The Strongest Tournaments in Chess HistoryBelow you will find my list of the strongest tournaments ever in order of strength. The rankings are based on the number of top ten players present at each event. Thus for Vienna 1882 and Linares 1992 the top ten were all there, at Zurich/Neuhausen 1953, only the top nine, and so on down the list. Within each group, I have ranked the tournaments depending on the ranks of the players who are missing. The top ten rankings are taken from the 2005 version of Jeff Sonas's Chessmetrics site. Click on the tournament name to download the games in zipped portable game notation (pgn). A few tournaments have their own web page with a crosstable and a bit of background. 1.Vienna 1882 - The cream of the chess
world descended on Wilhelm Steinitz's old stomping ground to test their
mettle against the master himself. James Mason and George Mackenzie came
across from the U.S. and Simon Winawer and Mikhail Chigorin appeared from
Russia making this one of the most representative international tournaments
yet. Steinitz had not played a serious game since demolishing Joseph Henry
Blackburne +7 in a match in 1876, but he proved to be in fine form. Mackenzie,
however, brought Steinitz's twenty five game winning streak to an end
in the third round by managing to find a perpetual check just as Steinitz's
attack was closing in. In the end, Steinitz and Winawer tied for first,
played a two game playoff but split the prize after scoring one win each. 2.Linares 1993 won by World Champion
Gary Kasparov ahead of Anatoly Karpov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexei Shirov,
Vladimir Kramnik and Vassily Ivanchuk. Since about 1990, the tournaments
held at Linares have usually been among the strongest in any given year. 3.Zurich/Neuhausen Candidates 1953
won by Vassily Smyslov ahead of David Bronstein, Samuel Reshevsky, Paul
Keres, Tigran Petrosian, Miguel Najdorf, Efim Geller, Alexander Kotov,
Mark Taimanov et al. 4.Carlsbad 1929 won by Aron Nimzowitsch
ahead of Rudolf Spielmann, Jose Raul Capablanca, Akiba Rubinstein et al. 5.San Sebastian 1911 won by Capablanca
ahead of Rubinstein, Milan Vidmar Sr. and Frank Marshall. Ossip Bernstein
initially objected to the inclusion of Capablanca whose only claim to
fame was a match victory over Marshall. Capablanca slaughtered Bernstein
in the first round. Also before the event, Schlechter suggested to Vidmar
that he might do better to play in a weaker event at San Remo. Vidmar
shared second prize. 6.Corus, Wijk aan Zee 2001 won by Kasparov
ahead of Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Michael Adams, Alexander Morozevich,
Shirov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov et al. 7.Linares 1992 -
Kasparov dominated completely making up for his recent failure at
Reggio Emilia 1991/2 where he came 3rd after Anand and Boris Gelfand,
and his poor showing at Linares the previous year where he had to cede
first to Ivanchuk. An indication of his fine form was his first round
victory over second place Jan Timman, a 25 move miniature where Kasparov
sacrifices a knight for a mating attack. Ivanchuk, who had also recently
won the Reykjavik World Cup (with Karpov), shared second with Timman ahead
of Karpov, Anand, Valery Salov and Gelfand. 8.AVRO Amsterdam 1938 won by Paul Keres
and Reuben Fine ahead of Mikhail Botvinnik, Max Euwe, Samuel Reshevsky,
world champion Alexander Alekhine, Jose Raul Capablanca and Salomon Flohr.
Fine established a strong lead in the first half, but lost to Keres in
the seventh round and Reshevsky in the ninth, allowing Keres to catch
up. The once invincible Capablanca suffered a mild stroke during the tournament
which doubtless affected his play. Flohr was hampered by the fact that
his native Czechoslovakia had recently been invaded by the Nazis. He eventually
emigrated to the Soviet Union. 9.Nottingham 1936 won by Capablanca and Botvinnik ahead of Fine, Reshevsky, world champion Euwe and Alekhine.(8,9) 10.Linares 1994 won by Karpov ahead of Kasparov, Shirov, Evgeni Bareev, Vladimir Kramnik and Anand. Before this event, Kasparov suggested that winner could be considered the world tournament champion, but perhaps spurred on by this, Karpov put in the performance of his career scoring +9=4 to finish two and a half points ahead of second place Kasparov and Shirov.(8,6) 11.Hastings 1895 - The American Harry Nelson Pillsbury surprised everyone by beating out the early leader Mikhail Chigorin as well as world champion, Emanuel Lasker, former champion Steinitz, leading challenger Tarrasch et al.(8,5) 12.Baden-Baden 1870 won by Adolf Anderssen ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz, Gustav Neumann, Joseph Henry Blackburne and Louis Paulsen. The first tournament to be held in Germany and also the first to be interrupted by war, in this case the Franco-Prussian war that saw the unification of Germany. (Mannheim 1914 and Buenos Aires Olympiad 1939 were also interrupted in this way). The French player Stern withdrew early on, while his countryman Rosenthal defaulted games against Minckwitz and de Vere.(8,4) 13.Moscow 1925 won by Efim Bogoljubow ahead of Lasker, Capablanca, Marshall and Savielly Tartakower.(8,2) 14.Bad Kissingen 1928 won by Bogoljubow ahead of Capablanca, Euwe, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch.(8,1) 15.Carlsbad 1911 won by Richard Teichmann ahead of Rubinstein, Schlechter, Marshall and the young Alekhine.(8,1) 16.Frankfurt 1887 won George Mackenzie ahead of Blackburne, Tarrasch, Paulsen and Zukertort.(8,1) 17.Wijk aan Zee 1999 won by Kasparov ahead of Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Shirov and Topalov.(7,8) 18.London 1883 - Johannes Zukertort was a protege of the great Adolf Anderssen who had been brought to England by Steinitz's enemies. Up until this tournament, Steinitz had much the better of things defeating Zukertort decisively in a match, but here Zukertort finally found his form, and won the tournament. Note: the scoring system for this tournament was a bit strange. Draws were to be replayed, and if the players drew again, a third time. A player's score was given as a total out of 26 with initial draws not counting. Thus finishing order was 1.Zukertort 2.Steinitz 3.Blackburne 4.Chigorin even though by traditional methods, Blackburne had more points than Steinitz.(7,8) 19.Reggio Emilia 1991-2 (7,6) 20.Linares 1999 (7,5) 21.Linares 1998 Anand ahead of Shirov, Kasparov and Kramnik. (7,5) 22.Linares 1991 (7,5) 23.New York 1924 won by Emanuel Lasker ahead of Capablanca, Alekhine, Marshall, Reti, Maroczy, Bogoljubow and Edward Lasker (an American relative of Emanuel's). The 56-year-old Lasker (Emanuel that is) had surrendered the world championship to Capablanca three years before, but in this their first meeting since, Lasker showed that he still had what it takes. Capablanca, for his part, was in the midst of an eight year long 63 game unbeaten streak (his last loss was to Chajes at New York 1916). This run ended though when in the fifth round, Capablanca went badly wrong on the black side of a hypermodern Reti opening played by its inventor, Richard Reti. For more information, see Steve Lopez's site on this tournament or Hanon Russell's two part piece at Chess Cafe: Part 1 and Part 2.(7,4) 24.Ostend 1905 (7,4) 25.Linares 1997 won by Kasparov ahead of Kramnik, Adams, Topalov, Anand, Ivanchuk and J.Polgar (7,3) 26.USSR club team ch. Moscow 1966 was not an individual tournament, but the first board players all played each other. This 1st board "tournament" was won by Botvinnik ahead of Geller, Tal, Petrosian, Smyslov, Keres, Spassky and Stein.(7,3) 27.Dos Hermanas 1996 won by Kramnik and Topalov ahead of Anand, Kasparov, Ivanchuk and Shirov. (7,2) 28.USSR ch. Tbilisi 1959 (7,2) 29.Bled 1931 Alekhine again destroys the opposition: Bogoljubow, Nimzowitsch, Flohr Kashdan Stoltz Vidmar. (7,2) 30.San Remo 1930 won by Alekhine ahead of Nimzowitsch, Rubinstein, Bogoljubow, Yates, Spielmann and Maroczy. Alekhine's score was +13 =2 making this one of the most impressive tournament performances of all time. See my records page. (7,2) 31.Paris 1900 (7,2) 32.London 1899 won by Lasker ahead of Maroczy, Pillsbury, Schlechter and Steinitz.(7,2) 33.FIDE World Rapid Knockout Ch. Moscow 2001-2(7,1) 34.Dos Hermanas 1997 (7,1) 35.Biel Interzonal 1993 (7,1) 36.Linares 1989 (7,1) 37.Montpellier Candidates 1985 (7,1) 38.Tilburg 1983 (7,1) 39.41st Soviet Ch. Moscow 1973 won by Spassky ahead of Karpov, Petrosian, Polugaevsky, Korchnoi, Geller, Keres, Tal and Smyslov. Shaken up by Spassky's loss of the title to Fischer, the Soviet Chess Federation reorganized the championship system and required all the top players to participate. In this nervous atmosphere, draws were the most common result, but Spassky managed to pick up more points from tailenders than his rivals, and leading to speculation that he would win through to challenge Fischer again.(7,1) 40.Leningrad 1957 (7,1) 41.Budapest Candidates 1950 (7,1) 42.Baden-Baden 1925 (7,1) 43.San Sebastian 1912 (7,1) 44.Carlsbad 1907 (7,1) 45.Vienna 1898 won by Tarrasch after a playoff with Pillsbury ahead of Janowski, Steinitz, Schlechter and Chigorin. The tournament was organized to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Kaiser Franz Josef's ascension to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Tarrasch's prize money (6000 crowns) was reportedly the highest of any up to that time. (7,1) 46.St. Petersburg 1914 won by Emanuel Lasker ahead of Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch, Frank Marshall, Akiba Rubinstein and Aron Nimzowitsch. Famous for the way world champion Lasker came from behind to steal first place from the new favorite, young Capablanca. Lasker won a famous game against Capablanca from the white side of the "drawish" Ruy Lopez Exchange variation.(6,7) 47.Las Palmas 1996 won by Kasparov ahead of Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Karpov and Ivanchuk. With only six players, this tournament also ranks very high on lists based on average rank or rating.(6,6) 48.Belfort World Cup 1988 (6,6) 49.Nuremburg 1896 won by Lasker ahead of Maroczy, Pillsbury, Tarrasch, Janowski, Steinitz and Chigorin. (6,6) 50.London 1922 (6,5) 51.Wijk aan Zee 2000 (6,4) 52.USSR championship/Zonal, Moscow 1955. Geller won the playoff against Smyslov, but the two left world champion Botvinnik and future champions Petrosian and Spassky behind in the dust, along with Keres and Korchnoi. Botvinnik, who lost to Geller, Smyslov and Keres, became so fed up that he never again entered a USSR championship. (6,4) 53.USSR ch. Moscow 1952 (6,4) 54.Amsterdam Candidates 1956 (6,4) 55.Skellfetea World Cup 1989 (6,3) 56.Brussels 1987 (6,3) 57.St. Petersburg 1909 (6,3) 58.EU Cup Rethymnon 2003 (6,2) 59.Dortmund 1992 (6,2) 60.Linares 1990 (6,2) 61.Barcelona World Cup 1989 (6,2) 62.Reykjavik World Cup 1988 (6,2) 63.Niksic 1983 (6,2) 64.Moscow International 1981 (6,2) 65.Tilburg 1980 (6,2) 66.Montreal 1979 (6,2) 67.Bugojno 1978 (6,2) 68.Palma de Mallorca Interzonal 1970 (6,2) 69.Curacao Candidates 1962 (6,2) 70.Ostend 1906 (6,2) 71.Cambridge Springs 1904 (6,2) 72.Wijk aan Zee 2003 (6,1) 73.Dos Hermanas 1999 (6,1) 74.FIDE World Rapid Knockout ch., Las Vegas 1999 (6,1) 75.Dortmund 1998 (6,1) 76.Dortmund 1997 (6,1) 77.Sicilian Buenos Aires 1994 (6,1) 78.Alekhine Memorial, Moscow 1992 (6,1) 79.Manila Interzonal 1990 (6,1) 80.Brussels World Cup 1988 (6,1) 81.Bugojno 1986 (6,1) 82.Tilburg 1986 (6,1) 83.Tilburg 1981 (6,1) 84.Alekhine Memorial, Moscow 1975 (6,1) 85.Alekhine Memorial, Moscow 1967 (6,1) 86.USSR ch. Leningrad 1960 (6,1) 87.Gothenburg Interzonal 1955 (6,1) 88.Berlin 1928 (6,1) 89.Carlsbad 1923 (6,1) 90.Vienna 1922 (6,1) 91.Teplitz-Schoenau 1922 (6,1) 92.Breslau 1912 (6,1) 93.Prague 1908 (6,1) 94.Vienna 1908 (6,1) 95.Monte Carlo 1902 (6,1) 96.Monte Carlo 1901 (6,1) 97.Bradford 1888 (6,1) 98.Wiesbaden 1880 (6,1) 99.Linares 2000 (5,6) 100.Linares 2003 (5,5)
I have the games from a few of slightly weaker tournaments which are hard to find elsewhere on the web: Dallas 1957 where Svetozar Gligoric and Samuel Reshevsky edged out Bent Larsen, Canadian Abe Yanofsky, Miguel Najdorf and Larry Evans to share first prize. Yanofsky upset Reshevsky, and scored his first grandmaster norm. I have a short page on Moscow 1935. Paris 1878 won by Zukertort after a playoff with Winawer ahead of Blackburne, Mackenzie, Bird, Anderssen and Mason. Vienna 1873 won by Steinitz after a playoff with Blackburne ahead of Anderssen, Rosenthal, L.Paulsen and Bird. Players engaged in best of three mini-matches. This is said to be the tournament where Steinitz started playing for the accumulation of advantages rather than the attack, an approach that had a strong influence on later players such as Lasker and Capablanca. Steinitz also began his 25 game winning streak by winning the last 14 here plus the two game playoff. See my records page.(5,4) London International 1851 won by Anderssen ahead of Wyvill, Williams, Staunton, Szen and Kieseritzky. This was the first international tournament. It was played as a series of knockout matches, the first player to win two games in the first round or four games in each later round being declared the winner. In the second round with Szen leading Anderssen +2-1, the two agreed that if either won the tournament they would give a third of their prize to the other. References As long ago as 1899, an Austrian named Franz Drobny addressed the question of which tournaments were the strongest in an article in Deutsches Wochenschach, but it wasn't until the international chess federation (FIDE) adopted the Elo rating system in 1970 that tournaments came to be routinely assigned categories. Ken Whyld published an article on "Your Hundred Best Chess Tournaments to 1960" in British Chess Magazine in January 1978. Romelio Milian Gonzalez brought the list up to date in BCM Nov. 1987, and Mike Fox and Richard James include a further updated list in their book The Even More Complete Chess Addict (1993, published by Faber and Faber). Jeff Sonas compiled a list with a similar approach to the one taken here in his article Gary Kasparov 1999-2000: Assault on Chess History. This article preceded his work on the chessmetrics site, so his rankings were based on the FIDE Elo lists and historical player rankings from Arpad Elo's 1978 book, The rating of chessplayers, past and present. In Sonas' follow up article, Statistics and the Greats of Chess History, he notes that the traditional Elo category system tends to rank highest small quadrangular events like St. Petersburg 1895-6, while larger and more diffuse events such as Hastings 1895 or Nottingham 1936 fare less well because of the tail-enders dragging down the average rating. He suggests that statistically it seems to be harder to win these larger events because of the wider array of opponents that can thwart one's designs. David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld's The Oxford Companion to Chess (1992, Oxford University Press) does not list tournaments nor attempt to rank them, but includes some interesting background information on the people who have worked on rating/ranking systems. | ||