News
The championship is coming
March 3, 2020 04:38 PM
After the great Prague International Chess Festival held at the Don Giovanni Hotel, other star chess players from all over the world are preparing for the World Senior Team Chess Championship. Although it is played in two congress halls at the Olympik Hotel, both events are connected through the Don Giovanni Hotel, where most participants will be accommodated. The fierce fighting will already break up on 6th March 2020. Winners receive 4 titles of world champions 2020.
Who can we look forward to? The following list of players commands respect:
Shabalov, Kaidanov, Jussupow, Graf, Giorgadze, Sturua, Speelman, Godena, David, Hracek, Ftacnik, Stohl and others in the category 50+. Balashov, Sveshnikov, Hort, Jansa, Vaisser, Nunn, Farago and other players in the category 65+. According to the average ELO (but it could be confusing especially in senior categories) the strongest favourites are USA teams (average ELO 2536), German Lasker SF (2510) and Georgia (2500), then England (2459), Italy (2458) and the Czech Republic (2457) in “younger” tournament. In “older” category the clear favourite is Russian team (2452, last year's winner). Among co-favourites we can find teams from Germany (2390), the Czech Republic (2373), France (2332), England (2328) and Israel (2320).
At the moment 120 teams from 32 countries are registered. The most numerous representation is from the Czech Republic (145 players in 31 teams), then from Germany (134 players in 29 teams). In total 45 GMs, 9 WGMs, 59 IMs and 10 WIMs participate in the championship. It is not “open European championship”, because there are also participants from other countries – USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Mongolia, Republic of South Africa.
100 games (50 games in each category) will be broadcast live every day. Important information is that admission is free for all spectators. Let’s enjoy this chess event together with stars of past years.
Preliminary starting lists: http://www.wstcc2020.net/results-pairings/
On-line broadcast: http://www.wstcc2020.net/games/live-coverage
Petr Lausman