The 2026 edition of the International Prague Chess Festival was officially declared opened yesterday, and is set to commence today in Czech Republic.
The Festival features Masters, Challengers and Futures round-robin events that are simultaneously played in the same venue, and includes Open tournaments, Rapid events and side chess tournaments. The Futures competition is supported by the European Chess Union and the FIDE Development fund.
The Masters event features: GM Vincent Keymer (GER, 2776), reigning World Champion GM Gukesh D (IND, 2754), GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2751), GM Hans Niemann (USA, 2725), GM Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2708), GM Jorden Van Foreest (NED, 2705), GM Aravindh Chithambaram (IND, 2700), GM Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB, 2691), GM David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2666), and GM David Navara (CZE, 2628).
GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2652), GM Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN, 2629), GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP, 2604), GM Zhu Jiner (CHN, 2578), GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (IND, 2568), IM Finek Vaclav (CZE, 2538), GM Thomas Beerdsen (NED, 2525), GM Divya Deshmukh (IND, 2497), IM Jachym Nemec (CZE, 2466), and IM Stepan Hrbek (CZE, 2463) compete in the Challengers event.
The Futures Tournament of the Prague Chess Festival is organised with the support of the European Chess Union. Ten girls, young chess talents, will participate in the exclusive playing conditions, same as for the participants of the Masters and Challengers event. The system and the time control of the competition also follows the Masters and Challengers events.
The players in the field of the Futures tournament are: Anna Hrckova (CZE, 2039), Lilian Schirmbeck (GER, 2035), Zuzana Stara (CZE, 1976), Kaja Rzadkowska (POL, 1906), Christina Jordan (SUI, 1889), Alessi Clio (ITA, 1886), Alona Tolmaceva (LAT, 1876), Sofiia Markina (CZE, 1867), Angelina Nguyen Doan (POL, 1853), and Lila Rzadkowska (POL, 1836).
The event will be video broadcasted, and live video broadcast with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili can be followed on the ECU YouTube channel.
Detailed information about the event, schedule, regulations, can be found on the Official website.
Photos from official Facebook page of the event / Tomáš Krist