50th Guernsey Chess

[Ronnie Burton]

1 - 7 November 2026

At the Peninsula Hotel

Two FIDE rated classical chess tournaments.
Generous prizes

One round per day.

Classical time control of 40 moves in 100 minutes, thereafter all remaining moves in a further 40 minutes, with a 30 second increment starting from move one.

One FIDE rated blitz chess tournament.
Blitz Tournament date will be announced later




Open Tournament Prize Fund: £3000
Challenger Tournament Prize Fund: £900
Blitz Tournament Prize Fund: £175*
Prizegiving Dinner on 7th Nov 2026 included

[MJMcCready]

Should be a good turn out.

[Ronnie Burton]

Yes at it height in the 1990's 200 players played. Lots of Dutch players as it was their 2 week holidays

[MJMcCready]

It had a name for itself yes. Yusupov turned up once -although perhaps as a coach. I seem to recall.

[MJMcCready]

Yes at it height in the 1990's 200 players played. Lots of Dutch players as it was their 2 week holidays

Well it's near the sea I think.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Yusupov has not played in the tournament. The website is being updated, but from memory Sergey Tiviakov (2652 at the time) is the highest-rated participant so far. I believe Spassky, Kasparov and Topalov (and probably others) have visited the island but not played in the tournament.

The tournament started as the Guernsey Tourist Board contacted John Bisson in 1973ish and said something to the effect of, "We heard about Spassky-Fischer in Iceland. How about staging a re-match? We can let you have £5000." John was aware that the match wasn't going to happen, but he said he would contact them and see what they said. He then went back to the Tourist Board a bit later and said the players weren't available, but how about a tournament? Maybe 100 players would come to the island and might bring families - it would be great for tourism. And so the tournament was born...

Col Edmondson (Fischer's manager) played in the first one I think, and there were over 200 players at several of the events. Numbers have dropped, especially after covid. It is more expensive now and most of the flights are to UK. There was an Amsterdam-Guernsey flight some years ago, and indeed one year, there were more Dutch competitors than UK, but continental European players generally have to travel via England, which increases expense and nuisance. There is a ferry from France.

Renoir and Victor Hugo managed to get to Guernsey when there weren't any flights, so there's no excuse to avoid the island really.

[MJMcCready]

Yusupov has not played in the tournament. The website is being updated, but from memory Sergey Tiviakov (2652 at the time) is the highest-rated participant so far. I believe Spassky, Kasparov and Topalov (and probably others) have visited the island but not played in the tournament.

The tournament started as the Guernsey Tourist Board contacted John Bisson in 1973ish and said something to the effect of, "We heard about Spassky-Fischer in Iceland. How about staging a re-match? We can let you have £5000." John was aware that the match wasn't going to happen, but he said he would contact them and see what they said. He then went back to the Tourist Board a bit later and said the players weren't available, but how about a tournament? Maybe 100 players would come to the island and might bring families - it would be great for tourism. And so the tournament was born...

Col Edmondson (Fischer's manager) played in the first one I think, and there were over 200 players at several of the events. Numbers have dropped, especially after covid. It is more expensive now and most of the flights are to UK. There was an Amsterdam-Guernsey flight some years ago, and indeed one year, there were more Dutch competitors than UK, but continental European players generally have to travel via England, which increases expense and nuisance. There is a ferry from France.

Renoir and Victor Hugo managed to get to Guernsey when there weren't any flights, so there's no excuse to avoid the island really.

I do believe he was working as a coach and it was either Guernsey or Jersey, around 2005. He coached a friend of mine there.

[Mike Gunn]

There are also ferries from England to Guernsey from Poole and Portsmouth. The ferries used to be operated by Condor Ferries but are now run by Brittany Ferries. In the past the 3 hour return ferry from Guernsey to Poole was sometimes cancelled due to the weather.

[MJMcCready]

What are the ticket prices?

[Mike Gunn]

Well, the web doesn't seem to be giving the current fares from Brittany Ferries but historically it was costing about £75 return per passenger + £200 return for a car via Condor Ferries.

[Ronnie Burton]

Very expensive to stay at the Peninsula. I wont be going now.

£124.00 per room per night on a bed and breakfast basis based on single occupancy.

[Ronnie Burton]

The hotel doesn't know what they are doing. In the old good days all the rooms were booked my chess players. The bar takings were the best they had all the year round. How a special rate can be £124 per night be special !!!!

[Kevin Thurlow]

My contacts at GCF informed me that they have negotiated a good rate for the tournament - are the prices you quoted the "normal rates"? The tournament is later than usual to move it more "off-season".

[Tim Spanton]

It's very exciting that the tournament is back at the Peninsula, but the dates are problematic for me as the event overlaps with both the English Seniors and Cap Negret

[Ian Thompson]

My contacts at GCF informed me that they have negotiated a good rate for the tournament - are the prices you quoted the "normal rates"? The tournament is later than usual to move it more "off-season".

If you were to go to the hotel website and book a room now, the lowest rate would be £138 per night for all of October and November, except for the week of the chess tournament when it would be £196 per night. Those rates are probably room only because there is no mention of breakfast.