The current number one of the Slovak ranking GM Jerguš Pecháč will also present himself at almost two hundred players at the Skalický Chess Festival (August 20 – August 28, 2022 at the Svätá Ľudmila Hotel in Skalica). In addition to the main SLOVAK OPEN tournament, which will be under the auspices of FIDE, we will also see it in the Slovak OPEN blitz and Slovak OPEN Rapid blitz tournaments.
The last twelve months have been very successful for the Žilina native. He managed to improve his rating by almost 100 ELO points and in the FIDE ranking as of 31.5.2022 he attacks the limit of 2600 points.
“I finished my studies, by some chance also successfully, and therefore I had more time for training,” says Jerguš Pecháč.
The 21-year-old grandmaster first appeared in the role of Slovak unit in the national jersey in 2019 at the European Team Championships in Batumi. Last year in Slovenia at the European Championships, the Slovak team led again on the first chessboard, and not only its great performance of 4.5 / 8 evokes pleasant memories. “There were a lot of memories. I liked our match against the favorite team of Denmark the most, where we correctly guessed the opponent’s novelty (already in the fifth move) on the second chessboard in the game Druska – Thybo and we were ready for it for more than 20 moves.
Thanks to that, we convincingly won the match 3: 1, “recalls Jerguš Pecháč.
And how is Jerguš looking forward to the Skalický Chess Festival? “Apart from the fact that it is the strongest tournament in Slovakia, and now even with the support of FIDE it ranks among the top in the world, I feel very good in Skalica thanks to the cordial atmosphere.
At the same time, I am very much looking forward to the accompanying program, which is perfect every year, “says Jerguš.
“And the extra motivation for other players is also a unique opportunity to play against interesting and quality opponents,” adds Jerguš Pecháč.