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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
14 August 2022
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors news and Seniors introduction pages.
The detailed regulations and invitation for the World individual senior championships (at Assisi in November) are now available and we have entered. Details and an entry form can now be found at the official website. Also the regulations can be downloaded from the link below in our calendar or from that site.
The organising company (arcoworldchess, in association with scaccomattisimo) is the same as for at the recent World Senior Team Championships. In response to a query, the organisers informed us that a list of entries will be made available on chess-results.com after 15 August.
In an email, they also informed us that "for organizational reasons, we would like to point out that the 3-star Casa Leonori hotel will not provide restaurant service, and all 3 meals will be consumed at the 4-star Cenacolo which is part of the same complex and is 30 meters away from the internal garden." The Open tournament will be played at the Leonori and the women's championships at the Cenacolo.
The venue, in the province of Umbria, was the home town of St Francis, where the Franciscan order of friars was founded in 1208. The town is now largely restored following two devastating earthquakes in the region in 1997 and is again one of the most-visited tourist venues in Italy.
Players have until 20 October to register, which is a month later than usual because the regulations were posted late, but the deadline for anyone who needs a visa to visit Italy is next week: 15 August. Some of the hotel accommodation is already sold out.
The Dresden Chess Festival team will host the European Senior Team Championships at the congress hall where the 2008 FIDE Olympiad was played. A link for the invitation to that event can also be found below.
Newly announced events are added to this page when we find out about them. Please inform us if you know of an international senior tournament that is not mentioned. In our calendar we include only those tournaments which are described as Open and FIDE-rated, and we do not include events restricted to players from one country.
The most striking thing we have noticed is that, probably due to Covid-19, senior tournaments are not announced for the early months of 2023. Only one of the four official FIDE championships for next year is definite as yet
Perhaps some senior events will be announced nearer the time. There are a few annual events that already booked their 2023 dates and there are even two 2024 events tentatively listed.
For tournaments, such as the British Championships, 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 years for the two FIDE age groups in 2022 are 1957 (for 65+ events) and 1972 (for 50+) but some German senior organisers have different rules. Note that the eligibility rules for German-language Senior events vary. It is usually 60+ for men and sometimes 50+ or 55+ for women. Check the particular details for any event that interests you.
The German Senior tournaments calendar now includes tournaments which they list as privately organised (i.e., not by the German federation). As annual 2022 events are played, we usually find the dates for next year's event are released and some can be seen below. We also regularly search on chess-results.com and sometimes find a few events (mostly in Austria) which we add below if relevant.
Tournaments are usually removed from our listings once their start dates are reached, or soon after.
** A double asterisk in the list below indicates new or recently changed information. All tournaments listed well in advance are liable to change and of course there still remains some risk of cancellation due to Covid-19 (although no event has been cancelled this year so far as we are aware).
27 August-2 September: Adolf Anderssen Memorial Senior Open (50+) at Frankfurt am Main; 7 rounds. Information in German (PDF).
29 September-7 October: 16th Open Senior Championship of Schleswig-Holstein at Büsum in northern Germany. For women born in 1967 or earlier and men born 1962 or earlier. No details yet but there is a contact email for the organiser: Gerhard Ihlenfeldt.
1-10 October: ACO "World Seniors Championships" (50+) at the Fodele Resort, Crete, Greece. Regulations and brochure (PDF) now available to download.
10-16 October: 1st Landhotel Betz Senior Cup (65+, 7 rounds) at Bad Soden, Salmünster (Hesse region). Information in German (PDF).
22-31 October: ACO "World Senior Team Championships" (50+) at the Atlantica Belvedere Hotel, Kos, Greece. This is a new 9-round event; games are on 23-30 October (so two double round days). Regulations and brochure (PDF) now available to download. Teams can have reserve players but in each round just two play: one with White and one with Black. Teams can be formed of players of any nationality (unlike FIDE team events).
**16-22 October: Niederösterreichische Senior Open at Spitz in der Wachau, Austria; 7 rounds, for players born 1963 or earlier. Shouldn't that be 1962? Anyway that's what it says in the invitation document (PDF in German).
18-26 October: 30th Open Saxon Senior Championships at Gasthof Coschütz, Dresden, Germany. 50+ and 65+ in one 9-round tournament with morning play. Regulations in German (PDF). Immediately followed by:
26 October-4 November: 50+ and 65+ European Senior Team Championships at Dresden, Germany. Play will be in the afternoon starting 27 October (except for the final round). Full regulations now available in English (PDF). Teams of four (with optional reserve) representing nations, regions or clubs; all members of a team must be from the same federation. Entries close on 26 August and half the hotel cost must be paid by 15 September.
14-27 November: World Senior Individual Championships (50+ and 65+) in Assisi, Italy. The regulations in English (PDF) can be downloaded from here or from the FIDE website.. The tournaments are divided between two adjacent venues. All hotels offered are in the Santa Maria degli ANngeli district, to the south-west of the town, quitenear the railway station.
14th November is arrival day and the 27th is the departure day. As usual there will be 11 rounds with a rest day after round 6, when an excursion to Siena (127km) is offered. The nearest airport is Perugia but travel from Rome by train appears to be fairly straightforward or you can pay the organisers extra money for a transfer.
30 November-8 December: 22nd Senior Open of Mecklenburg-Verpommen at Binz, a seaside resort on the German Baltic island of Rügen. More details are promised later at the organisers' website. The dates are settled but hotel contracts have yet to be signed so entries are mot being accepted yet.
15-23 April 2023: The 11. International Schach-Senioren-Cup am Tegernsee at Rottach-Egern. This is a 50+ tournament. See the German calendar for more information.
25 May-4 June 2023: The European Senior Individual Championships (50+ and 65+) at Acqui Terme, Italy; nine rounds. As this will be the fourth FIDE seniors event at this venue since 2015, we can imagine that many players who have been there before (or are going there next month) will opt out of this one.
26 May-4 June 2023: 33rd Bavarian Senior Open at Bergen-Chiemgau. This is an annual 60+ tournament. The clash with the European Seniors is unfortunate but the organisers are of course in their rights to stick with their usual dates.
23 June-1 July 2023: Bad Bertricher Schachtage 2023. See the German calendar for more information.
21-29 July 2023: 20th Rheinland/Pfalz Senior Open at Altenkirchen/Westerwald (about 40km east of Bonn). 9 rounds. Detauls to follow; probably for men born 1963 or earlier, women born 1968 or earlier (if they follow 2022 rules).
No dates or precise venue have been announced yet for the European Senior Team Championships, which are due to be hosted by Poland.
No venue or dates have yet been announced either for the 2023 World Senior Team Championships.
The FIDE calendar is saying that the 2023 World Senior Individual Championships will be played in Sochi, Russia. Please support our call for this decision to be changed.
The following dates and venues were just announced on the European Chess Union website. The awarding of these events was presumably agreed at the ECU Board meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, a few days ago.
** 6-17 October 2024: The European Senior Team Championships (50+ and 65+) at Terme Catez, Slovenia.
** 18-29 October 2024: The European Senior Individual Championships (50+ and 65+) at Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.
Not only the early notice seems surprising, but also the fact that the dates are consecutive. A subsequent change of dates for one event or the other is perhaps to be expected, although geographically they are probably close enough for somebody who wished to play both to travel between the venues by road or rail.
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