aronian compete in a knockout where each match is played over eight 15+2 rapid games. 

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

November 2 - 10 | Fall Chess Classic | Saint Louis, USA

Yu Yangyi, Vidit and Hans Niemann are among the 10 players taking part in the strong A event of the Fall Chess Classic in the St. Louis Chess Club. 

Links: official website, chess24: Fall Chess Classic A, Fall Chess Classic B

November 6 - 14 | European Youth Championship | Antalya, Turkey

These 9-round Swiss tournaments are held for European chess players in categories from Under 8 to Under 18, in Open and Girls categories.  

Links: official website, chess24: U8, G8, U10, G10, U12, G12, U14, G14, U16, G16, U18, G18

November 14 - 20 | Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals | San Francisco

Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Anish Giri and Praggnanandhaa will play the final Major of the $1.6 million 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour from the historic San Francisco Ferry Building. They're joined online by the Arjun Erigaisi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Liem Le. 

The 7-round tournament sees the players match up against each other in 4-game rapid matches, with $7,500 available to the winner of each clash.

Magnus Carlsen won an amazing game against Anish Giri on the way to winning the Meltwater Championship Chess Tour — both players were in the studio, a scenario we're likely to see more of in 2022!

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: Preview, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

November 15 - 28 | World Senior Championship | Assisi, Italy

The World Senior Chess Championship for 50+ and 65+ players are planned to be held for the first time since 2019.

Links: official website, chess24: 50+, 65+

November 20 - 25 | World Team Championship | Jerusalem, Israel

This 12-team event, with a new knockout format, was supposed to take place in April but was postponed after Russia invaded Ukraine. Both teams had been set to play. Russia have been excluded, with the event featuring Azerbaijan, China, France, India, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Ukraine, USA and Uzbekistan. 

Links: official website, chess24: Pool A, Pool B, Knockout, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4   

November 23 - December 17 | Speed Chess Championship | Chess.com

This 16-player blitz knockout tournament has a $100,000 prize fund and features World Champion Magnus Carlsen and the winner for the last four seasons, Hikaru Nakamura. Each match features 90 minutes of 5+1 chess, 60 minutes of 3+1 and finally 30 minutes of 1+1.  

Links: official website, chess24: Caruana vs. Erigaisi, Ding vs. Grischuk, Nepo vs. MVL, Aronian vs. Andreikin, Carlsen vs. Gukesh, Nihal vs. Giri, So vs. Abdusattorov, Nakamura vs. Paravyan, QFs: Nihal vs. Ding, Nakamura vs. Aronian, Carlsen vs. Caruana, MVL vs. So, Nakamura vs. Nihal, Carlsen vs. MVL, Carlsen vs. Nakamura

November 25 - December 1 | MrDodgy Invitational 3 | chess24/Chess.com

The 3rd edition of the MrDodgy includes Magnus Carlsen as a late replacement for David Howell. It also doubles the number of players to 32, who compete in two 16-player round-robins to decide the 16 players who go forward to the knockout. Each knockout match consists of 12 5+0 games. The winner of the prestigious event gets a photo of a man on a horse 

Links: official website, chess24: Pool A, Pool B, Knockout, Reports: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

November 26 - 27 | Chess Bundesliga | Germany

The Chess Bundesliga or German League is one of the world's strongest team events, with 16 teams facing each other from October 2022 to April 2023. The teams play on weekends in locations around Germany.

Links: official website, chess24

November 29 - December 4 | Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz | Kolkata, India

The 4th edition of Tata Steel Chess India, taking place in the National Library of India, will have a Women's event alongside the traditional Open tournament. Wesley So, Vidit, Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk are among the players already announced. 

Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian dominated in 2021 | photo: Lennart Ootes

The Rapid section is a 10-round single round-robin with 15 minutes per player plus a 10-second increment per move. It's held over three days. The Blitz is a 10-player double round-robin at a 3+2 time control, played over two days.  

Links: official website, chess24: Open Rapid, Women's Rapid, Open Blitz, Women's Blitz, Reports: Preview, Rapid 1, Rapid 2-3, Blitz 1, Blitz 2

November 29 - December 11 | FIDE Women's Candidates, Pool B | Khiva, Uzbekistan

The second half of the FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament sees three Russian players, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno, and one Chinese star, Tan Zhongyi, compete in 4-game knockout matches to decide who plays Lei Tingjie, the winner of Pool A, to become the challenger to Ju Wenjun for the Women's World Championship title.  

Links: official website, chess24, Reports: 1, 2, 3

December 2022

December 11 - 14 | Julius Baer Challenger Championship | Tel Aviv, Israel

This is a $10,000 match between 2021 Challengers Chess Tour Champion Praggnanandhaa and 2022 Champion Pranav V .

Links: official website, chess24

December 12 - 22 | Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival | Sitges, Spain

Yu Yangyi and Vasyl Ivanchuk are among the players confirmed for this already traditional 10-round open tournament in a coastal town near Barcelona.  

Links: official website, chess24, Final report

December 16 - 18 | European Rapid and Blitz Championships | Katowice, Poland

The European Blitz Championship takes place on December 16th with 11 double rounds at a time control of 3 minutes for all moves plus a 2-second increment per move. The European Rapid Championship is 11 rounds with a 15+10 time control on December 17-18th. 

Links: official website, chess24: Blitz, Rapid

December 18 - 23 | Gashimov Memoiral | Baku, Azerbaijan

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Richard Rapport, Gukesh, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Paco Vallejo, Sam Shankland, Wang Hao, Rauf Mamedov, Aydin Suleymanli and Abdulla Gadimbayli compete in 3 days of rapid chess and 2 days of blitz in honour of Vugar Gashimov, who died tragically young in 2014.

Links: official website, chess24

December 26 - 30 | World Rapid and Blitz Championships | Almaty, Kazakhstan

The World Rapid Championship is a 3-day event with a time control of 15 minutes for all moves, plus a 10-second increment from move 1. In the Open section there are 13 rounds and in the Women's 11. 

The World Blitz Championship is held over the final 2 days, with a time control of 3+2. There are 21 rounds in the Open section and 17 in the Women's. 

The total prize fund is $1 million, with a top prize of $60,000 in the Open events and $40,000 in the Women's. 

Links: Official website, chess24: Rapid Open, Rapid Blitz, Blitz Open, Blitz Women, Reports, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Please let us know in the comments if there are any major events announced for 2022 that we’re currently missing. We’ll be keeping this calendar updated throughout the year.