After last year's individual European Champion Matthias Blübaum has already registered for the A-Open of the 50th International Dortmund Chess Days, we welcome a team European Champion to the strong tournament as well: regular guest GM Daniel Fridman is also taking part in the anniversary of the Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2023 in Dortmund.
Daniel Fridman has been one of the strongest players in Germany for many years. His current Elo rating is 2584, but Fridman still has time until the Chess Days to get back to the 2600 mark, which he has been above for years.
The native of Latvia is in principle the local hero at the Sparkassen Chess Trophy, because he has lived in neighbouring Bochum since 1999 and plays for SV Mülheim-Nord in the Schachbundesliga. So he played the Dortmund tournament several times and last year he competed in the NC World Masters. In 2011 he celebrated the greatest success of his career in the German national team by winning the European Championship. He achieved numerous tournament victories, winning the German individual championship three times - in 2008, 2012 and 2014, before perhaps his greatest personal victory came in 2019 with victory in the beastly GRENKE Chess Open.
Just how strong the A-Open is already, more than 2.5 months before the start of the tournament, shows that Fridman is currently "only" seeded ninth.
Click here for the current list of participants in the open tournaments, which are endowed with 25,000 €: Participants Sparkassen Open
Picture: Daniel Fridman 2019, from Georgios Souleidis