The 8th Arad International Chess Festival ready to start

The 8th edition of the Arad International Chess Festival is ready to start. This festival which became the largest open in Romania in the last few years, will take place between 6th and 12th of august, and will include the main open (Railway Bank - Astra Open) and 2 tournaments for children - U8 and U10 

Comparing to last year, the name of the main open is slightly changed - because of the joint sponsorship of Railway Bank and Astra (railway company), both with the same owner, Mr. Valer Blidar, who, once again, will add to the announced first prize (6000 lei) another 1000 euro . We gave up to the U12 open and will encourage juniors under 12 to play in the main open as well and in that sense we added more prizes in that sections. Basically, our prize fund increase a little bit and we'll keep all side events that makes everyone happy: blitz tournament (FIDE rated), Fischer Random (Chess 960) tournament, bughouse and blitz pairs tournaments, tennis-table tournament (hugely popular last year at the 1st edition). Also, we will have quite a few seminars with GMs, so be prepared to also learn something.

To be more attractive for title chasers, we will play this year with accelerating swiss pairing system. This sysem has both pros and cons, but we decided to give it a try this year. Again, for the 1st time in Arad we will have a live video streaming broadcast, hosted by FM Marius Ceteras, renowned chess author and trainer of some of the best juniors in Romania. Unfortunately the live session is settled to be only in romanian, hopefully we will have some video materials in english also

Please notice we have outstanding prices in excellent accommodation facilities and you can complete your romanian experience with another good open in the heart of Romania, Emil Ungureanu Open in Predeal (13-19 august)

We are waiting all chess fans and we are sure you will have a great week in Romania.