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List of strong chess tournaments
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article depicts many of the strongest chess tournaments in history.
![]() | The inclusion or exclusion of items from this list or length of this list is disputed. (February 2019) |


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 or 'big reputation' players who took part, and 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.
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Tournaments and winners
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1850–1859
1860–1869
1870–1879
1880–1889
1890–1899

Masters at Hastings 1895
Standing: Albin, Schlechter, Janowski, Marco, Blackburne, Maróczy, Schiffers, Gunsberg, Burn, Tinsley. Seated: Vergani, Steinitz, Chigorin, Lasker, Pillsbury, Tarrasch, Mieses, Teichmann. Absent: von Bardeleben, Mason, Pollock, Walbrodt. 1900–1909

1910–1919
1920–1929
1930–1939
1940–1949
1950–1959
1960–1969
1970–1979
1980–1989
1990–1999
2000–2009
2010–2019
2020–2029
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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
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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
- Chennai Grand Masters
- 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
- Qatar Masters Open
- 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
- US Chess Championship
- UzChess Cup
- Vidmar Memorial
- Vlissingen chess tournament
- World Open chess tournament
- Xtracon Chess Open
- Zurich Chess Challenge
World Cup
See also
References
- Sunnucks, Anne (1970). The Encyclopaedia of Chess. Hale. ISBN 0-7091-1030-8.
- Kenneth Whyld (1986). Guinness Chess, The Records. Guinness Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-85112-455-0.
- Litmanowicz, Władysław & Giżycki, Jerzy (1986). Szachy od A do Z (1. A-M). Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka Warszawa. ISBN 83-217-2481-7.
- Litmanowicz, Władysław & Giżycki, Jerzy (1987). Szachy od A do Z (2. N-Z). Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka Warszawa. ISBN 83-217-2745-X.
- British Chess Magazine (January 1978) – Your Hundred Best Chess Tournaments To 1960 (by Ken Whyld)
- British Chess Magazine (August 1979) – Reflections on Montreal (by Raymond Keene)
- British Chess Magazine (November 1987) – The 'Super-tournaments' in chess history (by Romelio Milian Gonzalez)
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External links
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