Italy's biggest Chess tournament, Sardinia Chess Festival 2025 to kick off from 26th April
The strongest Chess tournament of Italy, the Sardinia World Chess Festival kicks off from 26th April! Consisting of 3 categories - Open A (2000+ rating), Open B (<1999 rating), and Open C (<1699 rating), the chess festival at Sardinia, Italy boasts a prize fund of 50,100 Euros. The top seed this year is GM Benjamin Gledura, and the top Indian seed is GM Leon Mendonca! The defending champion last year, GM Daniel Dardha is the 2nd seed in the tournament. Registrations for this spectacular event are still ongoing! Read the full article for all the information on the event. Photos: Lennart Ootes, Frans Peeters
Very strong Chess tournament with a wonderful view - just 26 days to go till Sardinia Chess Festival 2025
After a very successful first edition, the Sardinia Chess Festival returns with it's 2nd edition in 2025! The ITI Marina Beach Hotel at Orosei, Sardinia will once again host Italy's strongest Chess tournament - this time from April 26th-May 3rd, 2025. There are 3 categories, Open A, B and C! Open A will feature some very strong Grandmasters all around the world, while there is also a fair number of participation in the Under-2000 rated Open B and Under-1600 Open C.
_52A2D_1024x683.jpeg)
The tournament is boasting a prize fund of 50,100 Euros - that is, Rs. 45 Lakhs. Registrations are still going on in all three categories, and there are already some very strong players in action! All tournaments (Open A, Open B, and Open C) will be composed of 9 rounds. The time Control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, plus 30 minutes to finish the game, with a 30-second increment starting from the first move.
The tournament kicks off on 26th April. The first round starts at 3 PM Italy time, that is 6:30 PM IST. There are double rounds on April 28th - the 3rd round starts at 9 AM local time (12:30 PM IST), and 4th round at 3 PM local time (6:30 PM IST). Rest of the days there are single rounds. The final round starts at 9 AM local time on 3rd May, and the prize ceremony from 3 PM local time!
We launched a previous article on the announcement of the Sardinia Chess Festival 2025 which you can read here. If you wish to register for the tournament, you can head here! Players can register to the tournament by choosing to stay at the official hotel, or to find a different accommodation (please be reminded that in such case an additional fee of 50 Euros will be calculated along with the entry fee, Sardinian players are exempted from the additional fee payment!
The Organizing Committee provides conditions only for players above 2600. Players with an ELO over 2450 are exempted from paying the registration fee. We have another special offer for the readers of this article - if you take part in Khelo Chess India Masters and Challengers on 5th-6th April, you will get a 100 Euros discount on the entry fee of this tournament! Find out all information about the Khelo Chess India Event here.
The players lineup
Open A (>2000) top 14 players
| No. | Name | FideID | FED | Rtg | Gr | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | Gledura, Benjamin | 712779 | HUN | 2661 | A | |
| 2 | GM | Dardha, Daniel | 240990 | BEL | 2645 | A | |
| 3 | GM | Mendonca, Leon Luke | 35028561 | IND | 2639 | A | |
| 4 | GM | Narayanan, S L | 5058422 | IND | 2622 | A | |
| 5 | GM | Yoo, Christopher Woojin | 30909694 | USA | 2588 | A | |
| 6 | GM | Maurizzi, Marc`andria | 36083534 | FRA | 2581 | A | |
| 7 | GM | Lodici, Lorenzo | 884189 | ITA | 2574 | A | |
| 8 | GM | Sonis, Francesco | 895733 | ITA | 2565 | A | |
| 9 | GM | Sokolovsky, Yahli | 2820242 | ISR | 2552 | A | |
| 10 | GM | Moroni, Luca Jr | 865834 | ITA | 2545 | A | |
| 11 | GM | Amar, Elham | 1533533 | NOR | 2533 | A | |
| 12 | IM | Wadsworth, Matthew J | 415804 | ENG | 2489 | A | |
| 13 | GM | Raja, Harshit | 5089000 | IND | 2474 | A | |
| 14 | GM | Knaak, Rainer | 4611250 | GER | 2464 | A |
Open B (<1999) top 10 players
Open C (<1699) top 10 players
Important Links
Sardinia Chess Festival: Official site, Facebook page and Instagram
|
Sardinia World Chess Festival 2025 Confirmed: Italy's Strongest Chess Tournament Returns!
@ 06/01/2025 by Niklesh Jain (en) |