We wish good luck in the FIDE World Cup

GM Matthias Blübaum had been looking forward to the Dortmund Chess Days. But now the Chess World Cup is actually taking place at the same time and Blübaum has been given his place. As agreed with Blübaum in advance, the Dortmund organisation will therefore of course let him play in the Cup, which is part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship, and the Sparkassen Chess Trophy will have to take place without Blübaum this year. Blübaum is part of a German trio: Arik Braun and Rasmus Svane are also qualified. We wish them good luck!

Blübaum will be replaced by a top player in the German Grand Prix. The tournament management will present the last two participants of the round robin tournament in a few days.

Test chess without castling against our tournament engine

As a nineteen-time world champion, the Shredder chess programme will be our tournament engine for the Deutschland Grand Prix. Now everyone can already try himselfe against Shredder in the new "No Castling Chess" on our homepage. Users can try themselves against Shredder on three different levels and thus perfectly prepare for the Sparkassen Online Open. Just try it out here: 
https://sparkassen-chess-trophy.de/de/infos/spielen-gegen-shredder.html

15th World Chess Champion looks ahead to the NC World Masters

The time has come: Viswanathan Anand will play the first match in chess without castling in the duel of the world champions against Vladimir Kramnik in the Westfalenhallen Dortmund. After Vladimir Kramnik had already talked about the special features of the "No Castling" chess variation in an exclusive interview, Anand was now the guest and looked ahead to the big match. He also talks about his current projects in the pandemic and explains the personal significance that both Dortmund and Germany in general have for him. Have fun!

Interview on YouTube

Dortmunder Sparkassen Online Open 2021

"We are pleased to give the international chess community an opportunity to try out the chess variant No Castling Chess within the framework of the Dortmunder Sparkassen Online Open. Just like the NC World Masters between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand, the Open will take place in this format, so we expect trend-setting insights for the chess world and give everyone the chance to try it out here. Attractive prizes await the winners of the tournaments," says tournament director Andreas Jagodzinsky. 

Pre-registration is easy by entering your name, nationality, club and year of birth in the team on lichess: https://lichess.org/team/sparkassen-chess-trophy-dortmund-2021.

You can find the complete announcement here: Sparkassen Online Open - Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2021 (sparkassen-chess-trophy.de)