From Chennai To Qatar: The Major Tournaments That Close Out 2024

The year draws to a close, but we're in for a thrilling last couple of months with a number of chess tournaments to look forward to, headlined by the 2024 World Chess Championship.

All eyes are on GM Ding Liren and GM Gukesh Dommaraju, who will face off for the crown in Singapore from November 23 to December 13. But the excitement extends beyond as there are several high-profile over-the-board tournaments scheduled for the remainder of the year.

Here's a look at what's coming up:

Chennai Grand Masters

On short notice and somewhat controversially, India's strongest-ever super tournament emerged on the chess calendar in the final days of last year. Gukesh clinched victory in the event, securing crucial points in the FIDE Circuit. The victory earned him a spot to the Candidates, and we know what happened next.

The good news is that the 2023 event wasn't just a one-off occurrence; we're just a week away from the second edition, with the first move taking place on November 5. This year, the Masters is back even stronger, and we'll even see a Challenger section featuring some of India's rising players, with the winner taking a spot in the 2025 Masters group.

Both groups will be an eight-player round-robin with seven rounds of classical chess.

Masters

While last year's winner is unavailable due to a slightly more significant event, India's new number-one, GM Arjun Erigaisi, will be in action again. Arjun is leading the race for a Candidates spot thanks to the FIDE Circuit standings and could secure important points in Chennai.

The tournament is also boosted by the participation of GMs Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who will give their younger competitors a fight for the top spots.

The total prize fund is around $60,000, with the winner cashing in $18,000.

Tata Steel Chess India

Days after the spectacle ends in Chennai, we'll move northeast to Kolkata, where the rapid & blitz event Tata Steel Chess India will take place for the sixth time. 

Since almost abandoning classical, GM Magnus Carlsen has stepped up his participation in speed chess events, and he will be back after winning his only previous participation in the 2019 edition.

The 2023 winner, Vachier-Lagrave, is missing, but both the 2021 winner (Arjun) and the 2022 winner (GM Nihal Sarin) can pose a real challenge to the world rapid champion.

The complete event will feature a single round-robin in each time control. Rapid games will feature a 25+10 time control, while the blitz portion will see the faster 3+2.

This year the Women's tournament will also be held together with the Open, featuring top GMs such as Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli.

Carlsen vs Caruana Chess960 Match

On November 21 and 22, days before the chess highlight of the year, Carlsen will face his former world championship challenger GM Fabiano Caruana in a Chess960 match in Singapore. The news was revealed by Jan Henric Buettner, the co-founder of the Freestyle Chess Tournaments, in an interview with ChessBase India earlier in October.

Buettner shared that the venue is likely the Supertree Grove, a unique vertical garden resembling towering trees with large canopies and colorful lights at night. “It’s going to make for spectacular pictures. We want to make it as big an event as possible," the German entrepreneur told Hindustan Times.

The match will likely include a press conference on November 20, according to Buettner, who seems to have spectacular plans for the 2025 Freestyle Grand Slam. Together with the winner of the first Freestyle Chess event, Buettner raised a staggering $12 million for the new series of Chess960 tournaments. 

Six events are planned for the coming year, with the first event once again taking place at his own Weissenhaus resort near Hamburg, Germany. An impressive $750,000 prize fund is guaranteed per event, but the plan is to increase the amount to $1 million in 2026.

2024 US Masters

Eyebrows were raised when Carlsen and GM Hikaru Nakamura both appeared on the list of participants for the $28,000 US Masters, set to take place at Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina from November 27 to December 1. What looked too good to be true proved to be exactly that. The organizers had to clarify that the two players were not taking part in the event.

Hi All! To clarify, these were fraudulent entries that came in overnight. The list is updated and accurate: https://t.co/HtA3ndFzmx

— Charlotte Chess Center (@CLTchesscenter) October 22, 2024

Caruana, however, has confirmed his entry, and he will head what could become the strongest open event in U.S. chess history.

While the world number two is the clear favorite in the 230-player field, he is bound to face competition from top U.S GMs Awonder Liang, Grigoriy Oparin, the world's youngest-ever grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra, and Norwegian star GM Aryan Tari.

Top entries

Star content creator and Chess.com commentator GM Daniel Naroditsky will be a special VIP guest at the event, where he will interact with fans and other players.

London Chess Classic

As if the chess calendar isn't already full enough, the London Chess Classic also announced the return of the U.K.'s flagship event this year.

The event was regarded as one of the highlights of the chess calendar in the 2010s. The inaugural edition in 2009 was won by Carlsen, ahead of GM Vladimir Kramnik. That earned the event a place in history, as it led to the Norwegian becoming the world's highest-rated player for the first time. 

The London Chess Classic has attracted some of the world's top players ever since, but it took a hit when the pandemic broke out in 2020 and hasn't been the same since.

The line-up for this year's Elite event at the @xtxmarkets London Chess Classic will feature:
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Nikita Vitiugov, Michael Adams, Gawain Jones, Ju Wenjun and Shreyas Royal. The 2 remaining players to complete this world-class field will be announced shortly! pic.twitter.com/182axbkIus

— London Chess Classic (@london_chess) October 24, 2024

While the 14th edition is not as strong as before, it does have four of the world's top players in GMs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vidit Gujrathi, Michael Adams, and Nikita Vitiugov, in addition to U.K.'s latest grandmaster, 15-year-old Shreyas Royal and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun. One player is yet to be announced.

The venue is also spectacular this year, as it will be taking place at the Emirates Stadium, home to Arsenal Football Club. In addition to the elite event, there will also be two nine-round open events.

Qatar Masters

One of the year's strongest open events returns in the first half of December. While not having the same star-studded field as in 2023, World number-nine GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov is a clear favorite among the four 2700 players in the field.

After the Champions Chess Tour Finals in Oslo from December 17 to 21, we'll just have a few days of rest before the World Rapid & Blitz Championships, which take place in New York from December 26 to 31.

Which event are you looking the most forward to? Share your favorite in the comments!