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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:
12 October 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.
Although the official announcement about the 2027 World Senior Team Championships has been confirmed, we hear that the European Chess Union will not be changing the dates of its own senior team championships despite the near-clash of dates. Since few if any players will wish to play both events, the European championships are likely to be a huge flop.
The World event will be hosted by the German Chess Federation from 31st March to 11th April 2027 at the Maritim Hotel in Magdeburg. This seems certain to be a very popular event, although the cost of full board at the hotel seems rather high and the organisers require all payments to be made in advance.
The Deutscher Schachbund celebrates its 150th anniversary next year. So they were the logical choice to host the World Teams event, although there was also an attractive bid to host from Brazil. The DSB have a web page with photographs and a countdown clock. Registration has now opened and will close on 31st January.
The historic city of Magdeburg, on the Elbe river, is the capital of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt (since 1990) and has been hosting senior tournaments regularly in recent years.
The European Senior Team Championships are scheduled to start less than two weeks later at Acqui Terme, their dates being 23rd April to 3 May. The Italian organiser, Cristina Rigo, told players at her recent Arco congress that the dates cannot be changed. (See our calendar page to download the official invitation document for both events.)
From what we have heard so far, it seems likely that the European event will receive even fewer entries than it did in 2026. We are told that the English Chess Federation will not be supporting the event financially and any English teams that go to Acqui Terme are likely to be much weaker than usual. England was the country that had sent the most teams to the 2026 event in Crete where they retained the 50+ title and were runners-up in the 65+.
Part of the blame for the clash, it seems, must lie with FIDE which failed for months to update its main 2027 calendar or Events Commission website to make a clear announcement about the World Senior Team Championships. We can only hope that lessons have been learned all round and that the new FIDE management, when it is in place, will be much more efficient than the old one.
However the Magdeburg dates have been an open secret since May, when we posted a translation of (and link to) the German press release which announced the dates of the event in Magdeburg.
The ECU and the Italian organisers somehow missed that announcement although we several times wrote here about the risk of a clash.
As the Scots have suggested, there really should be one person coordinating the dates and venues for the four senior championships run annually by the ECU and FIDE to achieve sensible scheduling of these events twelve months in advance.
As noted on our calendar page recently, the Asian Seniors Championships (which begin in a few days time) were also only belatedly announced a few weeks ago, just a couple of months before the event. We received a comment from New Zealand that they are frustrated by the late announcement of dates and fairly obscure venue which makes it almost impossible to make arrangements for players with a long way to travel.
The individual World Senior Championships will be played next month in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Entry lists are now available on chess-results. We now see 132 entries for the Open 50+, 26 for the Women's 50+, 216 for the Open 65+ and 30 for the Women's 65+. So these will be strong tournaments with a good entry.
Your editor and many of his friends will nevertheless play instead in the Cap Negret Seniors in Altea, Spain.
The British Senior Championships were played early in August in Coventry. GM Keith Arkell is the new 65+ champion and FM Stephen Dishman won the 50+. For details see our British Seniors page.
The inaugural European Rapid and Blitz Championships will be played at the Novotel in Monaco from 10-14 Januay 2027 with a good prize fund for both the 50+ and 65+ with separate women's sections is the entry is large enough. See also our calendar page for links.
The rapid championship will be played on the 11th and 12th of January over 11 rounds with the rate of play 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increments. The blitz, on the 13th, will also be over 11 rounds at the rate of 5 minutes plus 3 second increment. (The 3/2 rate, which is understandably less appropriate for seniors, was shown on the website but the orgamisers have confirmed the slower rate is correct.)
The total entry is restricted to 150 players. There is no restriction on the number of entries from any federation but male entrants must have a FIDE rating of at least 1800 in one of its categories (classical, rapid or blitz). There is no rating restriction for women.
This is potentially a popular event with the potential to be an annual competition. For stronger senior competitors, this could be a good chance to meet and even play some famous masters without having to spend ten days away from home. We understand that many entries ahve already been submitted so don't delay toolong if this interests you.
There seems to be a contradiction in the document which needs to be clarified. It says that the registration deadline is 20th December, but it also states that: "Entry fees and accommodation payments shall reach the below bank account no later than 1st December 2026. After this we don’t guarantee the rates of the hotels."
Monaco is of course expensive but it is also possible to commute there by train quite easily from Nice or other towns in south-east France and Nice is the most convenient airport.
The German senior individual championships were played in Dresden in late July. GM Rainer Knaak is the new 65+ champion, scoring 8/9 in a field of 230 competitors. The 50+ tournament had a field of 75. Untitled Dieter Kaiser and IM Cliff Wichmann scored 7/9 with Kaiser taking the title on tiebreak. IM Klaus Klundt won the 65+ blitz and FM Karsten Schulz had the best tiebreak of the top four finishers in the 50+ blitz. The German regional team championships are currently in progress.
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).
Back to our Seniors introduction page