The Portuguese Chess Federation celebrates its 90th anniversary with an International Chess Open. The tournament will held in a 9-round Swiss system, FIDE rated, and valid for title norms.
The tournament is included in the national Classical Chess Circuit. On 11th February, there will be an (optional) rapid tournament, included in the national Rapid Chess Circuit.
The tournament will take place in Altis Park Hotel **** in Lisbon/Portugal from 4th to 11th February 2017.
The opening ceremony is scheduled for 4th February at 2.00 pm, and the 1st round starts half an hour later, at 2.30 pm (Portuguese time).
Players affiliated to the Portuguese Chess Federation shall send their entry through their clubs, using the FPX platform. Other players shall send their entries to openportugal@fpx.pt.
The total prize fund is 8.200 EUR, plus wooden board and chess pieces for the best Youth players Under 16, 14, 12, 10 and 8. The first prize is 2000 EUR.
So far 123 players from 30 countries registered for the event. The first seed is Latvian Grandmaster Igor Kovalenko (ELO 2684), followed by GMs Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (VEN, 2652), Tigran Gharamian (FRA 2624), Milos Perunovic (SRB 2608), Mladen Palac (CRO 2600), etc.
The top female player registered for the tournament is IM Martha L.Fierro Baquero (Equador, ELO 2365), followed by WGM Ana Filipa Baptista (Portugal, ELO 2094), and WCM Arda Cagil Irmak (Turkey, ELO 2021).
The Portuguese Chess Federation (Federação Portuguesa de Xadrez, FPX), founded on 22 January of 1927, is a Sports Federation with Sports Public Utility Statue that has fulfilled all requirements defined by the legislation in force, the FPX has about 3000 (three thousand) registered players for a total of 120 (one hundred and twenty) active clubs and 20 (twenty) territorial associations.
In Portugal there are about of 150 official competitions, between national, regional and private tournaments, being most of them valid for FIDE rating. FPX attributes annually around 65 national titles in national competitions, within the rhythms (Classic chess, Rapid chess and Blitz chess) and for all the ages.
The function of FPX is the representation of the chess in Portugal, which has the support and supervision of the Sports and Youth Institute of Portugal, within the national sports promotion and development and participation in international organizations.