The International Dortmund Chess Days can look forward to seeing a familiar face in 2026: Dmitrij Kollars will once again take to the board in Dortmund for the Sparkassen Chess Trophy. The grandmaster will compete in the A Open, already generating great excitement among fans and organisers alike.
Kollars has been closely associated with the traditional Dortmund Chess Festival for many years. In his previous appearances, the German national player has repeatedly impressed with his combative, creative chess and strong tournament performances against international competition.
He made his Dortmund debut at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2021: in the highly competitive round-robin tournament, he narrowly missed out on the tournament victory and finished a strong second behind Pavel Eljanov. In 2022, he moved up and won the NC World Masters ahead of former world champion Viswanathan Anand. He also played brilliantly in 2023, beating Vladimir Kramnik in a fantastic game. In his last appearance in Dortmund in 2025, he scored an impressive 7 points from 9 games in the A Open. Although he was tied on points with winner Matthias Blübaum, Kollars finished in 4th place after tie-breaks. No wonder that the International Dortmund Chess Days have become one of his regular tournaments in his calendar. In 2026, he will once again be active in the Sparkassen A-Open, and after his successes in previous years, he is a hot contender for the top places in the Open, which has a prize fund of €20,000.
After the games, Kollars is a regular guest of commentator Artur Yusupov and tournament director Patrick Zelbel, providing insights into his games. In 2026, there will again be live commentary on site in Dortmund, giving spectators an insight into the thoughts of the participating grandmasters.
Registration for the Open is now open: Registration