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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:
20 August 2025
For more information about chess for over-50s, please see our Seniors calendar and our main Seniors news page. Newcomers to 50+ chess should read our Seniors introduction page. We also have pages for specific British Seniors and Irish Seniors news.
The 2025 USA Senior Championship was played as usual at the Saint Louis chess club as a 10-player closed round-robin for 50+ players between the 15th and 24th of July. After a three-way tie on only 5.5/9, GM Alex Fishbein was declared the winner ahead of Alexander Shabalov and Vladimir Akopian. The games can be found on chess.com.
This is an annual event for professionals and the prize money was ridiculously high compared with prizes for most senior tournaments. More details can be found on the club website linked above.
The United States of America, we are now informed, actually has three different annual 50+ championships but as yet no 65+ championship, which is a pity and something the US Chess Federation really should remedy. Europe is truly the only continent that caters to the fast-growing cohort of senior players.
The USA Open 50+ championship is a weekend event played over only six rounds from 25-27 July at the Hilton Chicago Northbrook in Northbrook, Illinois. This is organised by Kevin Bachler, aka Caveman Chess. His advance information online said that the winner qualifies for the 2025 championship which could not be correct because that tournament had already happened.
The results can be found online on the Caveman Chess website. The winner of the main section was GM Jesse Kraai (5.5/6) who indeed thus qualifies for the 2026 closed championship in Saint Louis. There was also a Senior Reserve section for lower-rated players with 33 competitors.
Separately there is the John T. Irwin National Tournament of Senior State Champions for Senior players from most of the US States, who qualify by winning their State Senior Championships. If a State Senior Championship is not held, other criteria are used, like highest rated senior.
The Irwin championship is played alongside the US Open tournament which was held this year in Middleton, Wisconsin. GM Fishbein participated as representative from the State of Tennessee and won the Irwin on tie-break over IM Stuart Rachels, from Alabama. As Fishbein thus had a double qualification for the 2026 closed championship it was announced that Rachels would take the second spot in Saint Louis.
Our correspondent was also able to clarify how IM Timothy Taylor had qualified for the 2025 Saint Louis tournament, in which he not surprisingly finished last since all the other competitors were GMs. Taylor was the highest placed eligible player (joint 2nd/6th) in the 2024 Irwin which was won by Georgian-registered IM Managadze.
We are told that a 50+ Senior invitational championship for women has also been recently added but we do not have details; maybe it has yet to be played. So that is the last piece of information we are looking for.
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