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