IX Salamanca Cradle of Modern Chess Festival to take place from 10th to 14th November

By admin November 6, 2026 0 comments

The ninth edition of Salamanca Chess Festival will take place from 10th to 14th November 2026.

Equal number of male and female players

From 10th to 14th November, Salamanca will once again be in the world chess spotlight with a new edition of the Salamanca Chess Festival Cradle of Modern Chess, which aims to commemorate the importance of Salamanca in the history of this ancient sport, since it was in our city where the newborn rules of modern chess were compiled in 1497. These new rules were written by Lucena, a student at this University, who published them in an incunabulum entitled ‘Arte de ajedrez con 150 juegos de partido’ (Art of chess with 150 match games). One of these copies is kept in the Historical Library of the University.

This event is organised by the USAL Alumni Association – Alumni – with the sponsorship of the Salamanca City Council, University of Salamanca, Junta de Castilla y León and Fundación la Caixa.

The director of the event is FM Amador González de la Nava.

As in previous editions, the tournament will have an equal number of male and female players, 6 in total, who will measure their strength in a round-robin league system. Time control of the games is 30 minutes plus 5 seconds increment per move.

A VERY ATTRACTIVE LINE-UP featuring the 11-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan and the Spaniard Vallejo (arguably the best Spanish player – born in Spain – in history), who is returning to top-flight competition after many years.

The list of players is as follows:

Grandmaster Paco Vallejo – España

Woman Grandmaster Bodhana Sivanandan – England

Grandmaster José E. Martínez Alcántara -México

Grandmaster Elisabeth Paehtz – Germany

Grandmaster Loek van Wely – Netherlands

Woman Grandmaster Anastasiia Hnatyshyn – Ukraine

In addition to the masters tournament, the following activities will also take place:

– Simultaneous games

– A blitz chess tournament.

– A children’s tournament.

– A conference