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The top national German chess players will be guests in Dortmund this summer as part of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy. In the Open, top German players will compete with international grandmasters for a €20,000 prize fund.
The two best German female chess players will play in parallel in an international women's tournament at the Alte Schmiede cultural centre. There, Elisabeth Pähtz and Dinara Wagner will face, among another player, 15-year-old Lu Miaoyi, one of the world's greatest young chess talents.
The International Dortmund Chess Days will take place from 2 August to 10 August 2025 in the heart of the Ruhr region. The 52nd edition will once again be a chess festival for players of all classes with A-Open and B-Open. Thanks to the support of Sportland.NRW, high youth prices will once again be awarded in the tournaments.
The organiser IPS e.V. is expecting more than a dozen strong grandmasters to take part in the A-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2025. National player GM Dmitrij Kollars has already confirmed his participation.
Dmitrij Kollars
He caused sensational results in Dortmund several times, including with his victory over world champion Vladimir Kramnik in 2023. Last year's winner Nico Zwirs from the Netherlands has also registered. In 2024 he celebrated the greatest success of his chess career. Further master players will be announced in the coming weeks and months.
The B-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy will be played in eight rounds in the morning for players up to a rating of 2050, so that the grandmasters can be watched live in the afternoon. Grandmaster Artur Yusupov, former world no. 3 and popular commentator and chess coach, will be on site as a live commentator. The B-Open will be further enhanced by an additional round compared to last year.
Elisabeth Pähtz
The international women's tournament is also a further development of the previous year. In 2024, Elisabeth Pähtz and Dinara Wagner fought a sixgame duel, the match ended in a hard-fought draw. Pähtz has been the most successful female German chess player for many years. She was the first German woman to earn the grandmaster title. Her large collection of titles includes the European Women's Rapid Chess Champion title.
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Dinara Wagner won the Sportland.NRW Cup of the Chess Days in 2023. Further successes, such as winning the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Nicosia in 2023, have seen her catch up with Pähtz in recent years and she is currently the German number 1 in the world rankings.
Dinara Wagner
Lu Miaoyi became a women's grandmaster at the age of 13. As one of the strongest young players in chess, she is already a Chinese champion and a member of the Chinese national team. Chess fans will be eagerly awaiting her first appearance in Dortmund. The tournament will be completed in March. The winner of the International Chess Tournament for the International Women's Day 2025 from Augsburg will be invited. A strong partnership with the Yusupov Chess School to jointly promote women's chess. The four players will compete against each other in 6 rounds.
"An extremely exciting field of participants. The comparison between the top German players and one of the most promising young players in the world will be particularly interesting," says tournament director Andreas Jagodzinsky, looking ahead to the international tournament.
In recent years, the organiser IPS e.V. has developed the Chess Days into a major chess festival for everyone, from professionals to amateur players. In addition to the long-standing main sponsors Sparkasse Dortmund and the City of Dortmund, the Alte Schmiede cultural centre and the IntercityHotel Dortmund are once again involved as partners. District Marketing Huckarde also supports the event, which promotes Huckarde as an event with 400 participants.
"The participants can stay overnight in the heart of the city, while the Alte Schmiede cultural centre offers excellent conditions for a chess festival under one roof," says Christian Jochmann, Managing Director of IPS e.V., looking forward to the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2025.
Detailed information on the tournament, announcement and venue can be found at www.sparkassen-chess-trophy.de. Registration is now open. Spectators live on site are very welcome.
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