The Mitropa Chess Cup 2026 is set to commence next week in Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria. Running from 1–10 May, the tournament brings together the premier national teams of Central Europe for a ten-day festival of classical chess. This year’s event carries particular historical weight, marking exactly half a century since the competition was established.
The traditional team event which commenced in 1976 in Innsbruck this year brings together 11 nations competing against each other in an Open and a Women’s section on 4 boards each: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine which replaces Hungary in the Women’s tournament.
This landmark 50th edition is dedicated to the memory of Professor Kurt Jungwirth, the tournament’s founder, who passed away in May 2025 at the age of 95. As the long-standing President of the Austrian Chess Federation and the founding father of the European Chess Union (ECU), Jungwirth was a monumental figure in European chess history. His vision for a Central European “Mitropa” competition was borrowing the concept from the historical football cup, and was successfully implemented in chess.
The Mitropa Chess Cup 2026 is played in Open and Women’s sections separately, with 9 rounds in each competition and classical time control. Each team in each section is composed of four players + one reserve player. The rating favourites in the Open tournament are France (average rating of players 2497), Italy (average rating of players 2465) and Slovakia (average rating of players 2462). The rating favourite in the Women’s championship is Ukraine (average rating of players 2271), followed by France (average rating of players 2222) and Italy (average rating of players 2220).
List of players and detailed information
