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Editor: Dr Tim Harding
   Dr. Tim Harding   J. H. Blackburne     William Steinitz Correspondence Chess history book   Captain W. D. Evans

No World Senior Teams this year

The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has put many senior events for 2021 in doubt although the increased availability of vaccines has raised some hopes.

As our Seniors news page announces, the World Senior Team Championships will not be held until next year but it is still hoped that the FIDE Senior individual championships can go ahead in Italy. An announcement is expected by the first week in June.

It was previously announced that the annual festival in Bad Wörishofen (including a senior tournament) is probably a casualty. The organisers said on 10 February:

The Covid19 situation gives no possibilities for the Chess festival in March. A decision about new dates (maybe in May) will is [sic] expected soon.

Late in 2020, the organisers of the Czech Tour last month announced some of their early 2021 programme which was to include, as usual, a Senior tournament in Marienbad (Marianske Lazne) for late January. They had hoped to make further announcements in February but Marienbad is now scheduled for 16-23 April.

The Amateur Chess Organisation plans to revive its events this year. Their postponed 2020 "Senior World Championships" (for players 50+) will be held at the 5-star Fodele Beach Resort, Crete, from 11-20 May, alongside their "World Amateur" championships. ACO's 2021 tournaments will be played at the same venue from 1-10 October. That was also the venue for their 2019 senior festival.

GM Vlastimil Hort will be guest of honour at both festivals. ACO events are essentially a holiday (the tournaments are not rated or recognised by FIDE) but they are popular with regular visitors. See below for details.

However, optimists in Germany and elsewhere are planning some attractive tournaments for the second half of this year. Recent announcements about vaccines may be encouraging organisers.

We have included the dates for the 2021 British 50+ and 65+ Championships from the provisional schedule issued by the English Chess Federation. This is of course dependent on Covid-19 regulations at the time permitting the congress to be held.

See also our Seniors news page.

For tournaments run on FIDE Senior rules, you do not have to wait for your birthday; you are qualified from 1 January in the year in which you reach the qualifying age. The qualifying dates for the two FIDE age groups this year are 31 December 1955 (for 65+) and 31 December 1970 (for 50+). For next year's events the qualifying years become 1956 and 1971.

The German Senior tournaments calendar was redesigned and updated during 2020. We are in contact with Wolfgang Block who organises it. There have been no new annoucnements in recent weeks; organisers are surely waiting for the third wave of Covid-19 to subside. In our calendar we include only those tournaments which are described as Open, and not events restricted to German players.

We are still hoping that the midsummer festival at Bad Neuenahr, which includes a 75+ tournament, but we no longer expect to be able to play in it. Maybe next year.

If you know of further tournaments, or cancellations, please inform us and we shall include them.

 

Tournaments in 2021 (liable to change/cancellation):