Events in chess during the year 2001:
Top players
FIDE top 10 players by Elo rating – October 2001;[1]
- Garry Kasparov 2838
- Vladimir Kramnik 2809
- Viswanathan Anand 2770
- Alexander Morozevich 2742
- Peter Leko 2739
- Veselin Topalov 2733
- Michael Adams 2731
- Vassily Ivanchuk 2731
- Evgeny Bareev 2719
- Loek van Wely 2714
Tournaments
| Tournament | City | System | Dates | Players (2700+) | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corus Chess Tournament | Wijk aan Zee | Round robin | 13–28 Jan | 14 (10) | Garry Kasparov | Viswanathan Anand |
| Corus Chess Tournament Group B | Wijk aan Zee | Round robin | 13–28 Jan | 14 (0) | Mikhail Gurevich | Teimour Radjabov |
| Women's World Chess Championship | Moscow | Knockout | 25 Nov – 14 Oct | 64 (0) | Zhu Chen | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| FIDE World Chess Championship | Moscow | Knockout | 27 Nov – 23 Jan 2002 | 128 (11) | Ruslan Ponomariov | Vasyl Ivanchuk |
Deaths
- Alexei Suetin, Russian chess grandmaster and chess author – September 10
- Claude Bloodgood, controversial American chess player, died in prison – August 4
- Tony Miles, English chess Grandmaster – 12 November