Year Recap: How was chess in 2022?

2022 was one of the most remarkable years for chess. Several things have happened, we have witnessed the future stars, we have seen so many frustrating losses, and we have seen the joy in players' eyes, the joy of achieving something that means a lot to them, i.e. defeating the World Champion, making a tricky draw, or even finding an extraordinary move that bamboozled the commentators!  

• Champion: Magnus Carlsen
• Runner-Up: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 
• Third Place: Richard Rapport 

At the same time, Tata Steel Challengers took place where Arjun Erigaisi of India clinched first place. Runner-up was from Check Republic, Thai Dai Van Nguyen, and third place was taken by Jonas Bjerre Buhl. 

From 3 to 15th of May, Bucharest arranged Superbet Chess Classic where first place was taken by ‘The French’ Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Runner-up and third place were taken by Wesley So and Levon Aronian. 

In the same month, on the 30th of May, Norway Chess started. Who was the champion, make a guess! Yes, you are right. It was homeboy Magnus! The second place was taken by Shakh. Surprisingly, third place was grabbed by the Tiger of Madras, Viswanathan Anand! Anand hadn’t played much in 2022, but sometimes he lets us see his flame. 

Prag Chess Festival started on June 7th. When is the last time you heard of Pentala Harikrishna winning a tournament? Well, he won the Prag! 

From the 16th of June, the Candidates Tournament 2022 started with 8 Grandmasters in a double round-robin format. The champion was Ian Nepomniachtchi and the runner-up was the Chinese Ding Liren. The Candidates Tournament 2022 was one of the most bizarre tournaments in the history of chess. It was like a movie directed by David Fincher! 

Incident One: Qualification of Radjabov 

Teimour Radjabov has already earned a spot in the 2020 Candidates Tournament, which was set to get off on March 17 in Russia. In early 2020, COVID-19 began rapidly spreading around the world, and Radjabov quietly requested that FIDE postpone the competition. On March 6, 2020, Radjabov withdrew because FIDE refused to comply. The competition got underway on time, but after one week of play—during which half of the matches had been played—FIDE nonetheless stopped the competition, claiming public health limitations put in place by the Russian government because of the epidemic. Radjabov requested for his readmission into the 2020 tournament once it was postponed after feeling like his worries were validated by the occurrences. Radjabov's plea was once more denied by FIDE, who instead gave him direct entrance for the 2022 Candidates, which he accepted.

Incident Two: Disqualification of Karjakin 

Sergey Karjakin made multiple public comments celebrating the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and repeated Russian official remarks promoting the military action, which many analysts considered as propaganda. Karjakin was prohibited from participating in any FIDE-affiliated events for a six-month period following a March 2022 decision by the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission finding that his remarks violated the FIDE Code of Ethics. This suspension included the 2022 Candidates Tournament.

Karjakin had 21 days to file an appeal, but he refused to accept responsibility and claimed he did not see the purpose. However, the Russian Chess Federation appealed on his behalf. The verdict was affirmed by FIDE's Appeal Chamber on May 6. Karjakin might have filed a further appeal with the Court of Arbitration.

Incident Three: Qualification of Ding Liren

No player would have initially been eligible based only on rating. The regulations specified that when Karjakin was suspended, the highest-ranked player who hadn't previously qualified would take his place based on the May 2022 rating list. This player would also need to have participated in at least 30 officially rated games between June 2021 and May 2022.

The highest-rated player on the April 2022 rating list (who was not a world champion nor a qualifier) was Ding Liren, who had a rating of 2799. However, due to his inability to leave China for tournaments during the COVID-19 epidemic, Ding had only played 4 of the needed 30-rated games. Ding was required to participate in at least 26 rated games in March and April in order for his name to appear on the May 2022 rating list. He also needed to hold onto his rating advantage over the next highest non-qualifier since a number of players, notably Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, had a chance to pass him. Ding was able to fulfill the minimum game requirement because the Chinese Chess Association quickly organized three distinct rated competitions, each featuring him. He rose to #2 on the rating list as a result of his good performance in those competitions. Ding had now formally qualified for the Candidates Tournament after Karjakin's petition was rejected.

In 2022, Biel Chess Festival was one of the important events. The winner was Le Quang Liem, the runner-up was Andrey Esipenko and third place was grabbed by none other than Gukesh D! 

The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting was held July 16-25 in Dortmund, Germany. Germany's Dimitri Kolarz became the champion. Viswanathan Anand was the runner-up and Michael Adams was third.

Towards the end of the year, the much-anticipated Sinquefield Cup took place from 1-16 September. Alireza Firouza, Ian Nepomniashi, and Wesley So-Fabiano Caruana (jointly) won the champion, runner-up, and third place respectively.

These all were the major tournaments of 2022. Let's look at the following events too! 

Open Events

• Gibraltar Chess Festival 

Champion: Bilel Bellahcene, Balazs Csonka

Women Champion: Maria Muzychuk

• Reykjavik Open

Champion: R Praggnanandhaa

• Paracin Open

Champion: R Praggnanandhaa

FIDE Events: 

• FIDE Grand Prix Berlin

Champion: Hikaru Nakamura 

• FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade

Champion: Richard Rapport

• World Rapid Chess Championship

Champion: Magnus Carlsen 

Runner-Up: Vincent Keymer 

Third Place: Fabiano Caruana

• World Blitz Chess Championship

Champion: Magnus Carlsen 

Runner-Up: Hikaru Nakamura 

Third Place: Haik M. Martirosyan

Other Events

• European Individual Championship 

Champion:  Matthias Blübaum

Runner-Up: Gabriel Sargissian

Third Place: Ivan Šarić

• American Continental Championship

Champion:  Timur Gareyev

Team Events

• 44th Chess Olympiad (open event)

Champion: Uzbekistan 

Runner-up: Armenia

Third: India 2

• 44th Chess Olympiad (women's event)

Champion: Ukraine

Runner-up: Georgia

Third: India

Special Events

• Chess960 Championship

Champion: Hikaru Nakamura

• US Championship 

Champion: Fabiano Caruana 

What hadn’t happened in 2022? EVERYTHING! From scandal to brilliance, it was quite a roller-coaster ride. We have seen the Carlsen-Hans debate, and we have seen the QUEENS GAMBIT lawsuit. What not? 

We lost the oldest GM alive at that time, GM Yuri Averbakh on the 7th of May. We lost GM Borislav Ivkov on the 14th of February, and Konstantin Landa on the 12th of October as well. 

As Søren Kierkegaard once said, “Life can only be understood backward, but it must be lived forward.” What we have earned in the year 2022, has taken us to 2023. Same thing 2023 will do. It will push us forward, and all we can do is correct our mistakes, and find bliss in our revised attitude.