Wijk Qualifiers: Christian Gloeckler starts with 4 out of 4!

by Johannes Fischer
1/27/2026 – In Wijk, the Masters and the Challengers take centre stage, but there are other tournaments as well. One of them is the Qualifiers, a round-robin event with ten mostly young and ambitious players, whose winner can hope for a place in the Challengers 2027. Fourteen-year-old IM Christian Gloeckler, regarded as one of Germany’s biggest talents, made a perfect start with 4 out of 4 – and played some tactically exciting games. | Photo: Nils Rohde
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Gloeckler’s first game was wild. Playing Black, he had to withstand a series of sacrifices from his opponent, who launched an attack with little regard for material. This led to unusual positions and a wealth of entertaining tactical motifs.

In the second round, it was Gloeckler who went on the offensive. With success, even though White missed a neat queen sacrifice in a critical position.

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In the third round, Gloeckler outplayed Stefan Beukema with Black positionally, and in round 4, against Dr Johannes Carow, the second German player in the field, he was worse for a long time but was lucky when his opponent missed a number of clear wins and blundered into a lost position.height="1"

Standings after four rounds

Nr Player KNSB Fide Score SB TPR 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 Gloeckler, Christian 2444 4 6 3226 1 1 1 1
2 Tudor, Henry Edward 2434 3 3.5 2588 0 1 1 1
3 Hrbek, Stepan 2454 2.5 3.5 2506 ½ 0 1 1
4 Lohia, Sohum 2410 2 2.75 2406 ½ 0 ½ 1
4 Grutter, Tim 2401 2399 2 2 2536 0 1 1
6 Beukema, Stefan 2413 2394 1.5 3 2320 0 1 0 ½
6 Elgersma, Onno 2366 2369 1.5 2.25 2423 0 1 ½
8 Van Foreest, Machteld 2343 2330 1 1.75 2234 0 ½ ½ 0
8 Carow, Johannes, Dr. 2469 1 1 2217 0 0 0 1
10 Baselmans, Luuk 2395 2406 0.5 0.75 2090 0 0 0 ½

Games

Links

Tournament page

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Topics: Christan Gloeckler, Wijk aan Zee 2026
Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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