Sun-seeking chess players and families travel to Djerba, Tunisia for the Djerba International Chess Festival 2026 from Saturday 7 to Sunday 15 February 2026. You spend nine days at the all-inclusive Hotel & Spa Fiesta Beach Djerba, where you combine classical chess with Mediterranean beaches, pools, spa facilities and a relaxed resort setting. The festival creates a true chess vacation, so you step from the board directly to the sea, the bar or the spa between rounds.

You choose between rating-based opens (Open A, Open B and Open C with Amateur players) and a lively Blitz Championship, all organized as Swiss tournaments with a classical time control of 90 minutes plus a 30-second increment. Organizers distribute a total of €10,500 in prizes and add special awards for women and ambitious juniors, including qualification prizes that link the event to the Cap Échecs festival in France. Excursions, beach activities, cultural evenings and family-friendly entertainment complete the festival atmosphere for both players and accompanying guests.

🗓️ Event Details

🏆 Prize Fund

Organizers guarantee a total prize fund of €10,500 distributed across the three main opens and the Blitz Championship. They award separate main prizes, women’s prizes and section-specific awards, and they limit each player to one prize so the awards spread widely across the field. The top four under-16 players also earn qualification prizes connected with the Cap Échecs festival in France, which adds a strong junior-development dimension to the event.

Open-A (>2100) – total €5,800:

Open-B (>1700) – total €2,050:

Open-C (<1700) – total €1,150:

Blitz Championship – total €1,500:

⏱️ Time Control & Pairings

• Organizers run Open A, Open B and Open C with Amateur players as 9-round Swiss tournaments under FIDE competition rules.

• Every classical game uses the same time control: 90 minutes for the entire game plus 30 seconds increment per move from move 1.

• The default time is 30 minutes; if a player arrives more than 30 minutes late for a round, the arbiter can declare the game lost by forfeit.

• Arbiters apply tiebreaks in this order: direct encounter, Buchholz cut-1, full Buchholz, number of games with the black pieces (counting unplayed games as played with white), and total number of wins.

• The Blitz Championship follows its own faster time control and one-evening schedule while remaining part of the overall festival program.

📂 Sections / Groups

All sections share the same resort venue and integrate into a unified festival schedule that mixes tournament rounds with leisure activities.

📅 Schedule

📝 Registration

National chess federations that belong to FIDE and accredited chess academies may register players directly for the Djerba International Chess Festival through the official registration portal. Individual players can also sign up by using the “Inscriptions 2026” area on the festival website, selecting their country of residence and completing the online form for their chosen tournament and travel option.

For players departing from France, the organizers offer complete packages that include Paris–Djerba flights, airport transfers, 8 nights/9 days all-inclusive accommodation at Fiesta Beach and festival registration. Players from other countries, along with accompanying family members, can contact the organizing team or GO-MAKKAH offices to arrange customized travel and hotel bookings. Because the festival uses a fixed room allotment at the official hotel, the organizers recommend early registration and payment to secure a place.

👥 Organizer

The Djerba International Chess Festival team, together with travel and events company GO-MAKKAH, organizes the 2026 edition as a large-scale chess and tourism project on Djerba Island. The team combines professional tournament management with resort hospitality, cultural programming and a strong focus on junior development and international participation.

• Festival organizing committee: Djerba International Chess Festival

• Event partner and travel agency: GO-MAKKAH

• Email: team@djerbachessfestival.com

• Phone (France): +33 6 22 19 07 09

• Phone / WhatsApp (France): +33 6 05 94 64 53

• Website: https://djerbachessfestival.com

🏨 Venue

The festival uses Hotel & Spa Fiesta Beach Djerba as its official venue, a four-star all-inclusive beachfront resort in the Mezraia area of Djerba Island. The hotel offers multiple air-conditioned playing halls, spacious lounges, bars and terraces, so you can move comfortably between the tournament rooms and the resort’s leisure spaces. With the beach, pools, restaurants and rooms all inside the same complex, players and families enjoy short walking distances and a fully self-contained chess vacation environment.

🛎️ Accommodation

Festival packages place players and guests directly at Hotel & Spa Fiesta Beach Djerba on an all-inclusive basis. The resort provides double, triple and family rooms of roughly 20–30 square meters, equipped with air conditioning or heating, satellite TV, flat-screen television, direct-dial telephone, safe, kettle with tea and coffee, minibar with water and soft drinks, hairdryer, Wi-Fi and baby cots on request. Many rooms include a balcony or terrace that overlooks the gardens, pool area or internal courtyards.

Guests enjoy several swimming pools (outdoor, indoor and children’s pools), a private beach area with sunbeds and parasols, daytime and evening entertainment programs, and buffet and à-la-carte restaurants with Mediterranean and international menus. The on-site spa offers hammam, massages and a wide range of body and facial treatments, so you can recover after tough rounds. Nearby attractions such as Djerba Explore Park, the Lalla Hadria Museum and the Crocodile Farm lie within easy reach for short excursions during rest periods.

🚗 How to Get There

You reach Djerba most easily by air via Djerba–Zarzis International Airport, located roughly 16 km from Hotel & Spa Fiesta Beach. Festival packages for French participants include group flights and organized airport transfers directly to the resort, which keeps travel logistics simple. If you arrive independently, you can take a taxi or prebooked transfer from the airport to the Mezraia hotel zone and arrive at Fiesta Beach in around 20–30 minutes, depending on traffic. Drivers who explore Tunisia by car can follow the island’s main coastal roads to the Mezraia area and park near the hotel according to resort guidelines.

You can turn this mid-winter week into a complete chess holiday that mixes serious FIDE-style tournaments, generous prizes and a full Mediterranean resort experience at the Djerba International Chess Festival 2026.

🧾 Other

• FIDE competition rules govern all main tournaments, including default times and the published tiebreak system.

• By registering, players and guardians consent to the publication of pairings, games, photos and results on festival communication channels.

• Organizers handle personal data only for travel, accommodation and event management purposes and communicate practical updates through the official website and direct messages to registered participants.