Below is a list of events in chess during the year 2009, as well as the men's and women's FIDE rankings of that year:

• January 1 – Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) gains 5 rating points to remain at the head the FIDE top 100 players list at 2796. Viswanathan Anand (India) is second at 2791.^[1]

Elo FIDE Top Ten Men FIDE Top Ten Women Elo 2796  Veselin Topalov (BGR)  Judit Polgár (HUN) 2693 2791  Viswanathan Anand (IND)  Humpy Koneru (IND) 2621 2779  Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR)  Hou Yifan (CHN) 2571 2776  Magnus Carlsen (NOR)  Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) 2557 2771  Alexander Morozevich (RUS)  Pia Cramling (SWE) 2548 2761  Teimour Radjabov (AZE)  Anna Muzychuk (SLO) 2540 2760  Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS)  Marie Sebag (FRA) 2529 2759  Vladimir Kramnik (RUS)  Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) 2518 2751  Peter Leko (HUN)  Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO) 2516 2751  Sergei Movsesian (SVK)  Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) 2516

• December 8–15 – The inaugural London Chess Classic is played in London. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) wins ahead of Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and David Howell (England).

In 2009 FIDE awarded the title Grandmaster to the following players:

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (January 2011)

• 22 January : Héctor Rossetto
• 27 April : Miroslav Filip