€29.90
The Festival kicked off with an international Open Tournament, 2-9 April. Other events would follow: Open Junior Championship, Rapid rated tournament, Three-day qualifying Rated Blitz Tournaments, Weekend rated tournaments, Team Blitz Rated Tournament, 55 Years Chess Informant Blitz Tournament, Simultaneous exhibitions, two GM tournaments (16- 22 April), average rating 2380+ and two IM tournaments (24 -30 April), average rating 2230+. These are 10-player round robin tournaments, very popular because they are especially designed to provide the opportunity for gaining the highly sought after norms.
The Belgrade Spring Festival is a follow-up of the very successful first chess event, The Belgrade Summer Chess Festival organised by the Champions Chess Academy in 2018. The second edition, in 2019, was a seal of approval of the preceding edition bringing in over 200 hundred players from 19 countries. The third edition, scheduled for the summer of 2020, was in fu
€29.90
In the times of the pandemic, the OTB (over the board) competitions are sorely missed, however, the opportunity to play online has its advantages as well. While playing face-to-face is a unique experience, playing from home can spare time and finances for travel and accommodation.
Thus, many more players can participate in tournaments who otherwise may have been prevented. But, there is another hurdle to overcome – you need a computer and a reliable internet connection and you have to get familiar with the rules and peculiarities of online chess, such as the possibility to pre-move and the dangers of the dreaded mouse-slip.
€29.90
Instant grandmaster
As Diana Mihajlova’s thorough profile of Wang Hao (part one is here; part two is here) stated, Hao jumped from untitled to grandmaster “bypassing both the FM and IM titles.” Becoming a grandmaster at age 16 was a high point in Hao’s already impressive junior chess career. For example, at age 14, Hao won team gold and an individual gold as China’s first board in the Under-16 Olympiad.
2019 Grand Swiss
Wang Hao qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament by winning the 2019 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss with 8 out of 11, on tiebreak over 2018 World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana and ahead of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who tied for third place with 7.5.