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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
13 May 2021
The organisers of the Chess Classics Bad Neuenahr have taken the sensible decision to postpone their event to October when there must be a good chance that this attractive senior festival can take place.
We were wrong about the Brandenburg event on a Polish island resort in June. It is still scheduled (see below) but entries close in 7 days from the date of this page. The tournament scheduled for June in Bavaria has indeed been cancelled.
The persistence of the Covid-19 pandemic has put many other senior events for 2021 in doubt although the increased availability of vaccines has raised many hopes.
Meanwhile you can see below the dates for the English seniors (online and OTB); more details are linked from our news page.
A web page in Polish announces the Rubinstein Chess Festival in mid-August, to be held at Polanica-Zdroj, lower Silesia (south-west Poland), which is a small spa town with a long chess tradition. The programme of events includes the European Senior Team Championship (which we previously believed was unlikely to happen this year) and an individual Senior Open (men 60+, women 50+). See the dates below but as yet there is no information available in English.
The city of Magdeburg in the Sachsen-Anhalt region of Germany will host a series of recently-announced events during July, including a Senior Open.
Early in March, English Chess Federation announced that they will not hold British Championships over the board in the summer, and the congress in Torquay (originally scheduled for 2020) is postponed a second time to 2022. Instead they will hold online championships like last December/January which will include 50+ and 65+ standard and rapid tournaments.
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.
The high rate of infections in the Czech Republic caused the postponed Marienbad festival (at Marianske Lazne in April) to be cancelled, as was also the annual festival in Bad Wörishofen (both including senior tournaments). These events will probably not be held again until, respectively, January and March 2022. A scaled-back Reykjavik festival has been scheduled to start on 26 August. The main event will be the European Championship (not senior) which is a qualifier for the 2022 FIDE World Cup.
The Amateur Chess Organisation intends to revive its events this year. Note that they are NOT rated by FIDE although they use FIDE (or national) ratings to determine which tournament entrants compete in. The "titles" they award are not recognised by anyone except themselves.
ACO's 2021 tournaments will be played at the same Cretan resort venue from 1-10 October, which was also the venue for their 2019 senior festival and where they hope to hold their "2020" events next month. See our calendar page for details. GM Vlastimil Hort will be guest of honour at both festivals. ACO events are essentially a holiday but they are popular with regular visitors.
Two small German senior tournaments that had been planned for March had to be postponed to November, although optimists in Germany and elsewhere are still planning some attractive tournaments for the second half of this year. The continued high level of infections and the confused slow roll-out of vaccines in Europe makes planning difficult for organisers.
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. In our calendar we include only those tournaments which are described as Open, and not events restricted to German players.
If you know of further tournaments, or cancellations, please inform us and we shall include them.
An asterisk in the list below indicates new or recently changed information.
** POSTPONED (was 6 May-3 June): Chess Classics 2021 Bad Neuenahr. See below (October) for new dates.
8-16 June 2021: 37th Open Berlin Senior Individual Championship, for men 60+ and women 55+. Limited (because of pandemic regulations) to the first 75 entries, after which a waiting list will be created. More details available via the German calendar.
** NEW DATES 11-20 June (was 11-20 May): ACO plans to hold its postponed 2020 unofficial "Senior World Championships", for players aged 50 and over, alongside its "Amateur World Championships" in Crete. Download regulations in English (PDF). See also below for their 2021 events in October. The venue, the 5-star Fodele Beach Resort, is about 28km from the island's capital Iraklion and 25km west of Iraklion airport.
** CANCELLED (was 12-20 June 2021): 32nd Bavarian Open Senior Championship at Bergen/Chiemgau.
** 19-27 June 2021 (NOT cancelled): 28th Brandenburg Senior Open at Miedzyzdroje on the Baltic island of Wolin, Poland. PDF regulations in German. For women who in 2021 will reach the age of 55 or older, and men who are 60 or older. The main event is a 9-round FIDE-rated Swiss and there will also be blitz and rapid tournaments. NOTE: The closing date for payment and registration (by email) is 20 May.
2-10 July: 18th Rheinland/Pfalz Senior Open (9 rounds) at Altenkirchen/Westerwald. For men born 1961 or earlier and women born 1966 or earlier. Details in German (PDF). The venue is located approximately 40 km east of Bonn and 50 km north of Koblenz.
** 5-11 July: 29th Open Senior championship of Sachsen-Anhalt at Magdeburg (7 rounds). Prizes for 50+ and 65+ in one tournament. PDF regulations in German. Later in July, Magdeburg hosts the German Senior Championships, which were held there successfully last August.
** Starting 24 July, qualifiers for the 2nd British 50+ and 65+ Senior Championships. See our news page for a link to the announcement, regulations and entry form. If the entry is low, the qualifiers may be cancelled (as happened last December) with everyone playing the finals, which will be held in early August. ECF also hope to hold an OTB senior championship in October and the twice-postponed "2020" British Chamnpionships in Torquay will now be held there in 2022. For future announcements, check the English Chess Federation championship website.
30 July-3 August : 11th Canadian Seniors Championships at Halifax, Nova Scotia, as part of a larger chess festival. 6-Round Swiss in two sections 50+/65+. Canadian residents are eligible if age 50/65 by 31st December 2021. Foreign players U2000 are welcome but cannot claim first prize. Highest rated entries so far are GM Evgeny Bareev (50+) and IM Leon Piasetski in the 65+.
** 11-19 August : European Senior Team Championship at Polanica-Zdroj, Poland. No details as yet. If the event is played on the usual lines, teams of four (with optional reserve) must represent European nations, clubs or regions; every player on a team must be a member of the same FIDE federation. Separate sections 50+ and 65+ if there are sufficient entries.
We shall be somewhat surprised if this event actually happens and wonder why the European Senior Individual Championship was not announced instead.
** 14-22 August: Open Senior individual tournament (Men 60+, women 50) also as part of the Rubinstein Memorial Festival at Polanica-Zdroj, Poland. Afternoon play, This is not a championship event, but is one of several age- or rating-restricted tournamnets announced for the festival.
** 26 August-5 September: The Reykjavik Festival (to include the European Championship and a 7-round Open event) has been rearranged for the Natura Hotel (not the Harpa concert hall). Whether there will be any Senior (50+) prizes is as yet unknown. The main tournament will be very strong. Better wait for next year?
30 September-8 October : 15th Open Senior Championship of Schleswig-Holstein at Busum.
1-10 October: ACO unofficial "Senior World Championships" (50+) in Crete. Seven sections based on 200-Elo wide rating bands. PDF announcement of regulations in English. The organisers' website promises 200 Euro per person discounts for entries received by 31 March and free cancellation up to three days before the start. The venue is the same as for their events in May.
** 13-22 October: Rarranged dates for the Chess Classics Bad Neuenahr (Klaus Gohde Memorial tournaments). Three 9-round FIDE-rated sections: 50+, 65+ and 75+! A half-point bye may be taken in one of the first seven rounds if requested. The rather high entry fee of 120 Euros includes refreshments (water, coffee, tea or juices) during the games. Original details (PDF in German). This sounds like a high-class event. Bad Neuenahr is in a pleasant wine-growing region close to the Rhine at Remagen.
* 8-21 November (unconfirmed dates): Official FIDE Senior World Championships pencilled in for Assisi, Italy, which was to have been the 2020 venue. The organisers' website arcoworldchess.com has no information at present. An email informed us that FIDE have asked them to wait until the end of this month or the first week of June to confirm details. The dates shown here are on the German calendar. Watch this space.
May 2022: FIDE Senior World Team Championships pencilled in for Acqui Terme, Italy, according to organisers Arcoworldchess. (Originally planned for August 2021, but they say FIDE asked them to wait until next year.)
PROBABLY POSTPONED AND/OR RELOCATED (original dates were 23 July-1 August 2021): This year's European Senior Team Championships was originally scheduled for Dresden, Germany. If the ECU calendar can be believed, the 2021 event will be played in Wroclaw, Poland but there are still no dates and the European Senior Individuals are still assigned to Pola d with no venue or dates. We shall probably have to wait several more weeks for any information but our view is that even the individual championship may not happen.
The team event is usually for teams of four representing nations or regions; 50+ and 65+. All players on a team must be registered with FIDE and from the same federation.
Note the age qualification rules for German-language Senior events vary. It is usually 60+ for men and 50+ or 55+ for women. Check the particular details for any event that interests you.
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