Zurich Chess Challenge
The Zurich Chess Challenge is one of the major recurring international chess tournaments. It takes place in Zurich, Switzerland.[1]
Zurich Chess Challenge 2012
The Zurich Chess Challenge 2012 was a six-game chess match between Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia) from 21 to 28 April 2012.[2][3] Each player won one game and there were four draws.
Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 
Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) 2801 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 3 
Levon Aronian (Armenia) 2820 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 3
Zurich Chess Challenge 2013
Italy's Fabiano Caruana won the Zurich Chess Challenge 2013 which took place from 23 February to 1 March 2013.[4][5][6]
No Player Rating 1 2 3 4 Points 1 
Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 2757 X X ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 4 2 
Viswanathan Anand (IND)2780 ½ 0 X X ½ 1 ½ ½ 3 3 Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 2810 ½ ½ ½ 0 X X ½ ½ 2½ 4 
Boris Gelfand (ISR) 2740 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ X X 2½
Zurich Chess Challenge 2014
The Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 took place from 29 January to 4 February 2014. The average rating of its participants is 2801, the highest in history, and it is also the first category 23 tournament ever.[7] Magnus Carlsen won the tournament.
The opening day included five rounds of blitz to decide the draw, which was won by Carlsen. The main tournament consists of five rounds of classical chess and finally five rounds of rapid chess on the closure day.[8][9][10]
Blitz results
No Player Blitz Elo rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points SB 1 
Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2837 X ½ 1 0 1 ½ 3 7.25 2 Levon Aronian (ARM) 2863 ½ X 0 ½ 1 1 3 6.75 3 
Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 2879 0 1 X 1 ½ 0 2½ 6.75 4 Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 2697 1 ½ 0 X 0 1 2½ 6 5 Viswanathan Anand (IND) 2827 0 0 ½ 1 X 1 2½ 5.25 6 Boris Gelfand (ISR) 2719 ½ 0 1 0 0 X 1½ 4
Classical results
No Player FIDE ranking Elo rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 1 2872 X ½ 1 1 ½ 1 8 2 Levon Aronian (ARM) 2 2812 ½ X 0 1 1 ½ 6 3 Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 6 2782 0 1 X ½ ½ ½ 5 4 Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 3 2789 0 0 ½ X 1 ½ 4 5 Viswanathan Anand (IND) 9 2773 ½ 0 ½ 0 X 1 4 6 Boris Gelfand (ISR) 8 2777 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 X 3
For games that ended in a draw in under 40 moves, a subsequent rapid game between the two players was mandatory, although these particular rapid games had no relevance to the tournament standings. Two such games were played: Gelfand–Aronian (0–1) in the third round and Gelfand–Nakamura (1–0) in the fifth round.
Rapid results
No Player Rapid Elo rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 Points 1 Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 2812 X 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 4 2 Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 2826 0 X 1 ½ 1 1 3½ 3 Levon Aronian (ARM) 2770 ½ 0 X 1 ½ 1 3 4 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 2845 0 ½ 0 X 1 ½ 2 5 Boris Gelfand (ISR) 2735 ½ 0 ½ 0 X ½ 1½ 6 Viswanathan Anand (IND) 2800 0 0 0 ½ ½ X 1
Combined final results
The combined final score for the tournament was calculated by scoring each game in the classical competition on a 2–1–0 basis and each game in the rapid competition on a 1–½–0 basis.
No Player Points 1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 10 2 Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 9 3 Levon Aronian (ARM) 9 4 Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 7½ 5 Viswanathan Anand (IND) 5 6 Boris Gelfand (ISR) 4½
See also
References
- ↑ Zurich Chess Challenge: Showdown at the Paradeplatz and a fantastic performance by the Italian youngstar!
- ↑ FIDE: Zurich Chess Challenge: Kramnik vs. Aronian
- ↑ Crestbook: Zurich Chess Challenge 2012
- ↑ ChessDom: Fabiano Caruana wins Zurich Chess Challenge 2013
- ↑ ChessVibes: Caruana wins Zurich Chess Challenge, Anand second
- ↑ ChessNews: Caruana Wins Zurich Chess Challenge
- ↑ Ramirez, Alejandro (2014-01-29). "Zurich 2014 a few hours away". ChessBase. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- ↑ ChessDom: Zurich Chess Challenge 2014
- ↑ The Week in Chess: Zurich Chess Challenge 2014
- ↑ ChessBomb blog: Zurich Chess Challenge 2014
External links
- Official website
- Round start times for the 2014 tournament
- WhyChess: Games of the 2013 tournament
- ChessBomb: Games of the 2013 tournament
- ChessBomb: Games of the 2014 tournament
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJWTVFeHVw8: Intro video of the players]