{"id":45301,"date":"2026-04-13T19:24:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/?p=45301"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:43:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:43:13","slug":"rising-stars-and-grandmasters-meet-at-pafos-international-chess-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/rising-stars-and-grandmasters-meet-at-pafos-international-chess-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising stars and Grandmasters meet at Pafos International Chess Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The 4th Pafos International Open Chess Tournament was officially opened this afternoon at the Attikon & Palia Ilektriki Multiculture Spaces in Pafos, Cyprus, by the mayor of the city, Angelos Onisiforou<\/strong> (pictured below).<\/p>

Directed by Arkadios Koulaxidis, President of the Pafos Chess Club, and held under the supervision of International Arbiter Tania Karali, the event has attracted 185 players. Participants are divided into three groups and include six Grandmasters, one Women\u2019s Grandmaster, and 20 other titled players representing 29 different countries.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The tournament runs from April 13 to April 19 and offers participants the possibility of taking byes in order to attend the final rounds of the FIDE Candidates Tournament, held just half an hour away. In fact, many participants arrived a few days early and have already taken the opportunity to meet their favourite elite players at the Cap St. Georges Hotel & Resort.<\/p>

Top seeds in the A-group include 2500+ rated Grandmasters Evgeny Postny<\/strong> (Israel; pictured below) and A. Ra Harikrishnan<\/strong> (India).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The field also features several prominent competitors, including China\u2019s International Master Lu Miaoyi<\/strong>, currently ranked as the world\u2019s No. 3 junior girl. Lu is the reigning Chinese Women\u2019s National Champion and the fourth-youngest girl in chess history to achieve the International Master title. In an interview with FIDE presenter Charlize Van Zyl, she confirmed that she has been closely following the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament and is supporting Zhu Jiner.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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One of the youngest participants in the main event is Woman Candidate Master Aida Paunescu<\/strong>, the Women\u2019s Cyprus National Champion, who has already represented her country at the Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024 and is set to do so again in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, this September.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Organised by the Pafos Municipality and the Pafos Chess Club, under the supervision of the Cyprus Chess Federation, the tournament offers a total prize fund exceeding \u20ac5,000. The event is also an official side event of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Pairings and results (chess-results)<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>

Event photo gallery<\/strong>: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/fide\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

Written by IM Michael A. Rahal (Cyprus) <\/strong><\/p>

Photos: Niki Riga<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 4th Pafos International Open Chess Tournament was officially opened this afternoon at the Attikon & Palia Ilektriki Multiculture Spaces in Pafos, Cyprus, by the mayor of the city, Angelos Onisiforou (pictured below). Directed by Arkadios Koulaxidis, President of the Pafos Chess Club, and held under the supervision of International Arbiter Tania Karali, the event has attracted 185 players. Participants are divided into three groups and include six Grandmasters, one Women\u2019s Grandmaster, and 20 other titled players representing 29 different countries. The tournament runs from April 13 to April 19 and offers participants the possibility of taking byes in order to attend the final rounds of the FIDE Candidates Tournament, held just half an hour away. In fact, many participants arrived a few days early and have already taken the opportunity to meet their favourite elite players at the Cap St. Georges Hotel & Resort. Top seeds in the A-group include 2500+ rated Grandmasters Evgeny Postny (Israel; pictured below) and A. Ra Harikrishnan (India). The field also features several prominent competitors, including China\u2019s International Master Lu Miaoyi, currently ranked as the world\u2019s No. 3 junior girl. Lu is the reigning Chinese Women\u2019s National Champion and the fourth-youngest girl in chess history to achieve the International Master title. In an interview with FIDE presenter Charlize Van Zyl, she confirmed that she has been closely following the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament and is supporting Zhu Jiner. One of the youngest participants in the main event is Woman Candidate Master Aida Paunescu, the Women\u2019s Cyprus National Champion, who has already represented her country at the Chess Olympiad Budapest 2024 and is set to do so again in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, this September. Organised by the Pafos Municipality and the Pafos Chess Club, under the supervision of the Cyprus Chess Federation, the tournament offers a total prize fund exceeding \u20ac5,000. The event is also an official side event of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2026 and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2026. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=w9SkgHn-sOc Pairings and results (chess-results) Event photo gallery: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/fide\/ Written by IM Michael A. Rahal (Cyprus) Photos: Niki Riga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[153,69,41],"regular":[],"sticky-post":[],"class_list":["post-45301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chess-news","tag-fide-candidates","tag-fide-womens-candidates","tag-tournaments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45301"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45400,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45301\/revisions\/45400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45301"},{"taxonomy":"regular","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regular?post=45301"},{"taxonomy":"sticky-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sticky-post?post=45301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}