International invitation top tournament series in Spain
Alicante Beliavsky's clean win with a perfect score of 13/13
Almeria, semi-international in 1945 (3rd) & 1946 (4th),
all other editions national or regional
Barcelona,
independent world-class tournaments Big report
Barcelona, Magistral Ciutat, today a team event
Berga (a city in the province of Barcelona), semi-international in 1951 (2nd) & 1952 (3rd),
all other editions national or regional; later Open series Links
Bilbao, sometimes called Grand Slam Masters Final, mostly a Quadrangular, from 2008 to 2016, collapsed
Costa Brava, played in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Malgrat de Mar et al. An easy-to-read survey
Costa del Sol, played in Torremolinos, Malaga et al. An easy-to-read survey
Dos Hermanas Nine out of the top ten ranked player in a round robin
Gijon An easy-to-read survey
Lanzarote, Arrecife de Lanzarote An easy-to-read survey
Las Palmas Extended version
León, various formats, today a Mini rapid knock-out event Review, ongoing
Linares / Linares - Morelia (Mex) Albo d'Oro
Madrid, Magistral The forgotten superseries
Madrid, Prequels; and USSR vs. Rest of the World (Rapid)
Maspalomas, international invitation in 1978 & 1979 An easy-to-read survey
Montilla-Moriles An easy-to-read survey
Olot An easy-to-read survey
Orense An easy-to-read survey
Palma de Mallorca Extended version
Pamplona Facts & Figures
Salamanca, unregular, today a Mini rapid knock-out event Review, ongoing
San Sebastián two famous world elite tournaments 1911 & 1912 Links; later Open series
Tarragona in brief
Terrassa in brief
Zafra et al., Review of the Ruy Lopez Festival named after 16th-century Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura, offering a Magistral (international invitation tournament) and an Open where the players had to play the Ruy Lopez Opening, sometimes also called the Spanish Opening or the Spanish Game.
Important distinction:
This overview is focused on closed, international invitation tournaments. Some of the mentioned citites independently also had or have a strong Open Festival series, especially
Barcelona with the ongoing International Chess Open de Sants, Hostafrancs i La Bordeta (Sants Open), with an extra survey, or
Sitges (located 40 km south of Barcelona), with the ongoing Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival (Sunway Sitges Open), with an extra survey,
and
Las Palmas, Palma
de Mallorca, San Sebastián / Donostia, as well as other spanish cities without an Invitation chess tournament series of note (eg. Malaga, Sevilla), but venues of strong Open tournament series as well
as Rapid (eg. Villarrobledo, Oviedo) and / or exhibitions, especially León, pioneering Advanced chess, today a Mini rapid knock-out event, or Salamanca with some invitation tournaments
in earlier years, and currently an annual Festival with a prominent rapid round robin and other events.
Note:
Cities hosting one singular classical invitation tournament (eg. Ubeda) and / or Open alone, or organised a match, are not part of this survey of invitation *serials*
For the record:
Sevilla hosted the World Chess Championship in 1987 between Kasparov and Karpov (12-12). Kasparov kept the title without any further play-off.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=55128 (Chessgames)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_1987 (Wikipedia)
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/87kk$$.htm
(Mark Weeks overview)
https://www.chess.com/blog/SonofPearl/test-7393 (Chess with videos)
Cazorla, Spain, hosted the World Chess Council WCC (following the PCA, following the GMA; these organisations were in concurrence to the FIDE during the time of the schism) World Chess Championship Candidates Final Match in 1998 between Kramnik and Shirov to determine the right to challenge Kasparov. Despite being the underdog, Shirov won with 5.5-3.5 (two wins, no loss!).
However, things went wrong for the nominated Challenger Shirov, instead, it was Kramnik who got a shot for the title, dethroning reigning Champion Kasparov:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=80070 (Chessgames)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_World_Chess_Championship_2000 (Wikipedia)
Between 1993 and 2006, the title was split during the schism, there always have been two rivaling international chess bodies (FIDE and GMA / PCA / WCC, then FIDE and Braingames / Einstein) and both arranged World Chess Championships and crowned World Chess Champions..
ALICANTE 1973 – 1981 (without 1976)
Torneo Internacional Ciudad de Alicante, Memorial Gimeno Brotons.
Moderate strong invitation tournaments, most famously for Beliavsky's clean win with a perfect score in 1978 at an amazing 13/13!!
BARCELONA, world-class tournaments
1929 (World Exhibition) Capablanca
1946 (25th Anniversary Club Ajedrez Barcelona) Najdorf
1989 (GMA World Cup) Kasparov, Ljubojevic
Smyslov, Tal, Spassky, and Korchnoi played at Barcelona, too.
BARCELONA, Ciutat Magistral (former Casino Masters), starting in 1996, international series since 2004
Prominent winners were Ivanchuk (2005), Nakamura (2007), Seirawan (2011), or Morozevich (2015)
In 2009, then IM Daniel Alsina Leal surpassed nine grandmasters to win outright!
Berga 1950 – 1966 unregular mostly national, later an Open
Two semi-international invitation tournaments in 1951 & 1952:
II Torneo de Berga 1951 (historiadelajedrezespanol.es)
O'Kelly won ahead of 2. Ribera and 3./4. Rossolimo, Pomar, 5. Sanz, 6. Medina, 14 players
III Torneo de Berga 1952 (historiadelajedrezespanol.es)
Donner won on tie-break, sharing 1st to 4th place with Sanz, Bordell, Toran, 12 players
Overall survey closed invitations tournaments:
Ediciones del Torneo de Berga (historiadelajedrezespanol.es)
Los torneos de ajedrez en Berga, otra mirada al pasado (ajedrez365.com)
Overall survey Open Festival (1968-1995):
Open de Berga (ajedrezdeataque.com)
Among the winners Cebalo, Ciocaltea, Marin, Kozul, Suba, and many Spanish players
COSTA BRAVA (later COSTA CATALANA) series (1973 – 1980, and 1991 – 1994)
Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Malgrat de Mar were the main venues. 12 editions.
Larsen, Andersson, Szabo, Kurajica, Romanishin, Spraggett, Mednis, among the winners. Chiburdanidze joint winner in 1979.
COSTA DEL SOL series (1961 – 1987)
Torremolinos and Malaga were the main venues. 27 annual editions in a row.
Gligoric, Pomar, Szabo, O’Kelly, Ivkov, Benko, Torre, R. Byrne, Christiansen, Seirawan, Tal among the tournament winners.
DOS HERMANAS survey
The Spanish City in the south of Sevilla in Andalusia, hosted some really big tournaments in the shadow of Linares; plus Internet activities.
Watch out 1996 (Kasparov fails) and 1999 (Anand last).
GIJON 1944 – 1965 (unregular)
Alekhine, Euwe, Larsen, Rossolimo, Prins, Luis Bronstein from Argentina, Pomar, Perez, Toran, and surprising Antonio Rico were the tournament winners.
LANZAROTE, Arrecife de Lanzarote 1973 – 1977
A city and municipality in the Canary Islands situated in the centre-east of the island of Lanzarote.
Moderate strong tourney, among the winners Larsen, Kavalek, Quinteros, or Rodriguez Vargas.
LAS PALMAS 1972 – 1981, 1982 Interzonal, 1987, 1991 – 1994, and 1996 Torneo Mundial de Ajedrez Gran Canaria
Supertournament series (plus many Open).
Larsen as well as the World Champions Tal, Smyslov, Kramnik, and Anand played, but they failed to win at Las Palmas international invitation tournament!
Linares / Linares - Morelia 1978 – 2010 (27 editions)
| # | Year | Winner(s) | Country | Number of Players |
| 1 | 1978 | Jaan Eslon (IM) | ESP |
10 |
| 2 | 1979 | Larry Christiansen | USA | 12 |
|
|
| No tournament 1980 |
|
|
| 3 | 1981 | Anatoly
Karpov | USSR | 12 |
|
|
|
No tournament 1982 |
|
|
| 4 | 1983 | Boris Spassky | USSR | 11 |
|
|
| No tournament 1984 |
|
|
| 5 | 1985 | Ljubomir Ljubojevic | YUG | 12 |
|
|
| No tournament 1986 |
|
|
|
|
| No tournament 1987 |
|
|
|
6 | 1988 | Jan Timman | NED | 12 |
| 7 | 1989 | Vassily Ivanchuk | USSR | 11 |
| 8 | 1990 | Garry Kasparov (1) | USSR | 12 |
| 9 | 1991 | Vassily Ivanchuk |
USSR | 14 |
| 10 | 1992 | Garry Kasparov (2) | RUS | 14 |
| 11 | 1993 | Garry Kasparov (3) | RUS | 14 |
| 12 | 1994 | Anatoly Karpov | RUS | 14 |
| 13 | 1995 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 14 |
|
|
| No tournament 1996 |
|
|
|
14 | 1997 | Garry Kasparov (4) | RUS | 12 |
| 15 | 1998 | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 7 double round robin |
| 16 | 1999 | Garry Kasparov (5) | RUS | 8 double round robin |
| 17 | 2000 | Garry Kasparov (6) | RUS | 6 double round robin |
| 18 | 2001 | Garry Kasparov (7) | RUS | 6 double round robin (all others: J. Polgar, Karpov, Leko, Shirov, Grischuk below 50%) |
|
19 | 2002 | Garry Kasparov (8) | RUS | 7 double round robin |
| 20 | 2003 | Peter Leko | HUN | 7 double round robin |
| 21 | 2004 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 7 double round robin |
|
22 | 2005 | Garry Kasparov (9) | RUS |
7 double round robin (last tournament of Garry Kasparov in classical chess) |
| 23 | 2006* | Levon Aronian | ARM | 8 double round robin |
| 24 | 2007* |
Viswanathan Anand | IND | 8 double round robin |
| 25 |
2008* | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 8 double round robin |
| 26 | 2009 | Alexander
Grischuk | RUS | 8 double round robin |
| 27 | 2010 | Veselin Topalov | BUL |
6 double round robin |
* The editions of 2006, 2007, 2008 had been played in Morelia (Mexico) for the first leg, and
in Linares for the second leg.
Not held in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, and 1996.
Kasparov made <14 entries at Linares>, he won or co-won in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1999-2002, and 2005.
Kasparov is a <record nine-time winner>; he did also play in 1991, 1994, 1998, 2003, 2004. Gazza did not play at Linares in 1995 and 1996 (no tournament that year), prior to 1990, and after 2005 (retirement).
Six World Champions played at Linares, but the great attacker, Mikhail Tal never got a nomination / invitation by Luis Rentero.
If joint winners, the player with the better tie-break is named first. There were no play-offs.
MADRID, earlier tournaments
1936 Koltanowski
1943 Keres
1945 Alekhine
1951 Prins, starting at 10/10!
1957 Darga
1959 Pérez, Pomar
1960 Zonal - Gligoric, Pomar, Portisch (after play-off)
1961 Milić, Robatsch
1973 Karpov
MADRID, Rest of the World vs. Soviet Union (Rapid) 1988
One of the first big Rapid events (25 minutes per game) in chess history. Scheveningen system, eight players, each team.
Korchnoi (best individual performance), Kasparov, and M. Gurevich at 5.5/8
Magistral de MADRID 1992 – 1998
Supertournament series.
1992 Karpov
1993 Kramnik (on tie-break)
1994 Judit Polgar, at 18
1995 Korchnoi, at 64
1996 Topalov (on tie-break)
1997 Topalov (Armageddon vs. Shirov)
1998 Anand
Maspalomas 1978 & 1979
Maspalomas is a tourist resort in the south of the island of Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.
Fridrik Olafsson first on tie-break in 1978; Garcia Gonzales, Cuba won in 1979. Plus some Open Festivals.
MONTILLA-MORILES 1971 – 1978
The Andalusian region hosted a cozy little invitation tournament series.
Karpov won in 1976, Spassky in 1978 the last edition, Timman in 1971 the first tournament. Radulov is record twice winner.
PALMA DE MALLORCA 1965 – 1972 including 1970 Interzonal
Supertournament series (plus many Open).
All post-war World Chess Champions (then) did participate at Palma de Mallorca: Botvinnik, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky failed to win at Palma de Mallorca!
OLOT 1965 – 1975 (without 1966)
Olot lies at the northeast of Spain near the French border. The city hosted a cozy little invitation tournament series.
Twice winners were O'Kelly and Csom. Arturo Pomar played ten times.
ORENSE 1973 – 1977
In the 1970s, Galicia was one of the main areas of Spanish chess activity.
Moderate strong tourney, among the winners Larsen, Ljubojevic, Gheorghiu, Sigurjonsson, Torre, or Rodriguez Vargas.
PAMPLONA 1990 – 2009 (no GM tournament in 2000)
City of the north of Spain which has hosted Grandmaster Tournaments (Magistral), mostly combined with Opens.
Pamplona 1990 was where Zsuzsa Polgar earned her final male GM norm to obtain the title!
SALAMANCA, unregular; Rapid tournament, annually since 2018
Alekhine; Spassky, Karpov, Korchnoi, Topalov, Shirov, Ponomariov, and Maia Chiburdanidze, Judit Polgar, Hou Yifan, Pia Cramling, all played on different occasions at Salamanca. Today a strong Rapid
San Sebastian 1911 & 1912
Two famous world elite chess tournaments:
1911 (Capablanca ahead of 2./3.Rubinstein, Vidmar, 4. Marshall, 5.-7. Tarrasch, Schlechter, Nimzowitsch, 8./9. Bernstein, Spielmann, 10. Teichmann, 11./12. Maroczy, Janowski, 13.= Burn, Duras, amongst others, 15 players)
1912 (Rubinstein ahead of 2./3. Spielmann, Nimzowitsch, 4. Tarrasch, 5. Perlis, 6. Marshall, 7. Duras, 8./9. Teichmann, Schlechter, amongst others, 11 players)
San Sebastián chess tournament - Wikipedia
San
Sebastian (1911) (chessgames.com)
Edo Ratings, San Sebastian 1911 (1) (edochess.ca)
San
Sebastian (1912) (chessgames.com)
Edo Ratings, San Sebastian 1912 (1) (edochess.ca)
TARRAGONA 1951, 1952, 1954, 1957, 1960 and TERRASSA 1960, 1989 – 1992
Closed international invitation tournaments in a cozy mix with many Spain players.
Among the winners O'Kelly who won both: Tarragona 1957 & Terrassa 1960, Rossetto, Prins, Adams, Ehlvest, Topalov.
Zafra et al., RUY LOPEZ Festival 2007 – 2010
Magistral, plus an Open, rapid, youth and amateur tournaments, lectures.
Zafra is the hometown of Ruy López de Segura, 16th-century Spanish Bishop.
@ RUY LOPEZ Opening, and First Chess Tournaments
In 1574–75, Ruy López played in the first known international master-level tournament in chess (it stayed a singular event), held at the Royal Court of Spain in El Escorial, close to Madrid.
Ongoing Open Festivals (selection)
OPEN DE SANTS, Hostafrancs i La Bordeta, in Barcelona, annually since 1999
Barcelona's most emblematic and largest chess tournament.
Exclusive Year-by-Year History. Among the winners: Adhiban, Bartel, Fier, Hillarp Persson, Moskalenko, Nisipeanu, Rodshtein, Sadler, Qun Ma
SUNWAY SITGES FESTIVAL, Open near Barcelona, annually since 2014
Beautiful beach and strong chess, located on the Promenade of Sitges (40 km south of Barcelona).
Among the winners: Uzbek prodigy Abdusattorov currently, Cheparinov, Kamsky (co-winner), Korobov
Ongoing Rapid Festivals (selection)
LEON, annually since 1988, today a Mini rapid knock-out event
León, various formats, pioneering "Advanced Chess" from 1998 to 2002, with the players using computers; today a "Rapid" knock-out week-end type event for four invited players. Anand is record winner
SALAMANCA, incl. invitation in 1991, and ongoing rapid series
Alekhine; Spassky, Karpov, Korchnoi, Topalov, Shirov, Ponomariov, and Maia Chiburdanidze, Judit Polgar, Hou Yifan, all played there.
Salamanca Chess Festival with a rapid series annually since 2018
Note
Sources and further readings:
http://ajedrezdeataque.com/05%20Palmares/Torneos/Espana.htm
(by Javiar Cordero Fernandez)
http://historiadelajedrezespanol.es/torneos.htm
(by Javiar Cordero Fernandez)
http://www.ajedrecito4.galeon.com/#IBERICOS
(RetroAjedrez I, inactive)
http://www.ajedrecito4.galeon.com/ (RetroAjedrez II, scroll down, inactive)
http://www.ajedrecito5.galeon.com/#IBERICOS
(RetroAjedrez III, inactive)
http://www.ajedrecito6.galeon.com/#IBERICOS (RetroAjedrez IV, inactive)
(by Rafael Santana B., note: Galeon.com closed its sites per end of 2019)
If a pdf of a specific series will be updated, then the pdf changes its URL, that's why these tournament surveys above should be better linked under the main address (Spain invitationals: http://www.chessdiagonals.ch/431660783) or directly downloaded
Free to copy. Please cite
the source © Chessdiagonals, Switzerland