Following the start of the B Open, the A Open of the 2026 Sparkassen Chess Trophy has now also kicked off. This brings the total number of participants to around 400 from 43 federations, all competing for a prize fund of 20,000 euros.
The start of the tournament proved to be significantly more difficult for some of the top players in the 2026 Sparkassen Chess Trophy than they had hoped. While top seed Matthias Blübaum secured an unchallenged victory against Alfred Parvanyan from Norderstedt on Board 1, the first minor upset occurred on Board 2. Nurali Bolashakov (picture), just 11 years old and from Kazakhstan, managed to secure a draw in a long, hard-fought game against German national team player Dmitrij Kollars. Despite being a pawn down, the young Bolashakov kept his composure and, in an endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops, left the German grandmaster with no serious chances of winning.
A major surprise awaited on the third board as well.
As expected, David Navara gained a slight advantage against Mauro Tirelli (picture), who was about 400 Elo points weaker. But the Italian defended extremely actively and managed to completely level the game with a tactical trick.That game also ended in a draw.
On boards four and five, things almost continued in the same vein, but the two grandmasters, Rasmus Svane and Andrew Hong, managed to win their difficult games. Svane took a huge risk in the process. In a slightly inferior rook endgame, he sacrificed a pawn against his opponent Robert Prieb, who had been playing very strongly up to that point. Amid the ensuing complications, Prieb allowed another pawn breakthrough by Svane, which ultimately decided the game in favor of the grandmaster.
The American Andrew Hong, on the other hand, was surprised by the very thorough preparation of Junyi Zhang, an English player who is also only 11 years old. By move 18, Zhang actually had more time on the clock than at the start of the game and a time advantage of just under an hour over Hong. But Hong patiently waited for his chances in the endgame and was ultimately able to win the game after all.
Alexey Wagner came closest to pulling off a sensation against an international grandmaster. The FIDE Master from Lippstadt pushed last year’s runner-up, Surya Ganguly, to the brink of defeat. In a game well worth watching, Wagner energetically sacrificed a piece and gained a very promising position in return. Ganguly subsequently opened up his own kingside to create speculative counterplay with a passed pawn. With little time left on the clock, Wagner saw no way to stop the pawn and, in a winning position, ultimately settled for perpetual check.
After just one round, one thing is already clear: there are no easy matches in the A-Open of the 2026 Sparkassen Chess Trophy. The first surprises have already occurred, and the race for the top spots is on. With such a strong field, it will be fascinating to see which players take the next step in the coming days—and who might pull off another surprise.