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Editor: Dr Tim Harding |
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© Dr Tim Harding
Last modified:
2 June 2023
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors news and Seniors introduction pages.
The long awaited announcement about the venue for the World Senior Individual Championships was finally made yesterday on the FIDE Calendar. It is now definite that this event (previously awarded to Sochi, Russia, and then provisionally to Buenos Aires, Argentina) will be held at a seaside town near Palermo, Italy, at earlier dates than usual.
The workings of the FIDE Events Commission are somewhat opaque so we do not know why the change has been made, but the Buenos Aires decision (made early in April) was said on the FIDE website to be "subject to inspection". Either the Argentinians failed it or withdrew?
The new venue is Terrasini on the island of Sicily, with an arrival date of 24 October and departure on 6 November, about two weeks earlier than the usual dates for these championships. There will be, as normal, 11 rounds with a rest day (and optional excursion) after round 6.
It can be noted (with considerable relief) that the Italian organising company is not the same as the one which ran the 2022 World Seniors and the 2023 European Seniors individual championships.
The World Seniors Team Championship dates are also now known - at Struga on Lake Ohrid in September. Regulations for both these events can be downloaded from this page (see below) or from FIDE.
Please note a new Senior congress in Germany was recently announced for November. There are three sections, including one for players aged 75+, which is most welcome. We should like to see more of these organised and otherwise 65+ events should have 75+ prizes.
Entries are still open for the European Chess Union's senior team championship, to be played mid-July in Poland.
Tournament organisers, please send us your announcements in good time. We know from talking to players at last year's World Seniors that these pages are widely read but we don't have much time to research events.
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 2023 are 1958 (for 65+ events) and 1973 (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). Nothing new seems to have been announced there for several weeks, but as this year's regular events are held they are likely to release advance dates for 2024. 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 updated information.
** 17-25 June: 33rd Bavarian Senior Open at Bergen-Chiemgau. This is an annual 60+ tournament. The originally announced dates would have clashed with the European Seniors but a change has been made. We apologise for not pointing this out earlier. The details can still be downloaded here (PDF in German).
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 can be downloaded here (PDF in German).
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. No PDF is available but some information can be seen on chess-results. A contact email address for the organiser Dr. Matthias Kleifges can be found on the German calendar.
3-9 July: The 31st Open Senior Championship of Sachsen-Anhalt at Magdeburg (50+ and 65+). No PDF available yet; you may be able to find information in German only on their website.
7-15 July: The 8th Open Senior Championship of Baden-Württemberg at Bad Herrenalb (50+ and 65+). Their information file can now be downloaded (PDF in German). This tournament clashes with the next event.
11-21 July: The European Senior Team Championships (50+ and 65+) at Swidnica. The venue is a city in Silesia, south-west Poland. The official invitation (PDF in English) and a team entry form (MS Excel file) are both downloadable from this page or from the announcement at the European Chess Union website. We do expect this to be a popular event because the venue is fairly convenient for German club and regional teams, and the nearest airport, Wroclaw (40.3km distant) is served by Ryanair.
14-22 July: The Oberfrankische Senior individual championship at Bischofsgrün / Fichtelgebirge (near Bayreuth in Bavaria) is for players born in 1968 or earlier, i.e., this is, unsuually, a 55+ event. It is possibly for local players only, and it clashes with several other events as the calendar shows. Another event at the same venue is scheduled for September; see below.
** 24-30 July 2023: The British Senior Championships (separate 50+ and 65+ tournaments) at De Montfort University, Leicester, where the main championship begins on the 21st. Play in both the senior tournaments will start at 2.30pm except for the 7th and final round which will begin at 9.15am. Lists of players already entered can be seen online on the ECF's British Championship website, where you can also find entry forms and accommodation details. Entry fees rise after 30 June.
DMU, near the centre of Leicester, is the main centre in Britain for academic research into sports history and the English Chess Library is now hosted there. Entry is restricted to British and Irish citizens and non-citizens who have at least 13 months continuous residence in Britain or Ireland prior to the start of the event.
5-13 August 2023: 9th Arber Senior Cup (50+, alongside an Open tournament) at Bodenmais in the Bavarian woods, a region that has won tourism awards. Some details are available in German on the organisers' website.
15-19 August 2023: The Czech Tour announces the 24th Olomouc Chess Summer festival , including for the first time separate 50+ and 65+ tournaments alongside round-robin norm tournaments, an Open Swiss, etc. See the official website in English and download the invitation (PDF).
2-10 September 2023: First Fränkischer Senioren Cup in the Great Hall of the Bischofsgrün Kurhaus (Bavaria). Details may become available later on the German calendar but a contact email address for the organiser Wolfgang Fielder is available on that calendar. A chess-results page has been started for this event.
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). A chess-results page for this event currently shows 57 entries.
** 18-29 September 2023: The World Senior Team Championships at Struga on Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia. Invitation and regulations (PDF). FIDE originally announced 19 September as the arrival date but that will now be the first round to allow for a rest/excursion day after the fourth round. See our news page for more comment. Official website.
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.
1-10 October 2023: The unofficial ACO "World Senior Championship (50+)" at the Fodele Beach Resort on the Greek island of Crete. Full information (PDF). Early bird discounts offered until 31 May; GM Danny King will be in attendance as on-site trainer. Warning: NOT FIDE-rated.
9-17 October 2023: 31st Saxon Senior Open at Dresden. Contact details for the organisers can be found on the German calendar.
** 24 October-6 November 2023: The individual World Senior Championships at Terrasini, Sicily (about an hour north-west of Palermo). The regulations (PDF in English) provide full details of the tournaments and accommodation options. Closing date for entries is 30 August; late entries (if accepted) may incur extra costs.
**19-25 November: Jubiläumsturnier 30 Jahre Seniorenförderkreis (Klaus Gohde Memorial) at Bad Soden-Salmünster in Hesse, Germany (near Frankfurt). Seven rounds FIDE rated (morning play except round 1). Tournaments in three age groups: 50+, 65+ and 75+. Invitation document (PDF in German); also there is a tournament website and the organiser Martin Sebastian can be contacted by email at makuseb@aol.com.
29 November-7 December: The 23rd Open Senior Championship of Mecklenburg-Verpommen at Binz, a seaside resort on the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. For men born 1963 or earlier and women born 1968 or earlier. For more information consult the German calendar.
** 8-16 June 2024: The 34th Bavarian Senior Open at Bergen-Chiemgau. This is an annual 60+ tournament. We can expect more details to be announced during or after this year's event.
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. We do not know yet which Italian company is organising this.
Note that the dates of the two ECU championships 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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