Events in chess during the year 2002:

• The Manhattan Chess Club closes. Founded in 1877, it was the second oldest chess club in the United States.

FIDE top 10 players by Elo rating - October 2002;^[1]

1. Garry Kasparov  Russia 2836
2. Vladimir Kramnik  Russia 2809
3. Viswanathan Anand  India 2755
4. Michael Adams  England 2745
5. Veselin Topalov  Bulgaria 2743
6. Peter Leko  Hungary 2743
7. Ruslan Ponomariov  Ukraine 2743
8. Evgeny Bareev  Russia 2737
9. Alexander Morozevich  Russia 2742
10. Vassily Ivanchuk  Ukraine 2709

Tournament	City	System	Dates	Players (2700+)	Winner	Runner-up
Corus Chess Tournament	Wijk aan Zee	Round robin	11–27 Jan	14 (5)	Evgeny Bareev	Alexander Grischuk
Corus Chess Tournament Group B	Wijk aan Zee	Round robin	11–27 Jan	14 (0)	Michał Krasenkow	Friso Nijboer Ivan Sokolov
FIDE World Cup	Moscow	Knockout	9 – 22 Oct	24 (3)	Viswanathan Anand	Rustam Kasimdzhanov
FIDE World Chess Championship	Moscow	Knockout	27 Nov 2001 – 23 Jan	128 (11)	Ruslan Ponomariov	Vasyl Ivanchuk

• Ricardo Calvo, a Spanish chess International Master - September 26
• Eduard Gufeld, a Ukrainian International Grandmaster and chess author - September 23
• Edmar Mednis, an American International Grandmaster and chess writer - February 13