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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:
18 April 2026
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors calendar. Newcomers to 50+ chess should read our Seniors introduction page. We also have pages for specific British Seniors and Irish Seniors news.
The World Senior team Championships start tomorrow, Sunday 19th April, in Durres, an Albanian resort.
We have just started a separate page to report on that event, while other senior chess news remains here.
It still remains to be seen whether the war in the Middle East will impact international tournament entries, if only because air travel costs are rising. Many people could be understandably reluctant to travel abroad at a time of uncertainty.
As our calendar page listings show, now that Easter is past, there are a large number of senior tournaments scheduled up to September and a few later in the year.
We have only heard of one cancellation so far (a German event in May, as shown on our calendar). This may be for other reasons, possibly just insufficient entries. We do note, though, that the Saxon Seniors (usually held in Dresden in the autumn) has not yet been announced.
It will be interesting to see whether the European Senior Teams Championships (in Crete in late August and early September) are affected. With the World Senior Teams just starting this weekend, it is now time for national and club organisers to start assembling teams for that event, in which we hope to participate.
As with the World event, teams can represent nations, regions, cities, clubs or just be groups of friends. The only limitation is that all players on a team must be members of the same federation. The closing date is 26th June after which a 200 Euro fee applies to any players registered late.
Meanwhile we note the potential for a new clash over next year's competitions which could again lead to the European Chess Union having to change its plans. Clearly liaison between the two bodies could be improved.
As it stands, the ECU has gone ahead and announced that the 2027 European Senior Team Championships will be held in Acqui Terme (oh no, not that place again, we hear many of you cry!).
The dates announced are 14-24 May, but should the ECU not wait until FIDE decides which of the two bids it has received for the World Senior Team Championships should be accepted? The premature ECU announcement looks like an attempt by the ECU to bully the World body into accepting the German bid to host its 2027 event when the rival non-European bid is potentially more attractive.
As we already announced several weeks ago, the website of the FIDE Events Commission shows that the choice for the 2027 World Senior Team Championships lies between Magdeburg in lower Saxony (with dates 31st January-11 February) and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil (proposed dates 3-13th May).
We have nothing against Magdeburg, where we should like to play sometime, but the World Senior Team Championships have never yet been held outside Europe.
As of today, the Events Commission still lists both bids so apparently no decision has yet been made. Brazil is well represented at the 2026 event which is just starting in Albania, so we can expect that FIDE will be discussing there with the organisers and that the Brazilian players will be lobbying players from other countries to gain their support.
We think that the Brazilian bid, with its venue close to the spectacular Iguazu waterfalls, should be looked on favourably if other details are satisfactory. The principal organiser is named as GM Lima Darcy who has been a regular at senior championships in recent years. Of course there might be fewer entries from Europe but several federations that normally do not enter would have an easier journey, which is only fair.
Clearly it is not feasible for seniors to return home from southern Brazil on 13th May and travel to Germany next day. Many federations (especially those with hopes of medals) and several individual players will want to play both events if there is a sufficient time separation between them.
The only bid listed to host the 2027 World Senior individual championships is from Italy (1-17 October) proposing Orosei on the east coast of Sardinia as the venue. The ECU calendar says that its 2027 European individual senior championships are scheduled for Chotowa in southern Poland at unspecified dates in July. (The nearest international airport is Katowice, about 36km).
It will be important for FIDE to make a decision soon so that other organisers can change dates if necessary. Also it will take European players longer to plan a trip to Brazil than one to a vebue on their own continent.
Back to our Seniors introduction page