What are the main tournaments in the chess world? What are the big events that big players visit? Do every big Tournament has an effect on the players rating?
If you wish to know about tournaments for top players, I would direct you to 2700 chess (scroll down under the list of players).

If you consider a " big tournament" an open tournament with let's say 100 participants (and maybe 1 or 2 of them are top players), then do a search in some comprehensive chess calendar, e.g.: chess-calendar.eu or FIDE's calendar.



Not just the biggest tournaments affect player's FIDE rating, almost every small tournament can do that, too (all FIDE needs is some... money).

Therefore the only exceptions I can think of are friendly matches and alternative chess tournaments (Fischer's chess, Basque chess etc.).