Hello, and welcome to the final episode of this series!

Today, I will be covering the first two decades of the 21st century, from 2000 to 2020. As you know, the idea is to explore the world of chess during significant historical events, and how these events sometimes affected the game.

Below are links to the first five episodes. Each text can be read independently, so feel free to start with whichever one you prefer.

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1900-1920

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1920-1940

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1940-1960

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1960-1980

• The Chessboard Of The World: 1980-2000

“But Vanessa, why only up to 2020 and not 2025?” Good question... and the answer is simple: Historical distance. In other words, it’s still difficult to predict the long-term impact of recent events such as the invasion of Ukraine or the war in Israel.

Therefore, as it is not yet possible to properly measure their overall importance, I have decided to exclude this period from the analysis.

Please note that the facts mentioned do not always directly impact chess. Nevertheless, it is important to understand what was happening in both worlds during the same period.

Let’s begin!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. 2001

2. 2004

3. 2010

4. 2014

5. 2020

CONCLUSION

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2001

World - 9/11 Attacks

The first event is perhaps the most obvious and important to have happened this century. On 11 September 2001, the USA suffered the most shocking terrorist attack in history when four hijacked airplanes were used as weapons to target important buildings, killing more than 3,000 people.

Two of the planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The last one did not reach its target and crashed in Pennsylvania. This is one of those events that everyone who was alive at the time remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news came.

And perhaps more important than the fact itself are the consequences it brought about, such as the war on terror, the invasion of Afghanistan, and even the profound changes to air safety. Without a doubt, it was a watershed moment in international geopolitics.

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Chess - 1st Rapid Chess World Cup

If you are as much of a fan of the World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship as I am, and are looking forward to watching it at the end of this month, you might be interested to know that the first edition of this event was held in 2001, six months before the 9/11 attacks.

That year, the French Chess Federation organized a 16-player World Cup of Rapid Chess in Cannes, with strong support from FIDE. The tournament was played from 21 to 25 March.

This competition consisted of a round-robin stage with two groups of eight players each, followed by knockout matches to determine the winner, just like the World Cup, and different from the Swiss format we have today.

Although a similar championship had already taken place in Mexico in 1988, the 2001 edition is widely considered to be the main precursor to the annual World Rapid Championship, which has been held every year since 2012.

Many top players participated, including Judit Polgár, Alexander Grischuk, and Michael Adams. The ultimate champion was Garry Kasparov, who was considered the best player in the world at the time. He defeated Evgeny Bareev in the final match with a score of 1.5–0.5.

However, it is worth remembering that Kasparov was not a member of FIDE at the time. So why did he participate anyway? The reason was that, despite the World Cup's status as a FIDE event, Kasparov had a direct contract with the French Chess Federation, resulting in his inclusion.

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2004

World - Launch of Facebook

On 4 February 2004, a Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg launched The Facebook, a social media website designed to connect students at his university. Now simply known as Facebook, the platform was an instant success and quickly became one of the most significant businesses in history.

However, I have included it here not only because of this site alone, but also because I see its launch as the foundation stone for the social media revolution in the modern world. Even though Facebook itself is nowhere near its peak today, I recognize its importance.

In the following years, many similar apps and platforms were created, such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and WhatsApp. These shape our daily lives today and directly affect a huge part of the world's population. In 2025, Meta, as Zuckerberg’s conglomerate is now called, is one of the world's most valuable companies, with over 2 billion monthly active users.

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Chess - A Forgotten World Champion

That same year, the FIDE World Chess Championship was held in Tripoli, Libya, from 18 June to 13 July. However, it is worth noting that, in 2004, Vladimir Kramnik was already recognized as the true world champion. To be honest, the whole chess scene in the 2000s was extremely chaotic, so it would be impossible to explain here.

Anyway, this tournament was similar to the FIDE World Cup as we know it today. That is to say, it was played in a knockout format with best-of-two elimination matches, followed by a best-of-six in the final. These rules and the time control led many to question its validity to determine the best player.

Nevertheless, the winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov was not at all to blame for that, so he can be considered a fair and legitimate FIDE World Chess Champion. He earned this title by beating Michael Adams with a score of 4.5–3.5. Check out the game below:

The plan was for the tournament winner to play Garry Kasparov, the world's top-ranked player, as a step towards reunifying the World Chess Championship. However, that match never took place. You might ask why Kasparov and not Kramnik. Very good question. My honest answer is that I have no idea, and I really doubt anyone did at the time.

Other forgotten world champions also emerged from these events. For example, Ruslan Ponomariov in 2002, who is still the youngest person to win the title, at the age of 18 years and 104 days.

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2010

World - Arab Spring

In late 2010, people in the Middle East and North Africa took to the streets in a series of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring. These were sparked by economic hardship, corruption, and a lack of rights. This initial wave of revolutions only faded by late 2012.

The consequences were huge, leading to the overthrow of authoritarian leaders in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. There were also sustained street demonstrations in Morocco, Iraq, Algeria, Lebanon, and many other Arab countries. However, Tunisia was the only nation to establish a genuine democracy following the protests.

On the other hand, the Arab Spring also resulted in civil wars and violent crackdowns. The most famous of these was in Syria, causing a wave of refugees to reach Europe years later. It is therefore safe to say that this event fundamentally changed the region's political landscape and shook the world.

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Chess - Magnus Carlsen World #1

A few months before the protests erupted, 2010 was also the year when the most promising chess player of that time and the future GOAT, in my opinion, finally became the world number 1.

I am talking about Magnus Carlsen, who, at the age of 19, became the youngest person ever to reach the top of the overall FIDE ranking in January, surpassing a record previously held by Vladimir Kramnik.

This achievement was made even more remarkable not only by his age, but also by his maturity for someone so young. Carlsen combined deep positional understanding with practicality, excelling in endgames. This universal style was extremely hard to prepare for or neutralize, earning him the nickname 'The Mozart of Chess'.

His partnership with Garry Kasparov in the previous year undoubtedly played a significant part. By the end of 2009, his victories and performances in Nanjing and London had made his rise to the top spot seem inevitable.

Of course, the chess community had known for a few years that Carlsen would be a future star, but his rise was more meteoric than expected. Many believed he could become World Champion immediately. However, this dream had to wait a few years, finally coming true in 2013.

Take Gukesh Dommaraju, for example. Although he became the youngest undisputed world champion in history, he is older than Magnus was at the time and still has a long way to go to reach #1, which requires much more consistency than just a few good tournaments.

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2014

World - Missing Flight (MH370)

Now it is time for the chapter on aviation. Unfortunately, the most notable event to mention is, once again, a negative one: on 8 March 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. This is considered the greatest mystery in the history of aviation.

There were 239 people on board, who are now presumed dead. However, the circumstances that led to its disappearance remain unknown. As someone who works in this sector, even if I am not directly involved in accident investigations, this issue has a huge impact on me.

I hope the flight recorders will be found one day, so that the families and the rest of the world can finally find out what happened. As far as I am aware, a new search is planned to begin soon. Until then, it is our duty to ensure that such a situation does not happen again.

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Chess - A Historic Performance

A few months later, in August of the same year, Fabiano Caruana, ranked second in the world, produced one of the greatest performances ever seen in a chess event, when he won the Sinquefield Cup with some brilliant games.

His score was 8.5/10, three points ahead of Magnus Carlsen in second place. And, in case you think this is no big deal, I should mention that the tournament was billed as the strongest in chess history. The other participants were Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, Veselin Topalov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Therefore, this event had an average Elo rating of 2802, with all six players ranked among the top ten in the world at places 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 9, which makes his achievement even more impressive.

Playing for Italy at the time, Caruana immediately caused a sensation by winning all his games in the first seven rounds, including 2–0 victories against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Veselin Topalov. He drew the last three games, but this was probably only because he had already done more than enough to secure the title.

GM Rafael Leitão, often mentions in his videos that he believes Caruana's chess in this tournament is the best anyone has ever played, surpassing even the best performances of Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov.

In case you are interested, his rating performance was 3103 and he gained 35 Elo points, an almost unthinkable feat for a player around the 2800 mark. You can watch his game against Nakamura below.

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2020

World - COVID-19 Pandemic

Last but not least is the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, which spread around the world at the beginning of that year. Originating in the city of Wuhan, China, the highly contagious Coronavirus caused a respiratory disease that has led to many deaths and hospitalizations for the next two years, infecting almost 15% of the planet’s population.

I am sure everyone here remembers those dark times. We all had to stay at home in lockdown. There were no events with crowds, no seeing friends, especially those in high-risk groups, no travelling, and no flights, the latter of which was particularly hard for me. Not to mention the constant fear of becoming infected or losing a family member to the virus.

Fortunately, several vaccines (yes, they work!) were produced in record time and saved us from this difficult period. However, the social and economic consequences were profound and are still being felt today.

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Chess - Candidates Tournament Interrupted

The pandemic has affected everything, including sports. You have no idea how much I suffered from not watching football for so long. But jokes aside, our beloved game was also a victim of the measures taken to combat the virus, resulting in a break in the second-most-important tournament on the chess calendar, the Candidates.

The event began on 17 March 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. However, this coincided with the time when the virus was beginning to spread around the world, and I clearly remember being confused as to why FIDE decided to go ahead with it.

However, this absurd decision was short-lived. After the first seven rounds, on March 25, many countries had already decided to close their borders, forcing FIDE to let the players return home before it was too late and interrupting the tournament.

Following its restart in April 2021 after more than a year, the ultimate winner was Ian Nepomniachtchi with a score of 8.5/14. He later played Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship Match.

But the greatest controversy at the time surrounded Teimour Radjabov, who had secured his place and later withdrew exactly due to the pandemic. As the event was not cancelled, he lost his chance to play.

Because everyone later had to 'agree' with him, Radjabov was offered a place in the next edition, held in 2022, in which he finished third. In my opinion, while not ideal, it was a fair solution given the wisdom he showed, which FIDE did not demonstrate.

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CONCLUSION

Thank you for joining me for this final episode! Although these events are recent and many of us have heard about them not too long ago, it is still great to reminisce about some of the historical moments that we witnessed, isn't it?

As usual, below you can find a table summarizing all the information presented today to help you visualize it better.

Also, thank you for being with me throughout the entire series! I hope you found the idea interesting and that you all enjoyed it as much as I expected. From my perspective, I can say that I loved writing all the articles and learnt a lot about chess and world history.

Of course, there were many more important events that could have been mentioned in every episode, but I tried my best to pick the ones that I found most interesting or relevant. If you missed anything, please let me know in the comments section below.

That's all for today, dear friends! We will meet again on 30 December. As you can probably guess, the post will be a retrospective of the year 2025 in chess. I hope you are looking forward to it! See you soon!