Grenke Chess Classic is an annual chess tournament held in the German cities of Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden and sponsored by Grenke AG.[1] It was held from 2013 to 2019, with the exception of 2016. The tournament returned in 2024 after a five-year hiatus with a new rapid time control (45+10) to replace the previous classical format.[2]
Six players participated in the first edition of Grenke Chess. The winner was Viswanathan Anand ahead of Fabiano Caruana; they scored 6.5 and 6 out of 10, respectively.[3]
Arkadij Naiditsch, the highest-rated German chess player won the 2014 edition of Grenke Chess Classic ahead of David Baramidze.[4] This edition was not a supertournament, and was a national competition: all eight participants came from Germany. It was a single Round-robin tournament, and two spots were provided for the players to win entry into the next edition of 2015.
The tournament was played between 2–9 February 2015. With an average rating of 2752, it is the strongest edition of Grenke Chess in its history.[5]
Among the participants were Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand and Levon Aronian. The winner was Magnus Carlsen, who eventually won a five-game tiebreak with Arkadij Naiditsch with a score of 3–2 (two rapid, two blitz and one armageddon game).[6][7]
The tiebreaks were as follows: 1) number of wins; 2) number of black wins; 3) head-to-head.[11][12]
2018 Grenke Chess Open A swiss tournament was won by 13-year-old German player Vincent Keymer with a score of 8/9.[13] Keymer thus qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2019.[14]
The tournament returned in 2024 after a five-year hiatus. For the first time, the tournament was played in a rapid time control (45+10) instead of the former classical time control.[2] The format was also changed into a double Round-robin tournament (2 games with reversed colors against each player), followed by playoffs to decide places 1, 3 and 5. Magnus Carlsen won the tournament.[15]
