Up to 500 participants at the 49th Dortmund Festival

by Patrick Zelbel
7/14/2022 – Next Saturday is the official start of the Dortmund Chess Days Festival. The organizers expect up to 500 participants in all tournaments. Those who want to see two world champions and the German chess elite up close can still register at short notice. | Pictured: Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand with the winners of the Sportland NRW Girls' Cup 2021 | Photos: Christian Lünig

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Kramnik, Anand and top German players

Press release

On Saturday, the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2022 will begin in the Congress Centre of the Westfalenhallen Dortmund. In its 49th edition, it will be the second-largest chess festival in Dortmund’s history with probably up to 500 participants from over 20 countries. One of the main tournaments, the NC World Masters, is dedicated to the innovative chess variant No Castling Chess. Here, chess is played with the familiar rules, only without the possibility of castling. This year, a four-player double-round tournament is scheduled from Monday, 18 July:

  • Viswanathan Anand, 15th World Chess Champion
  • Vladimir Kramnik, 14th World Chess Champion
  • Michael Adams, winner of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2013
  • Daniel Fridman, European Team Champion with Germany 2011

Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand

The Deutschland Grand Prix starts on Sunday, 17 July, as a round-robin tournament with three German national players, including European Champion Matthias Blübaum. Last year's winner Pavel Eljanov is in Dortmund as well as the shooting star Bogdan-Daniel Deac:

  • GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, Elo 2692)
  • GM David Navara (CZE, Elo 2688)
  • GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR, Elo 2681)
  • GM Matthias Blübaum (GER, Elo 2673)
  • GM Rasmus Svane (GER, Elo 2649)
  • GM Luke McShane (ENG, Elo 2649)
  • GM Dmitrij Kollars (GER, Elo 2648)

Dortmund Chess Festival 2022

Two other invitational tournaments are running in the same playing hall, with which youth and women's chess in particular are promoted. In both the Sportland NRW Cup and the Sportland NRW Cup for women, some of the best German youth players will get the chance to earn various title norms. All information on these two tournaments can be found on the Sportland NRW Cup and the Sportland NRW Cup for women tournament pages.

From Saturday, 16 July, together with the two Sportland NRW Cups, the open tournaments will start as Sparkassen Open A and B with a great response. In the morning, the Sparkassen Open B will be played for players up to rating 1900, so that the participants can follow the grandmasters in the afternoon in peace. The Sparkassen Open A runs parallel to the round-robin tournaments and is also peppered with a number of internationally renowned titleholders. Here, for the first time in many years, there is also a realistic chance for aspiring players to score title norms.

Registration for both opens is still possible for those who make up their minds at the last minute.

For those staying at home, the Sparkassen NC Online Open will be offered as the seventh tournament after last year's success. This way, every chess enthusiast can be part of the chess days free of charge and try out chess online without a chessboard. The prizes include an invitation to the 50th International Dortmund Chess Days 2023 with an overnight stay in a tournament hotel.


Find more info here


The Dortmund Chess Days are open to the public and spectators are personally welcome again this year. In addition, the organizers will offer live games, current pictures and videos with impressions and analyses of the best players in the world via the homepage and YouTube, just like last year. In addition, there will be live commentary by GM Artur Yusupov and Fiona Steil-Antoni from the tournament hall. They will be supported by alternating grandmasters of the Deutschland Grand Prix.


Patrick Zelbel is the press officer at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy yearly event in Dortmund.