A chess festival begins in Pafos
The 4th Pafos International Open Chess Tournament in Cyprus officially got underway with an opening ceremony attended by the city’s mayor, Angelos Onisiforou. Staged at the Attikon & Palia Ilektriki Multiculture Spaces, the event is directed by Pafos Chess Club President Arkadios Koulaxidis and supervised by International Arbiter Tania Karali. A total of 185 players are taking part, split into three sections according to playing strength, with the field featuring 6 grandmasters, 1 woman grandmaster, and numerous titled competitors.
Running from April 13 to April 19, the tournament has a particularly attractive feature: players are allowed to take byes in certain rounds. The reason is unique, as the event is being held just half an hour away from the final stages of the FIDE Candidates Tournament. This gives participants the chance not only to compete in their own event, but also to closely follow one of the most important battles on the road to the world championship. In fact, several players arrived in Pafos a few days early and already took the opportunity to meet elite stars at the Cap St. Georges Hotel & Resort, adding a special atmosphere to the tournament.
Among the leading names in Group A are the 2500-plus grandmasters Evgeny Postny and A. Ra Harikrishnan. Yet the appeal of the event goes well beyond established masters. Chinese International Master Lu Miaoyi is one of the most talked-about young talents in the field. Ranked among the world’s top junior girls, Lu is also the reigning Chinese Women’s Champion and one of the youngest players in history to earn the International Master title. In comments to FIDE, she said she has been following the Women’s Candidates closely and is supporting fellow Chinese player Zhu Jiner, underlining how closely this open tournament is connected to the current top-level chess scene.
One of the notable home representatives is Woman Candidate Master Aida Paunescu. The Cyprus women’s champion has already represented her country on major stages such as the Chess Olympiad. In that sense, the Pafos Open is more than a conventional open tournament where players chase rating points and title norms; it is also an important meeting point where rising talents test themselves against experienced grandmasters in the same playing hall. Rather than being overshadowed by the FIDE Candidates, the event draws strength from that global spotlight and further reinforces Cyprus’s growing place on the international chess calendar.