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Senior calendar: more tournaments added to our listings

For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors news and Seniors introduction pages.

 

This week we have added some new tournaments and details. In particular, we mention the Danish Seniors in late July, in which overseas players are invited to participate, the Arco Seniors in Italy, and the Cap Negret congress at Altea in Spain in November.

Most recently, we added PDF details of the Olomouc Summer Congress, in the Czech Republic, and the tournament at Spitz in der Wachau, Austria, in October.

We have received several recommendations about the Cap Negret congress, which has become popular in recent years. Players who have been there in the past tell us that the weather should be about 20C. They say that the hotel and foods is excellent (and the hotel will remain open until the day after the event ends).

The nearest airport is Alicante. Our latest advice is to look for a Beniconnect Express transfer though a taxi is an option for groups of three or four.

The main snag seems to be that some rounds will be played in the morning because of a clash with a local chess event on two or three days. Cap Negret clashes with the World Senior individual championships but they are at an unattractive venue in Serbia and no details for that event have yet been released.

The regulations and invitations document for the European Senior Team Championships were published last month and can be downloaded from our listings below.

The official hotel and playing venue is the Royal Belvedere Hotel at Hersonissos, on the Greek island of Crete. Hersonissos is on the northern coast of Crete, about half an hour's drive east of the island's capital, Iraklion.

The arrival date is Wednesday 26th August and as usual the tournaments (50+ and 65+) will be played over nine rounds with no rest day, concluding on Friday 4th September.

The dates (autumn) and venue (Peterborough) for the 2026 English Senior Championships (50+ and 65+) are also now available.

In recent years these tournaments (which, unlike the British Championships in August, are only open to ENG-registered players) have been held around the time of the May bank holiday. That would not have worked this year because of a clash with the World Senior Team Championships. Instead the tournaments will be played alongside the main English chamionships in the autumn.

We also received a personal recommendation for the Bad Bertrich Chess Days in September. The organisers clearly want an international field because they have published the invitation document in several languages, not just German. The details of the Dieppe festival in August are also now added but it seems that the senior tournament venue is almost at capacity already.

Entries are open for the 2026 European senior individual championships (50+ and 65+), to be played in Acqui Terme, Italy. You can download the invitation document below.

Play is at 3pm each day starting on 2nd June. As usual there are nine rounds with no rest day. The document states that women will play in separate tournaments if there are more than nine entries.

The official closing date has now passed for the 2026 World Senior Team Championships to be held in Albania in April. Late entries will probably be accepted at a higher cost. See our news page for more on this event.

Below you can find listings of more than 40 tournaments for senior players in Europe next year. I think there have never been so many options for the over-50s to play chess events against one's own age group.

Recent additions and updates to the listings are, as usual, indicated by ** at the start of the listing.

Players from abroad who are new to senior chess should note that it is usually necessary to have a FIDE registration from your home country before entering events listed on this page. If you don't have one, contact your local federation.

Note that German tournaments usually start with an afternoon round (to allow for personal registration of players arriving on the day or the previous evening), after which the remaining rounds start after breakfast. Also some events have limited numbers because of venue capacity and can book out early, so don't book travel until your entry is confirmed.

We concentrate here on European tournaments, but may sometimes mention major events on other continents. As always, we check the German Federation Senior tournaments calendar regularly. This sometimes shows tournaments before we do, but often we are first. We also regularly search on chess-results.com and we sometimes find a few events (mostly in Austria) which we add below if relevant.

There is another German senior calendar and news page at the Schach50plus website that you may find useful.

Newly announced events are added to this page when we find out about them. We know that these pages are widely read but we rely on readers and friends to notify us of many events. Tournament organisers rarely send us announcements in good time.

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. In most cases we omit events restricted to players from one country or which are played over an extended period so are unsuitable for overseas visitors.

German senior tournament age limits vary a lot, so always check your eligibility if you are thinking of going. For tournaments 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 birth years for the two FIDE age groups in 2026 are 1976 for 50+ tournaments, 1961 (for 65+ events) and also 1951 for "Nestor" (75+) events and prizes.

Our Seniors introduction page explains in more detail.

 

Currently in progress