List of strong chess tournaments



This article depicts many of the strongest chess tournaments in history.

The following list is not intended to be an exhaustive or definitive record of tournament chess, but takes as its foundation the collective opinion of chess experts and journalists over the strongest tournaments in history.

Events that merit inclusion have been largely judged according to the strength (and relative strength in depth) of their participants. Other factors were taken into account, but have less influence; for example the quality of chess played, the closeness of the contest and the number of world top 10 and/or 'big reputation' players who took part, the time control (no fast chess tournaments are listed). Inevitably, this introduces a degree of subjectivity, but the vast majority of tournaments in the list range from FIDE Category 10 to FIDE category 21 and beyond.

The names of the tournament winners have been included next to the year and venue. Many of the tournaments have had books written about them and whilst these will be mostly out of print, they are occasionally available at online auction sites, second-hand specialist book shops etc.

No attempt is made at comparing the relative strengths of tournaments in the list, as this is, and continues to be, the subject of inconclusive debate amongst experts.

While events are listed in year order, they are not listed chronologically within the same year.

Individual tournaments

 * AVRO 1938 chess tournament
 * Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament
 * Berlin 1881 chess tournament
 * Berlin 1897 chess tournament
 * Bled 1931 chess tournament
 * Buenos Aires 1939 chess tournament
 * Cambridge Springs 1904 chess tournament
 * Carlsbad 1907 chess tournament Carlsbad
 * Carlsbad 1911 chess tournamentCarlsbad
 * Carlsbad 1923 chess tournamentCarlsbad
 * Carlsbad 1929 chess tournamentCarlsbad
 * Dallas 1957 chess tournament
 * Groningen 1946 chess tournament
 * Hamburg 1910 chess tournament
 * Hastings 1895 chess tournament
 * Kemeri 1937 chess tournament
 * London 1851 chess tournament
 * London 1862 chess tournament
 * London 1883 chess tournament
 * London 1899 chess tournament
 * Mannheim 1914 chess tournament
 * Mar del Plata 1941 chess tournament
 * Montevideo 1938 chess tournament
 * Moravská Ostrava 1923 chess tournament
 * Moscow 1925 chess tournament
 * Munich 1941 chess tournament
 * New York 1924 chess tournament
 * New York 1927 chess tournament
 * New York 1931 chess tournament
 * Nottingham 1936 chess tournament
 * Nuremberg 1896 chess tournament
 * Ostend 1907 chess tournament
 * Paris 1867 chess tournament
 * Paris 1878 chess tournament
 * Paris 1900 chess tournament
 * Prague 1908 chess tournament
 * Salzburg 1942 chess tournament
 * San Antonio 1972 chess tournament
 * San Remo 1930 chess tournament
 * St. Petersburg 1914 chess tournament
 * Vienna 1873 chess tournament
 * Vienna 1882 chess tournament
 * Vienna 1898 chess tournament
 * Vienna 1908 chess tournament
 * Zurich 1934 chess tournament
 * Zurich 1953 chess tournament

Major recurring tournaments

 * Aerosvit chess tournament
 * American Chess Congress
 * Berlin City Chess Championship
 * Biel International Chess Festival
 * Grand Slam Masters Final
 * British Chess Congress
 * Capablanca Memorial
 * Chigorin Memorial
 * Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting
 * DSB Congress
 * Euwe Memorial
 * General Government chess tournament
 * Gibraltar Chess Festival
 * Hastings International Chess Congress
 * IBM international chess tournament
 * Keres Memorial
 * Konex chess tournament
 * Leningrad City Chess Championship
 * Leopold Trebitsch Memorial Tournament
 * Linares chess tournament
 * London Chess Classic
 * Lone Pine International
 * Lublin Grandmaster Tournament
 * Mar del Plata chess tournament
 * Monte Carlo chess tournament
 * Moscow City Chess Championship
 * M-Tel Masters
 * Netanya chess tournament
 * North Sea Cup
 * Norway Chess
 * Paris City Chess Championship
 * Pearl Spring chess tournament
 * Phillips & Drew Kings
 * Reggio Emilia chess tournament
 * Rubinstein Memorial
 * San Sebastián chess tournament
 * Shamkir Chess
 * Shenzhen Masters
 * Schlechter Memorial
 * Silesian Chess Congress
 * Sinquefield Cup
 * Staunton Memorial
 * Tal Memorial
 * Tata Steel Chess Tournament
 * Tilburg chess tournament
 * Torre Memorial
 * Trebitsch Memorial
 * Triberg chess tournament
 * Vidmar Memorial
 * Vlissingen chess tournament
 * World Open chess tournament
 * Xtracon Chess Open
 * Zurich Chess Challenge

World Cup

 * Chess World Cup 2005
 * Chess World Cup 2007
 * Chess World Cup 2009
 * Chess World Cup 2011
 * Chess World Cup 2013
 * Chess World Cup 2015
 * Chess World Cup 2017
 * Chess World Cup 2019
 * Chess World Cup 2021