Major chess events that took place in 2016 included the Women's World Chess Championship 2016 between Mariya Muzychuk and Hou Yifan, won by Hou Yifan, and the Candidates Tournament, won by Sergey Karjakin, who challenged Magnus Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2016. Magnus Carlsen won the match on tiebreaks and retained the title of World Chess Champion.

2016 tournaments

This is a list of significant 2016 chess tournaments:

Tournament	Dates	Players	Winner	Runner-up	Third
2016 Tata Steel Chess Tournament	16–31 Jan	14	Magnus Carlsen	Fabiano Caruana	Ding Liren
2016 Gibraltar Chess Festival	26 Jan – 4 Feb	150	Hikaru Nakamura	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	Étienne Bacrot
2016 Zurich Chess Challenge	12–15 Feb	6	Hikaru Nakamura	Viswanathan Anand	Vladimir Kramnik
Women's World Chess Championship 2016	1–14 Mar	2	Hou Yifan	Mariya Muzychuk	–
Candidates Tournament 2016	11–30 Mar	8	Sergey Karjakin	Fabiano Caruana	Viswanathan Anand
U.S. Chess Championship 2016	13–30 Apr	12	Fabiano Caruana	Wesley So	Hikaru Nakamura
Altibox Norway Chess 2016	18–30 Apr	10	Magnus Carlsen	Levon Aronian	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Shamkir Chess 2016	26 May – 4 Jun	10	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	Fabiano Caruana	Anish Giri
Paris Grand Chess Tour	9–12 Jun	10	Hikaru Nakamura	Magnus Carlsen	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Leuven Grand Chess Tour	17–20 Jun	10	Magnus Carlsen	Wesley So	Levon Aronian
2016 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting	9–17 Jul	8	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	Vladimir Kramnik Fabiano Caruana Leinier Domínguez Pérez	–
Sinquefield Cup 2016	4–16 Aug	10	Wesley So	Levon Aronian	Veselin Topalov
World Chess Championship 2016	11–30 Nov	2	Magnus Carlsen	Sergey Karjakin	–
London Chess Classic 2016	9–18 Dec	10	Wesley So	Fabiano Caruana	Hikaru Nakamura
2017 World Rapid Chess Championship	26–28 Dec	106	Vassily Ivanchuk	Alexander Grischuk	Magnus Carlsen
2017 World Blitz Chess Championship	29–30 Dec	108	Sergey Karjakin	Magnus Carlsen	Daniil Dubov