2024 Year In Review
Which players stood out in 2024? Who delivered the best performances, played the most games, or gained the most rating points? Which events captured chess fans worldwide, and what moments dominated the headlines and on social media? It's time to reflect on the numbers with our Year In Review.
This was a chess year to remember, packed with incredible performances and record-breaking moments, culminating with a historic new world chess champion crowned in Singapore. Chess.com brought fans closer to the action, broadcasting unforgettable events and capturing the key moments by creating content celebrating the beauty of chess.
In this article, we delve into the statistics that made 2024 a year to remember.
Over-The-Board Statistics:
- Best Overall Classical Performance
- Best Tournament Performance
- Biggest Rating Gain
- Most Classical Games
- Most Tournament Games
- Longest Games
Chess.com Statistics:
- Most Chess.com Games Played
- Most Chess.com Puzzles Solved
- Most Titled Tuesday Wins
- Most Popular Events
- Most Read Articles
- Most Popular X/Twitter Posts
- Most Popular Instagram Posts
- Most Popular Instagram Reels
- Most Popular Youtube Videos
- Most Popular Facebook Posts
Best Overall Classical Performance
GM Magnus Carlsen tops the list of the highest overall classical performance of 2831, but with a big asterisk to his name. The world number-one openly said he is cutting down on classical chess and played a record-low of only 18 games with the longer time control. His only appearances were in Norway Chess and the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad. He is unlikely to have many more in 2025.
The player who stands out on this list is GM Arjun Erigaisi, who played at the 2827 level. The Indian number-one had an exceptional year that saw him climb from 17th to fourth on the world rankings. He also reached a milestone when he became the 15th player to break 2800.
Erigaisi is tied for second with GM Hikaru Nakamura, who also is mostly stepping down from non-speed chess events. GM Fabiano Caruana is fourth on the list after having a great 2024, keeping the number two spot on the world rankings and winning the FIDE Circuit.
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov also makes the list in the year where he breached the top 10 for the first time, taking it one step further by joining a select few in chess history to make it to the top five before their 20th birthday. That came as a result of scoring two of the best tournament performances of the year.
(All statistics are based on data from perpetualcheck.com)
GM Gukesh Dommaraju not only became the youngest-ever undisputed world champion but also scored one of the best tournament performances in chess history. Gukesh scored an incredible 9/10 and a 3056 performance for India in the Chess Olympiad, which saw him gain 30 rating points and win an individual gold medal.
Second on the list is Erigaisi, who, along with Gukesh, was a key reason India won team gold in Budapest with his 10/11 score and a 2968 performance.
Remarkably, Abdusattorov has both the third and the fifth best performance of the year. His 2884 performance on board 1 in Budapest helped Uzbekistan secure bronze, while his 6.5/9 and 2874 performance in Prague Masters was the second-best individual tournament performance of the year.
That best performance in a non-team tournament was by GM Alireza Firouzja, who performed at 2878 with his 6/9 score to win the Sinquefield Cup for the second year in a row.
Biggest Rating Gain In Classical
Kids just seem to become stronger and stronger, and at a younger age than before. But who gained the biggest rating in classical chess last year?
The answer is a pretty unknown 13-year-old from China, who climbed from 1718 in January to 2323 in December. FM Dingzhou Cong's gain of 605 points is the most by any player rated above 2300, according to Chess.com's research.
Second on the list is another noteworthy player, namely nine-year-old FM Ethan Pang. The British prodigy smashed two IM Faustino Oro records this year, becoming the youngest-ever 2200 and 2300 player. He has gained a total of 579 rating points from January to December, clinching the FM title.
Fun fact: The player who had the highest gain out of all players in the FIDE database is 16-year-old Ehab Bakeer from Egypt, who was 1232 in January but in December 2024 is 2107. He was helped by the changes in FIDE's rating formula, but that is a jump of 876 points!
Czech GM Vojtech Plat couldn't compete with last year's most active classical player, GM Oleg Korneev (294 games), but still tops this year's list with 273 games. He has seven more games than Sorin-Mihai Samu, an untitled 57-year-old from Romania.
The next four spots all belong to titled players who have regularly played in Hungary tournaments.
In April, Billy Fellowes and CM Peter Lalic played a record 272 moves in their game in the 3rd Kingston Invitational in London. It was the longest classical game of the year and possibly the longest in chess history.
Whether it legitimately can claim its place in history books is a different question, as it was clear both players were aiming for the record.
It's hardly a surprise to see Nakamura top the list of the most active players this year with 1244 games, including 91 Titled Tuesday events, Champions Chess Tour, and some over-the-board events.
According to our databases, GMs Oleksandr Bortnyk and Jose Eduardo Martinez were the only others to make it to more than 1000 games, while Firouzja has 974 games. Seventeen-year-old WFM Veronika Shubenkova is another active Titled Tuesday participant, the only non-GM to make the list.
More than 6 billion games were played on Chess.com in 2024, but can you believe that we had one user who played almost 100,000 of those games?
The user kiki7126 from Cuba heads this list with 94,863 games in 2024, or roughly 260 games per day this year. He is more than 10,000 games ahead of the second most active player, lagoonized, who is on 84,238.
How many games did you play on Chess.com in 2024?
Yes, we know people love puzzles on Chess.com, but this stat should raise an eyebrow or two. The user Trident777 heads this list with almost 400 puzzles a day and an unbelievable 145,075 puzzles solved in 2024 in total.
That's almost 10,000 ahead of number two on the list, claudiomonttoyax from Chile, while Sebinjr follows in third place with 130,401 solved puzzles.
The rivalry between two of the best speed chess players in the world remains a treat for chess fans, especially during Chess.com's weekly prize tournaments Titled Tuesday.
Currently, Nakamura remains the Titled Tuesday king, having won 22 of them and finished among the top five in 61.9 % of his 91 appearances in 2024. Carlsen, who won the Early Titled Tuesday on Christmas Eve, has won 13 events, which is another proof of their online dominance.
Next on the list is Firouzja, who won six events but reached the top five in 2/3 of his 59 appearances. He is followed by GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda and rising star GM Denis Lazavik, who both won five events.
While we see more and more speed chess events online, classical chess remains a hit among chess enthusiasts. Four classical events make the top five list. It's hardly a surprise to see that the list is topped by the FIDE World Championship, which broke several records.
| # | Event | Start Date | End Date | Peak Viewership |
| 1 | FIDE World Championship 2024 | 11/25/2024 | 12/13/2024 | 517,897 |
| 2 | FIDE Candidates | 4/4/2024 | 4/22/2024 | 337,656 |
| 3 | Speed Chess Championship 2024 | 6/27/2024 | 8/9/2024 | 223,229 |
| 4 | Norway Chess | 5/27/2024 | 6/8/2024 | 140,822 |
| 5 | 45th Chess Olympiad | 8/11/2024 | 8/22/2024 | 136,401 |
Unsurprisingly, the FIDE World Championship also dominates the list of the most-read articles and news stories. The only other story that made the list was the bizarre poisoning incident from Russia.
- 18-Year-Old Gukesh Becomes Youngest-Ever Undisputed Chess World Champion
- Chess Player Suspended After Allegedly Poisoning Her Rival
- Ding Stuns Gukesh To Win Game 1 Of 2024 World Championship
- Gukesh Leads World Championship After Ding's Blunder Ends Game 11 Thriller
- Ding Liren Strikes Back To Beat Gukesh In Perfect Game 12
1. One day, day one: 2.3 million views
fixed it https://t.co/wdxn2Sxjov pic.twitter.com/BHG3G4PHig
— Chess.com (@chesscom) June 9, 2024
2. what's the best move here: 1 million views
what's the best move here? pic.twitter.com/GobMigDWKB
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 3, 2024
3. India wins Olympiad gold: 1.3 million views
INDIA DOMINATE AND WIN OLYMPIAD GOLD 🇮🇳🥇
— Chess.com (@chesscom) September 21, 2024
Their star-studded lineup was simply too strong for the world as @DGukesh @ArjunErigaisi @viditchess @rpraggnachess and @HariChess clinched India's first-ever open gold! 🙌 #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/0B7s8hukgm
1. Gukesh winner post: 190,000 likes
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2. Outstanding performances by Gukesh: 110,000 likes
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3. Sheet way to play chess: 71,000 likes
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1. Gukesh hugs his father: 4.6 million likes
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2. Carlsen calculates everything and offers draw: 2.6 million likes
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3. Magnus plays against 8 players: 1.3 million likes
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1. Magnus Carlsen lie detector test
2. Levy Rozman lie detector test
3. Vishy Anand dinner with candidates
- Gukesh becomes world champion: 179,000 likes
- Ju Wenjun wins Norway Chess: 14,000 likes
- He's one of us: 15,000 likes
And that was the year in chess! What was your favorite video, post, moment, statistic, tournament, or match of the year? Let us know in the comments!
Tarjei J. Svensen is a Norwegian chess journalist who worked for some of the country's biggest media outlets and appeared on several national TV broadcasts. Between 2015 and 2019, he ran his chess website mattogpatt.no, covering chess news in Norwegian and partly in English.
In 2020, he was hired by Chess24 to cover chess news, eventually moving to Chess.com as a full-time chess journalist in 2023. He is also known for his extensive coverage of chess news on his X/Twitter account.
