The Grand Prix Chess Tournament 2026, May 14-17, 2026, Pasching/Linz, Austria, turns PlusCity into a four-day chess showcase with high-stakes open championships and team titles across rapid and blitz. You play in the middle of a major public venue, which creates a unique atmosphere with heavy foot traffic, media attention, and a louder playing environment than a typical tournament hall.

This festival combines four distinct events in one weekend: the Open Austrian Rapid Championship, the Open Austrian Blitz Championship, the Open Austrian Team Blitz Championship, and the Open Austrian Team Rapid Championship. With a headline prize pool of USD 87,000 (approx.) and broad eligibility for international players and clubs, the Grand Prix in PlusCity offers serious prizes, clear rating categories, and an action-packed schedule that keeps competition intense from Thursday through Sunday.

🗓️ Event Details

🏆 Prize Fund

The organizer publishes a total prize pool of €80,000 for the full four-day Grand Prix program. The organizer pays prize money in cash immediately after the award ceremony for each event.

Open Austrian Rapid Championship (Individual, May 14)

Austrian National Champion prizes (Rapid, Open and Women; Austrian players only)

Category prizes (Rapid; each category)

Open Austrian Blitz Championship (Individual, May 15)

Austrian National Champion prizes (Blitz, Open and Women; Austrian players only)

Category prizes (Blitz; each category)

Open Austrian Blitz Team Championship (May 16)

Open Austrian Rapid Team Championship (May 17)

⏱️ Time Control & Pairings

The festival runs four separate Swiss tournaments with FIDE-rated rapid and blitz time controls. The individual rapid championship plays 9 rounds at 10 minutes + 5 seconds per move. The individual blitz championship plays 13 rounds at 3 minutes + 2 seconds per move. Both individual events rank players with Buchholz Cut 1, Buchholz, Sonneborn-Berger, wins, then shared place.

Both team championships use four boards per team, allow up to two substitutes, and require a lineup order where each lower board may have at most 200 Elo more than the board above. The team blitz championship plays 13 rounds at 3+2, and the team rapid championship plays 9 rounds at 10+5. Team standings use match points as the primary ranking, followed by the published tie-break sequence for each team event. The organizer sets the tournament language to English and applies the venue rules of PlusCity.

📂 Sections / Groups

📅 Schedule

📝 Registration

👥 Organizer

The Upper Austrian Chess Association organizes the Grand Prix Chess Tournament in cooperation with the Austrian Chess Federation structures and Grandmaster Event Management GmbH, creating a public-facing chess festival inside PlusCity that promotes chess to a wide audience while delivering professionally administered championships and prize ceremonies.

• Email: grandprix@grandmaster.eu

• Website: https://www.grandprix-chess.com

🏨 Venue

PlusCity, Plus-Kauf-Straße 7, 4061 Pasching/Linz, Austria
PlusCity is a large shopping mall complex in Pasching near Linz, and the tournament places chess in a high-visibility public environment. The organizer expects many spectators and a higher ambient noise level, especially on Friday and Saturday when the mall operates normally.

🚗 How to Get There

Use the venue address to plan your route to PlusCity in Pasching near Linz. Arrive early on your event day to complete check-in before the published registration deadline.

Play four days of speed chess in a rare public-arena setting and chase both open prizes and national titles in the heart of Upper Austria.

🧾 Other

Players may carry a switched-off mobile phone during games, and an arbiter must approve any board departure during play. The organizer pays prize money in cash directly after the award ceremony, and the organizer raffles an Apple iPhone among players present at the award ceremonies on May 14 and May 15, 2026.