2018 in chess
Major chess events taking place in 2018.
2018 tournaments
This is a list of significant 2018 chess tournaments:| Tournament | System | Dates | Players | Winner | Runner-up | Third |
| Tata Steel Chess Tournament | Round robin | 12–28 Jan | 14 |  Magnus Carlsen |  Anish Giri |  Vladimir Kramnik |
| Gibraltar Chess Festival | Swiss | 23 Jan – 1 Feb | 276 |  Levon Aronian |  Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |  Hikaru Nakamura |
| Candidates Tournament 2018 | Round robin | 10–28 Mar | 8 | Fabiano Caruana |  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Sergey Karjakin |
| Grenke Chess Classic 2018 | Round robin | 31 Mar – 9 Apr | 10 | Fabiano Caruana | Magnus Carlsen | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Nikita Vitiugov |
| Shamkir Chess 2018 | Round robin | 18–28 Apr | 10 | Magnus Carlsen |  Ding Liren | Sergey Karjakin |
| Women's World Chess Championship 2018 | Match | 2–20 May | 2 | Ju Wenjun | Tan Zhongyi | — |
| Norway Chess 2018 | Round robin | 27 May – 7 Jun | 10 | Fabiano Caruana | Magnus Carlsen | Hikaru Nakamura |
| Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2018 | Round robin | 14–22 Jul | 8 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | Anish Giri |  Vladislav Kovalev |
| Biel Chess Festival 2018 | Round robin | 22 Jul – 1 Aug | 6 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | Magnus Carlsen | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| Sinquefield Cup 2018 | Round robin | 18–28 Aug | 10 | Magnus Carlsen Fabiano Caruana Levon Aronian | — | — |
| 43rd Chess Olympiad | Swiss | 23 Sep – 6 Oct | teams | |||
| 43rd Chess Olympiad | Swiss | 23 Sep – 6 Oct | teams | |||
| Women's World Chess Championship 2018 | Knockout | 2–23 Nov | 64 | |||
| World Chess Championship 2018 | Match | 9–28 Nov | 2 | Magnus Carlsen | Fabiano Caruana | — |
| London Chess Classic 2018 | Round robin | Dec |
Transfer
Deaths
- Robert Abbott, American game designer and chess variant creator.
- Peggy Clarke, British Women's Champion in 1966.
- Roberto Luis Debarnot, Argentine International Master and three-time Olympian.
- Győző Forintos, Hungarian Grandmaster, chess writer and six-time Olympian.
- Giam Choo Kwee, Singaporean International Master, four-time Olympian, and two-time Singapore Chess Champion.
- Ruth Haring, American chess Woman International Master and five-time Olympian.
- Nino Khurtsidze, Georgian International Master and Woman Grandmaster, five-time Olympian, Georgian Champion in 1998, and five-time Georgian Women's Champion.
- Stefán Kristjánsson, Icelandic Grandmaster and five-time Olympian.
- Aloyzas Kveinys, Lithuanian Grandmaster and eight-time Olympian.
- Milunka Lazarević, Serbian chess player and journalist.
- Anatoly Lein, Soviet and American Grandmaster.
- Erwin Nievergelt, Swiss Olympian in 1954 and 1958.
- Eric Schiller, American FIDE Master and chess author.
- Philip Short , Irish FIDE Master and five-time Irish Champion.
- Evgeni Vasiukov, Soviet Grandmaster and 1995 World Senior Champion.