Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2024
Elisabeth Pähtz in a direct duel with Dinara Wagner
After last year's big anniversary, the 51st edition of Germany's most prestigious chess festival will focus on the Sparkassen Open. Top national players will compete with international grandmasters and play for a €20,000 prize fund.
The main match of the International Dortmund Chess Days will be contested by Germany's two best female chess players: Elisabeth Pähtz (Photo at the Dortmund Chess Days 2018, by Gerhard Hund), who has won numerous international medals and national titles, will face the winner of the 2023 Sportland-NRW Cup Dinara Wagner. The Chess Days will take place from 10 August to 18 August 2024 at the Alte Schmiede cultural centre in the heart of the Ruhr region.
The organiser IPS e.V. is counting on more than a dozen strong grandmasters in the A-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2024. National player and shooting star Fredrik Svane took joint first place in 2023 and has already confirmed his participation in 2024. Leon Luke Mendonca from India, the winner of the recently concluded Tata-Steel Wijk aan Zee Challenger, is also registered.
The B-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy is played in seven rounds in the morning for players up to a rating of 2000, so that the grandmasters can be watched live in the afternoon. Grandmaster Artur Jussupow, former number 3 in the world and popular commentator and chess coach, will be available daily to provide the B-Open participants with analyses and talks. An exclusive event for B-Open participants with the two top German players Pähtz and Wagner is also planned.
Elisabeth Pähtz leads the German women's rankings for many years, was the first German woman to win the grandmaster title and became European women's rapid chess champion. Last year, Dinara Wagner won the Sportland.NRW Cup (Photo 2023, by Michelle Lassak) and the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Nicosia, both with a grandmaster norm, and has now moved closer to Pähtz in the world rankings. Pähtz in the world rankings. The two players are currently separated by only 8 rating points. In Dortmund, 
Pähtz and Wagner will now meet in a 6-round match with classical time control, so that the current number 1 in German women's chess will be determined in a direct duel.
The Sportland.NRW Cup will be integrated into the A-Open, which means that the organisers will focus on promoting youth chess for boys and girls in NRW.
"We are thus giving ambitious players, women and men, in the A-Open an excellent opportunity to earn title norms for every possible FIDE title," says Tournament Director Andreas Jagodzinsky, looking ahead to the event.
The organiser IPS e.V. is continuing to develop 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, new partners have been acquired in the form of the Alte Schmiede cultural centre and the IntercityHotel Dortmund. The Alte Schmiede cultural centre offers excellent conditions for creating a special atmosphere for a major chess festival in the centre of Dortmund. Thanks to the co-operation with the modern IntercityHotel Dortmund, participants can stay overnight in the heart of the city.
There is also a co-operation with the International Open German Women's Chess Championship (IODFEM).
"We are inviting the winner of the IODFEM to the A-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2024. This collaboration, the main match of our event and the women's prizes in the tournaments emphasise that Dortmund will focus more and more on women's chess," explains event director Carsten Hensel.
Detailed information on the tournament, announcement and venue can be found at www.sparkassen-chess-trophy.de. Registration is open now. Live spectators are welcome to attend the tournament free of charge.
Photo: Award ceremony A-Open of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2023, Dirk Schaufelberger (CEO of Sparkasse Dortmund), Alexander Donchenko, Frederik Svane, Leon Luke Mendonca by Michelle Lassak
