FIDE World Senior Chess Championship 2013

The 23rd FIDE Senior Chess Championship for men and women will be held in Opatija, Croatia from 11th to 24th November 2013. Main Organizer is the Chess Club of Rijeka.

Opatija is the oldest Croatian tourist resort, famous for its friendly climate, large botanic garden and the Central European architecture, unique in the Mediterranean area.

For the Open Seniors’ tournament 222 players from 43 countries have registered, among them 12 Grandmasters, 27 International Masters and 42 FIDE Masters.

The largest number of participants are coming from Russia (32) followed by Germany (24) while there are 14 local players (Croatia).

The first seed of the tournament is the Latvian GM Evgeny Sveshnikov while the narrow circle of favorites includes GMs Anatoly Vaisser (France), Krunoslav Hulak (Croatia), Evgeny Vasiukov (Russia), Viktor Kupreichik (Belarus) and Yuri Balashov (Russia).

The women’s tournament has 29 players from 10 countries among them 4 GrandMasters, 5 International Masters and 5 FIDE Masters.

The first favorite of the tournament is the legend GM Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia), the former world champion on 1962-1978. Main challengers for the title will be the last year’s winner Galina Strutinskaya along with Grandmasters Elena Fatalibekova (Russia) and Tamar Khmiadashvili (Georgia).

The official website with all details and daily coverage is www.rijekachess.com.