Top 5 Chess Moments Of 2021

Contributor: Isaac Snow

Edited – January 27, 2022

Hey everyone! We are mere weeks into 2022, and hopefully we are primed for another big year for chess. Looking back upon the previous 2 years, 2020 was the year of the chess boom, and it was always going to be tough to top. But, 2021 may have just done that. There were a lot of great chess moments in 2021, and I’ve chosen my top 5 and will rank them here momentarily. Now, in my opinion, here are the top 5 chess moments of 2021, starting at #5!

 

#5. ABDUSATTOROV STUNS EVERYONE, WINS WORLD RAPID CHAMPIONSHIP

Nodirbek Abdusattorov, age 17, began the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship ranked at #59… and he finished #1. Raise your hand if you saw this one coming? If you just raised your hand, you are probably lying, and if you aren’t lying then you must have the ability to see into the future. Good for you! This was the most recent and, arguably, the most stunning development on this list. Abdusattorov defeated notable GMs Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, and Magnus Carlsen, and he ended up scoring 9.5/13 and tying for first place with Magnus, Fabi, and Ian Nepomniachtchi. He then defeated Nepo in the blitz playoff tiebreaker, earning the title of World Rapid Chess Champion. And he’s only 17. I see this as a statement win for Abdusattorov. I’m expecting big things from this guy moving forward. I’d also like to mention Alexandra Kosteniuk, who won the Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship, scoring 9/13 and dominating the competition. Congratulations to both Kosteniuk and Abdusattorov on their huge wins at the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship!

 

#4. NEPOMNIACHTCHI WINS THE CANDIDATES TOURNAMENT

I can’t believe how long ago this was. It seems so much more recent to me! Back in April, Ian Nepomniachtchi won the FIDE Candidates Tournament with a round to spare, setting up the eventual World Chess Championship match with Magnus Carlsen. The Candidates tournament started back in 2020 but was postponed halfway through due to covid. At this point, Nepo was tied for first with 4.5/7 points and many thought he would not keep up his pace due to him usually being inconsistent. They were wrong. About a year later, the tournament finally resumed, and Nepo managed to play spectacular chess and win it all. Nepo finished the event with 8.5/14 points, and the final round of the event would not affect the outcome. This was a huge chess moment in 2021, as it set up the World Chess Championship match between Magnus and Nepo, and perhaps paved the way for otb chess to fully return.

 

#3. FIROUZJA BECOMES YOUNGEST EVER TO REACH 2800

Am I the only one who thinks that Alireza Firouzja’s ascension to 2800 FIDE and world number 2 seemingly came out of nowhere? Top 10 was expected, but he made the jump from outside the top 10 to number 2 remarkably quickly. In any case, just before the World Chess Championship match kicked off, Firouzja made headlines when he became the youngest to ever reach 2800 FIDE, at the age of 18 years and 5 months. He did it faster than Magnus. Incredible. After this great achievement by him, pretty much everyone expects Firouzja to eventually claim the title of World Champion, including myself. It’s only a matter of when, and not if, he becomes World Champion. I predict he wins it all in 2026. But I won’t be surprised if he is crowned champion before then. By the way, here is the game that got Firouzja up to #2 in the world.

 

#2. ABHIMANYU MISHRA BECOMES YOUNGEST GM EVER

It seems like so much has happened since young Abhimanyu Mishra made history by becoming the youngest chess player ever to become a GM, at the age of 12 years and 4 months and 25 days, breaking Sergey Karjakin’s previous record at 12 years and 7 months. Karjakin would of course go on to challenge Magnus in the 2016 World Chess Championship and is still today among the best players in the world. So, it’s safe too so Karjakin ended up being pretty dang good. That bodes well for Mishra, right? Mishra worked hard to get his title in time to break the record, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he breaks a few more records later on. I’ve previously mentioned Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja, who are both young stars in chess. Alireza is now world number 2 and rated above 2800, while Nodirbek just won the World Rapid Championship and defeated Magnus along the way. Consider those two stars, and now add in Mishra. The future big 3 of chess, perhaps? I do not know, but one thing I’m convinced of is that we’ll be seeing a lot more of each of these young stars in the future.

 

#1. MAGNUS DEFENDS TITLE, REMAINS WORLD CHAMPION

Come on now, you knew this would be number 1 on my list. The 2021 World Chess Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Magnus Carlsen was undoubtedly the most hyped-up event this year. The whole chess world was buzzing with excitement heading into the match. It was a really big deal. Admittedly, however, the match overall was somewhat underwhelming to some. The first 7 games were very entertaining, but then Nepo collapsed in the second half of the match, and the final score was not pretty for him. Even though the match fell short of expectations for some of us, it was a lot of fun to keep up with and cover. Very enjoyable to watch. We even witnessed history in game 6, as Nepo and Magnus played for 136 moves, the most moves ever played in a World Chess Championship game! In the end, however, it was an incredibly disappointing loss for Nepo, but it was historical, and it had everyone talking. Even some people I know in real life who don’t play chess had heard about this! After this game, of course, the match was pretty much over and Magnus had little trouble defending his title. As if the match didn’t give us enough to talk about, Magnus declared after the match that he would only defend his title in the next World Chess Championship if his opponent was Alireza Firouzja. I won’t speculate about any of it, but it’s sure to be a big topic of discussion probably until the next match. All in all, this match had the hype, it had the history, it had the drama… and it had that epic meltdown by Nepo in the second half of the match. To me, this was the top chess moment of 2021. But of course, that is just my opinion.

 

Regardless of what the top event was, or what the collective top 5 was, it was another great year of chess, and hopefully, 2022 will be even better!

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(This is the first time Isaac has contributed to the ACF website. However, Isaac regularly post content on his blog on chess.com. If you’d like to read more from Isaac, you can do so here: https://www.chess.com/blog/LightningReports)

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