Already the eighth grandmaster can be found on the list of participants of the Sparkassen Open A more than 3 months before the tournament starts and again it is a very prominent face:
GM Adrian Mikhalchishin (Slovenia) is now 10th on the starting list!
With 8.5 points out of 11 games, GM Matthias Blübaum won the European Championship in Terme Čatež, Slovenia, without a single defeat!
The whole event team of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy congratulates him on this massive success!
Blübaum will take part in the Deutschland Grand Prix in the summer and is thus the third confirmed participant in the 7-player round robin tournament. The tournament gives the best German players the chance to measure themselves against international top grandmasters and takes place within the framework of the 49th International Dortmund Chess Days. Spectators and Open participants can now look forward to seeing the Lemgo-born European Champion at the board. Just like the NC World Masters of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy, the tournament will be accompanied by commentator GM Artur Jussupow and also WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni.
After GM Niclas Huschenbeth there is the second grandmaster over 2600 Elo on the registration list for the Sparkassen Open A: Erwin l'Ami will try to play for the tournament victory in July. The Dutch chess grandmaster is a familiar face in Germany and has been active in the German Bundesliga for many years as a team mate of GM Florian Handke at SG Solingen, who has also registered in advance.
The participant lists for the Open of the 49th International Dortmund Chess Days continue to fill up, so that there are already more than 180 registrations well over 3 months before the start of the tournament. Two renowned grandmasters from the region are newly pre-registered: Daniel Hausrath, winner of the A-Open in 2016 and 2017, will strive for his third tournament victory. Hausrath not only lives in Mülheim an der Ruhr, but has also played for SV Mülheim-Nord in the first Bundesliga since 2004. He has won numerous tournaments in the region and is always one of the most popular players in NRW. He has made a name for himself not only as a chess player, but also as a chess trainer and book author.