26th year of international chess, bridge and games festival

16.7. – 2.8. 2015, Pardubice, Tipsport arena

www.czechopen.net  

PARDUBICE – The 26th International Chess and Games Festival Czech Open started on July 16th. As usual take place in hockey Tipsport arena in Pardubice.

The very first tournament of Czech Open was really successful! In KONICA MINOLTA OPEN took place 108 four-member teams, so last year's participation (100 teams) exceeded. “We are very happy to have 108 teams in this tournament. There are traditionally very strong players and teams,” said the director of festival Jan Mazuch.
This tournament is also played as Championship of Czech Republic. After seven rounds gold medals went to Czech team Zikuda Turnov. On the second place of final ranking was Czech team Unichess from Prague, third ended home team Rapid Pardubice. On starting list was 11 GMs and the best player of the event was talented Czech player Vit Kratochvil, who scored 6,5/7.

The first weekend of the event was traditionally dedicated to games. There are tournaments in various disciplines, such as Rubik’s cube, Scrabble, Renju, Gomoku, Mancala, Go and many others. The most popular among the spectators is definitely the tournament in assembling the Rubik’s cube. „We had the highest number of participants and we saw many records, so I am very satisfied," said main organizer Jaroslav Flejberk.

After the weekend, the other chess tournaments were proceeding. Bughouse, blitz chess, superblitz and blitz marathon. One of the most star-studded event was the Fischerrandom chess tournament with GM Sergei Movsesian, GM Martin Petr or GM Bogdan Lalic. Winner of this tournament is Armenian Sergei Movsesian, one of the biggest favorites of main tournament. Another star-studded tournament will be the two-day rapid-chess tournament, which will start on wednesday. There are lot of grandmasters in the start list, top seeded will be GM Viktor Laznicka and GM Sergei Movsesian.

Czech Open Festival draws to a phase, when the competitors taking part in the main tournament meet in the Tipsport arena. This tournament will begin on 24th July and continue up to the 1st September.

The results of all tournaments and games are available on www.czechopen.net.