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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:
6 October 2025
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our main Seniors news page and 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 2026 European individual senior championships which ended yesterday in Rabac, Croatia, was generally agreed to have been a very successful and well organised event. So congratulations are in order to the Croatian chess federation; we wish all FIDE senior events were this good.
The venue was a seaside village (pronounced Rab-atch), near Pula on the eastern side of the Istrian pensinsula, a hilly part of Croatia with spectacular views of hills and islands. We started with 161 players from about 40 countries playing in four separate tournaments.
You can find pairings and results here on the various tabs at chess-results. The top ten men's games in the Open sections and all the women's games were broadcast every day on the tournament website and on Lichess.org.
Here is a brief summary of the results. The eight women in the 65+ female championship played a round-robin with predetermined pairings so they had only seven rounds and two rest days. Romanian WIM Ligia-Letitia Jicman won with five and a half points.
There were 11 women in the 50+ which was not ideal because it meant a 9-round Swiss with a bye in each round which nearly all competitors received. WIM Gundula Heinatz of Austria and WFM Margit Brokko of Estonia both finished on 7/9 without having the bye and Heinatz took the title on tie break. WFM Petra Fink-Nunn finished third.
In the 65+ Open section, which had 88 starters, several of the GMs made a slow start but gradually rose to the top. Eventually GM Zurab Sturua of Georgia took the title on tie-break from England's John Nunn, both scoring 7 points. Slovak GM Lubomir Ftacnik and English IM John Pigott scored six and a half, with Ftacnik taking bronze on tie-break.
There was a huge tie on 6 points involving eleven players including Andrew Philip Smith of Ireland (who won the British 65+ title in 2024). Some kind of tiebreak rule was employed to award cash prizes to those placed fifth and sixth and medals down to tenth but Andrew missed out.
Your editor was playing in the 65+ tournament and came primarily for a holiday. He managed to score 5/9 including wins against two higher-rated opponents and should find his FIDE rating back above 2000 on the November list. So it may be time to set new goals.
The 50+ championship, with a field of 54, was won by French GM Jean-Marc Degraeve with 7/9; he led throughout. There was a three-way tie on six and a half points. Josep Anton Lacasa Diaz (Spain) took silver, Frank Holze of Germany came third and Throstur Thorhallson of Iceland was placed fourth.
The weather, apart from two days, wassunny. It was warm to begin with but became rather windy. Our hotel (the Valamar Bellevue Resort) is new and brilliant, and the buffet meals have been much better than we have often experienced at other FIDE senior championships.
Many families with young children, unconnected with the chess, were enjoying staying here and the hotel caters for them very well. Most players are staying in a different hotel nearer the tournament venue.
There is also a report of the opening ceremony with photos on the European Chess Union website.
Back to our Seniors introduction page