Name	Elo
1		64		dennis madsen	1529
2		64		Tobias Kjær Halldorsson	1730
3		65		Odin Nikolai Heier	1863

GM	25	IM	14
FM	34	WGM	1
WIM	2	WFM	3
CM	6	WCM	1
Total	367

Sign up - Invitation - Participants

3 lectures
af Jacob Carstensen     13/7-2019

Copenhagen Chess Festival will have 3 lectures this year. All with free entry.

Tuesday 23 July at 20:00 in the commentary room

GM Jan Timman will give a lecture about Karpov and Kasparov ”The Longest Game"

Thursday 25 July at 20:00 in the commentary room

Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen a Danish composition wizard will entertain with Paradoxical chess art

Saturday 27 July at 20:00 in the commentary room

The interesting chess App "MindMaster" will be presented

Quality Chess prizes
af Jacob Carstensen     8/7-2019

Quality Chess sponsors 2 prizes each round:

Round 1-3: players below 2000, who wins against highest rated opponent

Round 4-6: players below 2200, who wins against highest rated opponent

Round 7-9: players below 1800, who wins against highest rated opponent

Round 10: Unfortunately, we won't be able to make it, or maybe we will?

The prize, one of many great books, from Quality Chess. Winners will be contacted during the tournament.

Fast Italian
af Lars Schandorff     7/7-2019

The young Italian Grandmaster Daniele Vocaturo is one of the outsiders to win the tournament. He has recently become the highest ranked player in his home country, and he is known for a very entertaining attacking style.

It certainly hasn’t hurt his image, that he is also the main character – alongside the car of course – in Lamborghini’s newest commercial. In the movie “The art of anticipation” Vocaturo tells that he started playing chess at the age of 7, and it was love at first sight. He has continuously improved ever since, and if his attacks are progressing as fast at the famous sports car, he will be very hard to handle in Elsinore.

See the movie here:

Prizes in Xtracon Chess Open
af Jacob Carstensen     4/7-2019

Prizes (in DKK): 
Main Prizes:
1. 20.000,  2. 17.000,  3. 14.000,  4. 11.000,  5. 8.000,  6. 6.000,  7. 4.000,  8.-10. 3.000,
11.-13. 2.000,  14.-20. 1.000,

Rating prizes: 2 prizes in each rating category,
1000-1500, 1501-1700, 1701-1800, 1801-1900, 1901-2000, 2001-2100, 2101-2200, 2201-2300,
2301-2400.

1st prize 3.000 DKK, 2nd prize 2.000 DKK

Prizes will be decided by tiebreak

Prizes will be paid out by bank transfer.

Brilliancy prizes from New In Chess
af Jacob Carstensen     2/7-2019

New in Chess sponsors two prizes for brilliancy games in Xtracon Chess Open. Both prizes are 1 year free subscription to the magazine "New In Chess"!

The two prizes are awarded to the best games played by respectively a player under 2000 (FIDE/ELO rating) and a player with rating 2000 or more.

Games to be considered for the brillancy prizes, are to be handed in at the tournament office.

Additionally, every player in Xtracon Chess Open will receive a magazine! These will be handed out at round 5.

Discount ends July 1st
af Jacob Carstensen     30/6-2019

Please note, that sign up to Xtracon Chess Open and entry fee must be settled at July 1st in order to have the discount! 

Copenhagen Chess Festival has almost daily other activities, than the main tournament Xtracon Chess Open :

Monday 22 July 20:00: Chess puzzles (Open Danish championship), free entrance, max. 25 participants

Monday 22 July 20:00: Simul by GM Aryan Tari, free entrance, max. 24 participants

Tuesday 23 July 20:00: Lecture by GM Jan Timman, "The Longest Game" , free entrance

Wednesday 24 July 20:00: Pair blitz, 200 DKK per pair (registration and payment ends Tuesday July 23 21:00)

Thursday 25 July 20:00: Lecture by Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen , "Paradoxical chess art" (English), free entrance

Friday 26 July 19:30: Blitz, 150 DKK (registration and payment ends Thursday July 25 21:00)

Saturday 27 July 08:30: Kids Cup (Born 2005 or later), 125 DKK

News from the organizers
af Jacob Carstensen     30/6-2019

Due to the sad circumstances the tournament organization has been added three extra arbiters:

IA Thomas Larsen (new chief arbiter), IA Peter Olsen og FA Jacob Carstensen (new chief organizer)

All three will furthermore work with the tasks leading up to the tournament in cooperation with Sigfred Haubro and Dorte Hansen.

Questions regarding payment and sign up to Dorte Hansen: kasserer@xtraconchessopen.dk

Miscellaneous questions to Jacob Carstensen: organiser@xtraconchessopen.dk or phone +45 29905035

Lars-Henrik Bech Hansen dead, aged 61
af Thomas Larsen     28/6-2019

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Lars-Henrik Bech Hansen, the Chief Organizer of Xtracon Chess Open. This is a major shock to everyone in the tournament organization and the Danish chess community, but the chess festival will continue in the spirit of Lars and his dedication and commitment to chess.

Our thoughts goes to Lars’ wife and daughter, who both have been an integral part of the Xtracon Chess Open organization for many years.

The Norwegian Hammer
af Lars Schandorff     23/6-2019

The reigning champion of Xtracon Chess Open, Jon Ludvig Hammer, is back again this year. He is the spearhead of the many Norwegians, who keeps coming back to play in Elsinore each year. Among them is also the Junior World Champion Aryan Tari, who will play simul Monday the 22nd of July at 8 pm. See more here.

I 2017 more than 100 Norwegians participated in Xtracon Chess Open, but each year their language has been heard everywhere at Konventum. The same will also happen this year, but only time will tell if Xtracon Chess Open 2019 will be won by a Norwegian again.

Meet a legend
af Lars Schandorff     16/6-2019

One of the amazing features of a big chess open is that all players participate in the same group regardless of gender, age and chess rating. This means that the average club player gets the chance to play against world class players. And this year the biggest name of the tournament is undoubtedly the Dutch veteran Jan Timman.

Timman became grandmaster back in 1974 at the age of 23, and in a few years he fought his way into the absolute elite of world chess. In the 1980’s Timman was a serious World Championship contender, but he never made it all the way to the top, primarily because he peaked at a time period when Karpov and Kasparov ruled the chess world.

Timman is now 67 years old. He is not as active at the chess board as he used to be, but he loves playing in Elsinore. However, he is still very active in other ways. He has recently published a new book, which covers the famous matches between Karpov and Kasparov. The book is called ”The Longest Game”, and on Tuesday 22nd July at 8 pm Timman will hold a lecture about this book. The lecture will take place in the commentary room and entrance is free.

More about the lecture

Young chess star plays in Elsinore
af Lars Schandorff     16/6-2019

These years we have many upcoming stars in the world of chess. Last year the German wonder child Vincent Keymer played Xtracon Chess Open. This year’s tournament will enjoy participation from the 13 year old Praggnanandhaa - perhaps the biggest talent in the world right now. India is experiencing a chess boom with the former World Champion Anand as the role model, and based on the amount of talent the sky is the limit for indian chess. But right now all eyes are on Pragg, which he is sometimes called for obvious reasons. He has won both the U8 and U10 World Championship. At the age of 10 he was the youngest ever to become IM and at the age of 12 years and 10 months he was the second youngest ever to become GM. And now he will be participating in Xtracon Chess Open. That's quite a scoop!

Xtracon Chess Open 2019
af Lars Bech Hansen     10/6-2019

You can now register for Xtracon Chess Open 2019 which will be played from Saturday 20, July to Sunday 28, July, 2019 at Konventum in Elsinore. You can find the invitation, the registration page, and the payment links through the menus of this page..

We hope, also in 2019, to have a succesfull tournament with many participants from all over the world, and we are looking forward to welcome all of you to Xtracon Chess Open in July, 2019. The tournament is organised by the Copenhagen Chess Federation.