TheWorld Senior Chess Championship is an annualchess tournament established in 1991 byFIDE, the World Chess Federation.
The 2025 tournament took place inGallipoli, Italy, from 20 October to 2 November.
Originally, the minimum age was 60 years for men, and 50 for women.
Since 2014, the Senior Championship is split in two different age categories, 50+ and 65+, with separate open and women-only tournaments. Participants must reach the age of 50 or 65 years by December 31 of the year of the event. There is a category for players 75+ which provides special prizes.[1]
The championship is organized as an eleven-roundSwiss system tournament. It is an open tournament, and each FIDE member federation may send as many players as desired. The separate women's tournament is held only if there are enough participants (at least 10 women from four different FIDE zones).
The winners of the open tournaments (both age categories) are awarded the title ofGrandmaster if they do not already have it and the winners of the women's tournaments (both age categories) are awarded the title ofWoman Grandmaster if they do not already have it.[citation needed]
So far oneWorld Chess Champion,Vasily Smyslov, has gone on to win the World Senior Championship as well, winning the first such championship aged 70 in 1991.Nona Gaprindashvili is the onlyWomen's World Chess Champion to obtain the women's World Senior title as well.
The oldest World Senior Champion, male or female – before the split in two different age categories was made – wasViktor Korchnoi, who won the title at the age of 75 and a half (in 2006, his only participation).[2]
Vlastimil Jansa then won the 65+ section at the age of 76 in 2018 (his first gold medal), Gaprindashvili won the same year in the women's group 65+ at the age of 77.Julio Ernesto Granda Zuniga of Peru (born in 1967) is the youngest Senior World Chess Champion, section 50+, at the age of 50 in 2017.
For comparison, the oldest reigning World Chess Champion ever wasWilhelm Steinitz, who held the title until the age of 58 years, 10 days.[3] The oldest reigning classical World Chess Champion since the inception of the World Senior Chess championship in 1991 wasViswanathan Anand, who held the title until age 43 when he lost to Magnus Carlsen.
The 8th World Senior Championship was held 9–23 November 1998 inGrieskirchen,Austria.Vladimir Bagirov (Latvia) won the 200-player open section ontie-break overWolfgang Uhlmann (Germany), both with 8.5/11.Ten players tied a half point behind with 8.0/11, including former World ChampionshipCandidatesMark Taimanov andBorislav Ivkov, the first everWorld Junior Chess Champion.WGMTamar Khmiadashvili (Georgia) won the 24-player women's section outright with 9.5 points.
The 13th World Senior Championship was held 16–29 November 2003 inBad Zwischenahn,Germany.IMYuri Shabanov (Russia) won the 272-player open section 9.0/11 on tie-break over GMJānis Klovāns (Latvia) and IM Vladimir Bukal (Croatia), and was therefore awarded the Grandmaster title. Khmiadashvili (Georgia) won the 22-player women's section 7.5/9 on tie-break over WGMMarta Litinskaya-Shul (Ukraine).
The 14th World Senior Championship was held 24 October–5 November 2004 inHalle (Saale), Germany. GM Yuri Shabanov (Russia) defended his championship, winning the 215-player open section on a tie-break with five players scoring 8.5/11.GMElena Fatalibekova (Russia) won the 19-player women's section outright with 8.0/9.
The 16th World Senior Chess Championship was held 11–23 September 2006 inArvier,Italy.FormerWorld Chess Championship challenger and top seed GMViktor Korchnoi (Switzerland) won the 126-player open section 9.0/11.Competing in his first and sole Seniors' Championship, Korchnoi won his first four games, drew in the fifth round with Jānis Klovāns, and then won the next three again.[2] Entering the ninth round with a full point lead, Korchnoi drew his final three games to take the € 3000 gold medal. WGMLudmila Saunina (Russia), won the 14-player women's section by a full point, 8.5/11, to earn € 700.
The PB corrected the mistake done by the organizer of the World Senior Championship and announced GM Kaufmann and GM Suba as co-winners.
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