The wait is over. The last open seat in the elite closed Chess Slovak Masters 2026 goes to four-time Brazilian champion, Grandmaster Alexandr Fier. The field of ten is complete, its average rating stays above 2600 — and at the end of August, Skalica will host the strongest chess tournament ever played in Slovakia.
The organisers of Chess Slovak Open® 2026 promised that the name of the final member of the elite ten would be worth the wait. They kept their word — and reached across the ocean. GM Alexandr Fier (38) is the only South American in the field, and thanks to him Skalica will bring together players from four continents: Europe, Asia, North and South America.
A champion from the land of football
In Brazil, sporting legends are usually born with a ball at their feet. Fier chose 64 squares instead. Born in Joinville on 11 March 1988, he became a grandmaster at 19, won the South American junior championship three times and claimed the Brazilian national title four times across a span of seventeen years — first in 2005 as a teenager, most recently in 2022 (2005 • 2018 • 2019 • 2022).
Six World Cups and a 2653 rating
In November 2009 his rating climbed to a career-high 2653, good for No. 76 in the world rankings. He has qualified for the FIDE World Cup six times (2009–2023), facing the absolute world elite. He is also a familiar face on the European open circuit: he won Barcelona’s Sants Open, one of the continent’s biggest open tournaments, twice (2009 and 2014). On the August FIDE list he holds an ELO of 2566 and the No. 3 spot in the Brazilian rankings. And chess runs in the family — his wife is French WGM Nino Maisuradze.
Ten names, one Slovak record
The complete Chess Slovak Masters 2026 field looks like this (ELO per the August FIDE list):
| # | Player | Country | ELO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM Alexander Donchenko | Germany | 2633 |
| 2 | GM Leon Luke Mendonca | India | 2631 |
| 3 | GM Abhimanyu Mishra | USA | 2630 |
| 4 | GM David Navara | Czechia | 2619 |
| 5 | GM Ihor Samunenkov | Ukraine | 2616 |
| 6 | GM Anton Korobov | Ukraine | 2609 |
| 7 | GM Daniel Dardha | Belgium | 2601 |
| 8 | GM Aditya Mittal | India | 2593 |
| 9 | GM Alexandr Fier | Brazil | 2566 |
| 10 | GM Jerguš Pecháč | Slovakia | 2536 |
The average rating of the ten is 2603 — making this the strongest chess tournament ever held on Slovak soil. It will be a classical nine-round round robin, and there will be no shortage of storylines: the youngest grandmaster in history Abhimanyu Mishra, the return of the 2020 Skalica festival winner Leon Luke Mendonca, and local hope Jerguš Pecháč — two-time festival winner (2021 and 2023) — flying the Slovak flag against the elite. The games will be commentated live by festival ambassador GM Sergej Movsesian.
Timeline of achievements
- 2005 — First Brazilian national title as a teenager
- 2007 — Grandmaster title at 19
- 2009 — Peak ELO 2653, No. 76 in the world • first Sants Open triumph in Barcelona
- 2009–2023 — Six appearances at the FIDE World Cup
- 2022 — Fourth Brazilian national title (2005 • 2018 • 2019 • 2022)
- 2026 — Playing the Chess Slovak Masters in Skalica
Chess Slovak Open® 2026 — information and registration
The international chess festival Chess Slovak Open® 2026 takes place 22–30 August 2026 at the House of Culture in Skalica. The festival’s total prize fund is €15,000. Alongside the closed Chess Slovak Masters, the programme includes the open Open A and Open B tournaments, the women’s Queen Masters and accompanying events — you can play your own game in the very hall where the Brazilian champion sits a few metres away.
Registration for Chess Slovak Open® 2026 is open at chessslovakopen.sk/registration-2026.