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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:
25 November 2022
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors news and Seniors introduction pages.
Tournament organisers, please send us your announcements in good time. We know from talking to players at this year's World Seniors that these pages are widely read but we don't have much time to research events.
We recently added to our calendar tournaments in Berlin and Bremen scheduled for January and the 2023 Bodensee Seniors; see below. We have not learned of any new developments while in Assisi.
The big open questions for 2023 remain when and where will the FIDE and ECU senior championships be held. So far only one of the four has definite dates and a venue. Sochi, in Russia, is surely an unacceptable location and at the Assisi opening ceremony the FIDE President said it would probably be changed.
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 omit events restricted to players from one country.
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.
30 November-8 December: The traditional final Senior tournament of the year in Germany is the 22nd Senior Open of Mecklenburg-Verpommen at Binz, a seaside resort on the German Baltic island of Rügen. The organisers' website says entries closed and anyone else interested will have to go on a waiting list in case of withdrawals. We are told the list of 136 places was filled within hours of entries opening. We are not sure whether the limit was due to venue size or Covid restrictions, but evidently this is a popular event with some Germans.
** 1-10 January 2023: The Bremer Open Individual Senior Championship (Carl Carls Memorial) in Bremen, Germany. Regulations (PDF in German). Note there are only 7 rounds because there are no games on the Saturday and Sunday. Unusually, this is for women 53 years or older and men 58 years or older. This event was previously held in 2022 and maybe other years.
** 5-8 January 2023: The Philip Short Memorial Irish 50+ and 65+ Championships at Dublin (two separate sections, seven rounds in each). Open entry but only IRL-registered players can win the titles. Advance details now available (PDF flyer). Online entry available at the Irish Chess Union website.
14-21 January 2023: 21st Marienbad Festival, many tournaments including Seniors 50+, at Marianske Lazne, Czech Republic, organised as part of the Czech Tour. Details and invitation (PDF in English). We personally recommend the venue, the Continental Hotel, but there are other accommodation options.
** 22-28 January 2023: Something quite different: holiday tournaments on Chess Houseboat, sailing between different venues in Kerala, India. First held in 2020. NOTE: This is NOT a seniors-specific event but we have included it by special request as there is a prize for best veteran (60+) and they say that last time a high percentage of entrants were senior players. English brochure (PDF).
** 24 January-1 February 2023: 39th Berlin Senior Individual Open for Men born 1968 or older, Women born 1963 or older. Invitation file (German-language PDF).
3-11 March 2023: 38th Bad Wörishofen chess festival, organised by ChessOrg, including a Seniors tournament. The invitation document (PDF in German) does not state the age rule but previously (so presumably again), that has been open to men aged 60+ and women aged 50+.
15-19 March 2023: The Klaus Gohde Memorial at Wesel-Undeloh in Lower Saxony. This "Nestorenturnier" is only open to members of the German Chess Federation born in 1948 or earlier but some readers may be eligible. We mention it because 75+ events are still rather rare and we should like to see more of them. Information on the German calendar.
26-31 March 2023: The Serpiano Senior Chess Trophy International Challenge at Hotel Serpiano, above Lugano, Switzerland. Download the invitation (which is in English, German and Italian). The views from the venue, in the hills above Lugano in the Italian-speaking Ticino canton, are sure to be spectacular, but some of the reviews of the hotel on TripAdvisor are less encouraging. The price of food and drink are sure to be as steep as the surrounding mountains too.
15-23 April 2023: The 11th International Schach-Senioren-Cup am Tegernsee at Rottach-Egern. This is a 50+ tournament. See the German calendar for more information.
2-11 May 2023: The second ACO Super Seniors (65+) congress at the Atlantica Belvedere Resort on the Greek island of Kos. Regulations in English (PDF) can be downloaded.
13-19 May 2023: The Bodensee Senior Open at Bregenz, Austria, alongside the international Open (13-21 May). This Congress on the shores of Lake Constance (Bodensee in German) is a popular annual holiday event, and advance information can be found on their website. Thanks to Roger Scowen for informing us. He points out that there is one round per day, starting at 1500, with extra prizes for 75+ players.
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 at least once previously 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.
17-25 June: The 33rd Brandenburg Senior Open at Miedzyzdroje on the Baltic in Poland. This event is organised by Germans in a region that before World War II was in East Prussia. Details will follow later; the organisers' website at present only has details of previous events in the series.
23 June-1 July 2023: The 50+ Bad Bertricher Schachtage 2023 in the Great Hall of the Bad Bertrich Kurhaus. For players born 1973 or earlier. Details will probably become available on the German calendar next year but a contact email address for the organiser Dr. Matthias Kleifges is available on that calendar.
** 3-9 July: The 31st Open Senior Championship of Sachsen-Anhalt at Magdeburg (50+ and 65+). Advance information only on their website.
** 7-15 July: The 8th Open Senior Championship of Baden-Württemberg at Bad Herrenalb (50+ and 65+). No PDF invitation yet but email contact details for the organisers can be found on the German calendar.
21-29 July 2023: 20th Rheinland/Pfalz Senior Open at Altenkirchen/Westerwald (about 40km east of Bonn). 9 rounds. For men born 1963 or earlier, women born 1968 or earlier. Details will probably become available on the German calendar next year but a contact email address for the organiser Wolfgang Cleve-Prinz is available on that calendar.
** 31 July-6 August 2023: 31st Open Senior Championship of Sachsen-Anhalt at the Hotel Maritim, Magdeburg. 9 rounds. Details will probably become available on the German calendar next year. The closed German Championships, including senior championships, will probably follow that.
** 2-10 September 2023: First Fränkischer Senioren Cup in the Great Hall of the Bischofsgrün Kurhaus. Details will probably become available on the German calendar next year but a contact email address for the organiser Wolfgang Fielder is available on that calendar.
** 5-13 September 2023: 20th Rheinland/Pfalz Senior Open at Altenkirchen/Westerwald, for men born 1963 or earlier and women born 1968 or earlier. Flyer with advance information (PDF in German).
** 28 September-6 October 2023: 17th Schleswig-Holstein Senior Open at Busum, for men born 1963 or earlier and women born 1968 or earlier. Contact details for the organisers can be found on the German calendar.
** 9-17 October 2023: 31st Saxon Senior Open at Dresden. Contact details for the organisers can be found on the German calendar.
No dates or precise venue have been announced yet for the European Senior Team Championships, which are due to be hosted by Poland. We made enquiries in Dresden but still there seems to be no information about where or when or if this event will happen.
Neither have any country or dates yet been announced for the 2023 World Senior Team Championships. Apparently the new FIDE Events Commission is seeking bids to host them.
The FIDE calendar still says that the 2023 World Senior Individual Championships will be played in Sochi, Russia. We issued some time ago a call for this decision to be changed. The FIDE President has now stated there is likely to be a change of venue.
Some senior players may be interested in the European Chess Union's European Amateur Championship tournaments which will be played in Perugia, Italy, from 20-30 April 2023. There are no age restrictions but sections are divided according to FIDE rating (usually U2300, U2000 and U1700). The rule for the 2022 event was that a player must not have a published FIDE rating above the cut-off point for at least one year prior to the registration deadline of the event.
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. Terme Catez is an aquatic spa near Brezic, close to the border with Croatia, so flying to Zagreb may be the best option for getting there.
** 18-29 October 2024: The European Senior Individual Championships (50+ and 65+) at Lignano Sabbiadoro, a resort in north-east Italy, about an hour west of Trieste.
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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