Skalica, 30 August 2026 — Nine days of chess, seven tournaments and more than 140 players from 19 countries: the Chess Slovak Open® 2026 festival ended on Sunday afternoon with the closing ceremony at the House of Culture. The strongest Masters ever held in Slovakia has two champions — Aditya Mittal and Abhimanyu Mishra share the title. The Queen Masters went to Ukraine’s Anastasiya Rakhmangulova, the main Open A to Serbian grandmaster Nikola Sedlák and the Kvarteto Cup to Latvian junior Gustavs Rupais.
Masters: three players on 5.5, Mittal and Mishra share the title
The closed tournament of ten grandmasters with an average rating of 2603 came to a closer finish than anyone dared to predict. Aditya Mittal, Abhimanyu Mishra and Daniel Dardha all finished on 5.5 points from nine games and none of them lost a single game. Twenty-year-old Mittal and seventeen-year-old Mishra even finished with identical tie-breaks, so they share the title as co-champions. Dardha took third, a mere quarter of a tie-break point behind them.
Mittal built his triumph on solidity and two victories — over Fier and, crucially, over compatriot Mendonca in the key eighth round, which sent him into the final day in first place. On Sunday he held a draw with black against home hero Jerguš Pecháč and waited to see whether anyone would overtake him. Mishra beat Fier with the black pieces to draw level with Mittal on points and tie-breaks alike. Dardha defeated Samunenkov, but fell just short on the tie-break.
Anton Korobov finished fourth (5), ahead of Leon Luke Mendonca and David Navara (4.5). The field’s only Slovak, Jerguš Pecháč, took seventh place on four points — and in the final round he was the only player to take half a point off one of the new champions.
| # | Masters 2026 — final standings | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1.–2. | GM Aditya Mittal (IND, 2593) | 5.5 |
| 1.–2. | GM Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 2630) | 5.5 |
| 3. | GM Daniel Dardha (BEL, 2601) | 5.5 |
| 4. | GM Anton Korobov (UKR, 2609) | 5 |
| 5. | GM Leon Luke Mendonca (IND, 2631) | 4.5 |
| 6. | GM David Navara (CZE, 2619) | 4.5 |
| 7. | GM Jerguš Pecháč (SVK, 2536) | 4 |
| 8. | GM Alexandr Fier (BRA, 2566) | 4 |
| 9. | GM Alexander Donchenko (GER, 2633) | 3.5 |
| 10. | GM Ihor Samunenkov (UKR, 2616) | 3 |
Queen Masters: seven points for Rakhmangulova, a WIM norm for Markantonaki
Anastasiya Rakhmangulova had had the title wrapped up since Saturday; on Sunday she drew with compatriot Evgeniya Doluhanova, and her final tally of 7 points from 9 (six wins, two draws, a single loss) was the most convincing victory of the festival. Second place went on tie-break to Greece’s Haritomeni Markantonaki (5.5), whose draw with Ema Walter took her to the threshold for a WIM norm — with a gain of more than 36 rating points she was the fastest riser of the tournament. Doluhanova finished third (5.5) ahead of Tihana Iveković (5), who had led the field after five rounds.
The home players finished ninth (Alena Mrvová, 3 points — including a round-three scalp of the champion) and tenth (Ema Walter).
| # | Queen Masters 2026 — final standings | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | WGM Anastasiya Rakhmangulova (UKR, 2321) | 7 |
| 2. | WFM Haritomeni Markantonaki (GRE, 2113) | 5.5 |
| 3. | WGM Evgeniya Doluhanova (UKR, 2210) | 5.5 |
| 4. | WFM Tihana Iveković (CRO, 2139) | 5 |
| 5. | WIM Nataša Richterová (CZE, 2204) | 5 |
| 6. | WFM Sunyuktha C M N (IND, 2148) | 4.5 |
| 7. | WFM Anna Lhotská (CZE, 2149) | 4.5 |
| 8. | WGM Oľga Sikorová (CZE, 2205) | 3.5 |
| 9. | WIM Alena Mrvová (SVK, 2136) | 3 |
| 10. | WFM Ema Walter (SVK, 2105) | 1.5 |
Open A: Sedlák never wobbled and takes a place in the 2027 Masters
In the main open tournament Nikola Sedlák confirmed his role as leader: in the final round he safely drew with black against Jakub Vojta and won with 7.5 points from nine games, a full point clear. Besides the €1,300 first prize and the trophy, the Serbian grandmaster also earns the right to play in the closed Masters tournament in 2027.
Hungarian IM Áron Pásti (6.5) finished second on tie-break ahead of Vojta; also on 6.5 points, Šimon Rybka of the Liptov Chess School was fourth and the best of the Slovaks, ahead of compatriot Vladimír Bochnička (6). A remarkable tournament was played by sixteen-year-old CM Zsombor Pásti (2059), who scored 5.5 points and gained more than 107 rating points.
| # | Open A — final standings (top 10 of 46) | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | GM Nikola Sedlák (SRB, 2358) | 7.5 |
| 2. | IM Áron Pásti (HUN, 2439) | 6.5 |
| 3. | FM Jakub Vojta (CZE, 2308) | 6.5 |
| 4. | FM Šimon Rybka (SVK, 2331) | 6.5 |
| 5. | IM Vladimír Bochnička (SVK, 2365) | 6 |
| 6. | IM Sergej Berezjuk (CZE, 2342) | 6 |
| 7. | FM Reinis Paikens (LAT, 2290) | 5.5 |
| 8. | FM Marek Karas (SVK, 2227) | 5.5 |
| 9. | FM Arsenijs Savičevs (LAT, 2235) | 5.5 |
| 10. | CM Zsombor Pásti (HUN, 2059) | 5.5 |
Open B: drama to the very end, the Kvarteto Cup goes to Rupais
Open B offered the tightest finish of all. Gustavs Rupais, Ján Lakota and Jan Bjolek all finished on seven points and the Kvarteto Cup was decided on tie-break — it favoured Latvian junior Rupais, who drew his last-round game with Miroslav Mandák and added a gain of more than 86 rating points to the title. Ján Lakota of ŠK Doprastav Bratislava, the leader for most of the event, beat Michal Ciglian on Sunday and took second place ahead of top seed Bjolek. The best woman was fifth-placed WCM Karin Novomeská of ŠK Štefanov (6).
| # | Open B (Kvarteto Cup) — final standings (top 10 of 46) | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Gustavs Rupais (LAT, 1896) | 7 |
| 2. | Ján Lakota (SVK, 1879) | 7 |
| 3. | Jan Bjolek (CZE, 1991) | 7 |
| 4. | Alex Macošek (CZE, 1909) | 6 |
| 5. | WCM Karin Novomeská (SVK, 1945) | 6 |
| 6. | Lukáš Starý (CZE, 1959) | 6 |
| 7. | Miroslav Mandák (SVK, 1895) | 6 |
| 8. | Ernests Strekalovs (LAT, 1779) | 6 |
| 9. | AFM Michal Ciglian (SVK, 1783) | 5.5 |
| 10. | AFM Peter Krakovský (SVK, 1798) | 5.5 |
Nine days, seven tournaments
Alongside the main events the festival also featured the Mayor of Skalica’s Blitz, a Chess 960 tournament and the Rapid — the last two were won by festival ambassador GM Sergei Movsesian, who also spent nine days commentating on the live broadcast at chesstournaments.eu. The festival likewise honoured the memory of Ján Plachetka, Slovakia’s first grandmaster, whose name graces the prize for the most beautiful game.
The organisers thank all players, partners, arbiters and spectators — see you at Chess Slovak Open® 2027. Full results are available at chess-results.com, photos and news at www.chessslovakopen.sk.