Grenke Chess Classic is an elite

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

tournament held in the German cities of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

and

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

and sponsored by . It was held annually between 2013 and 2019, with the exception of 2016. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, both the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled.

Winners

2013

Six players participated in the first edition of Grenke Chess. The winner was

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating o ...

ahead of

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

; they scored 6.5 and 6 out of 10, respectively. :

2014

Arkadij Naiditsch Arkadij Naiditsch ( az, Arkadi Naydiç; born 25 October 1985) is an Azerbaijani (since 2015) chess grandmaster who previously represented Latvia (until 2005) and Germany (2005–2015). Career In 1995 he won the European Under-10 champ ...

, the highest-rated German chess player won the 2014 edition of Grenke Chess Classic ahead of

David Baramidze David Baramidze ( ka, დავით ბარამიძე, ''Davit' Baramidze''; born September 27, 1988) is a German chess Grandmaster. Baramidze was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. He obtained the title of Grandmaster in 2004, which made him t ...

. This edition was not a supertournament, and was a national competition: all eight participants came from Germany. It was a single round robin, and two spots were provided for the players to win entry into the next edition of 2015. :

2015

The tournament was played between 2–9 February 2015. With an average rating of 2752, it is the strongest edition of Grenke Chess in its history. Among the participants were

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

and Levon Aronian. The winner was

, who eventually won a five-game tiebreak with

with a score of 3–2 (two rapid, two blitz and one armageddon game). : ; Notes * Final rapid/blitz/armageddon tie-break:

def.

, 3–2. * FIDE Ratings as of February 2015.

2017

The 2017 tournament took place from 15 to 22 April in Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden.

2018

; Notes * The tiebreaks were as follows: 1) number of wins; 2) number of black wins; 3) head-to-head. * 2018 Grenke Chess Open A swiss tournament was won by 13-year-old German player

Vincent Keymer Vincent Keymer (born 15 November 2004) is a German chess grandmaster, and a young chess prodigy. Chess career Vincent Keymer was born in Mainz, Germany, a city that has a long history of hosting rapid tournaments and Chess960 tournaments. He le ...

with a score of 8/9. Keymer thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2019.

2019

* Grenke Chess Open 2019

Swiss-system tournament A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a fixed number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than for a round-robin tournament; thus each competitor (team or individual) does not play all the other ...

was won by GM

Daniel Fridman Daniel Fridman ( lv, Daniels Fridmans; born February 15, 1976) is a Latvian-German chess player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001, he was Latvian champion in 1996 and German champion in 2008, 2012 and 2014. Early chess caree ...

( 2629) with a score of 7½/9.

References

External links

Official website of Grenke Chess Tournament
{{Chess tournaments Chess competitions International sports competitions hosted by Germany Chess in Germany Baden-Baden Sport in Karlsruhe Recurring sporting events established in 2013 2013 establishments in Germany