The largest international chess tournament in Slovakia, which has already won the recognition of the international chess federation FIDE, is in its fifth year. The International Chess Federation ranked it among the 25 most important tournaments in Europe and among the TOP 50 in the world.
In addition to the four chess tournaments, the participants and visitors of the tournament took part in accompanying activities: a boat trip along the Bata Canal, a tennis tournament, a table tennis tournament, soccer, swimming, and golf. The event was broadcast via livestream with a viewership of several thousand people. We visited the monuments of the city of Skalica, the Mária Terézia castle in Holíč, the trdelník factory, the local winemaker, the Holíč brewery and other local attractions.
Important players in Slovak history, grandmasters Ľubomír Ftáčnik, Ján Plachetka and Sergej Movsesjan were ceremoniously received by the mayor of Skalica, Oľga Luptáková, where they entered the memorial book of the city of Skalica.
The winner of the main tournament was Slovak chess unit Grandmaster Jerguš Pecháč, who, in addition to a reward of 1,700 euros, also took home an original trophy made of wood by local carver Andrej Irš.
He scored 7.5 points from 9 games. Anton Korobov (UA) and Štépán Hrbek (CZE) finished in second place with 6.5 points.
Among the women, Quellet Maili-Jade from Canada was the best, ahead of Anastasia Rakhmangulová from Ukraine and Olga Sikorová from the Czech Republic.
Brent Perrin from England won the B tournament called Kvarteto cup, the young Slovak player Jozef Benci finished second in front of another Slovak youth representative, Jonáš Ďuran.
Slovak representative Jerguš Pecháč became the winner of the tournament in rapid chess. Jerguš Pecháč also won the Skalica mayor’s cup of lightning chess.
“In total, more than 240 players from 16 countries played in four tournaments in Skalica, along with many of them family members and coaches came and spent ten days full of events here”, informed the director of the tournament and the president of the Slovak Chess Union, Milan Roman.
“It’s wonderful to see that someone is doing such a spectacular event in Slovakia. I would definitely like to come back here”, praised the tournament grandmaster Ľubomír Ftáčnik.
“This chess event is definitely among the TOP 3 in Europe,” added Ján Plachetka, an experienced grandmaster and participant in hundreds of tournaments around the world, ambassador of the Skalice tournament.
The Skalicka chess festival was supported by: FIDE, ENERGY Group, Kvarteto o.z., Trnava self-governing region, SCHAEFFLER Skalica, Protherm production, Hant, City of Skalica, CORAGEO, O2 Bussines Services, Vaillant Group, Slovakia s.r.o., Eustream, Slovanet Impact, Vinárstvo Winterbeg, Vinárstvo Vinpera , ROD Skalica, Cukranka, AGEL, Trnava Regional Chess Association, and SKAND Skalica.
This activity was also carried out thanks to the support of the SPP Foundation.