The 2nd President’s Cup of the Republic of Tajikistan 2026 will take place from November 9–17, 2026, at the Istiqlol Hotel in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Returning after a strong inaugural edition, the President’s Cup is being promoted as one of the major international chess events in Central Asia and will bring together Grandmasters, International Masters, established professionals, and promising young players from different countries.

The second edition carries a significantly increased $60,000 prize fund. Competition is divided into two rating groups: Group A for players rated 2200 and above and Group B for players rated 2199 and below. This creates a strong master-level top field while also providing an international tournament environment for developing and lower-rated players.

The event is organized by the Chess Federation of Tajikistan and is listed on the FIDE international calendar. It returns to the Istiqlol Hotel, the same Dushanbe venue used for the inaugural President’s Cup.

♟️ Event Details

The second President’s Cup continues Tajikistan’s effort to establish a high-level annual international tournament in Dushanbe. The 2026 edition increases the headline prize fund and retains the two-group structure introduced at the inaugural event.

🏆 Prize Fund

The 2026 prize fund is $60,000, making the second President’s Cup financially larger than the inaugural edition.

The detailed distribution between Group A, Group B, overall places, women, juniors, veterans, local players, and any other special categories has not yet been published in the verified 2026 regulations.

Therefore, the $60,000 figure should currently be presented as the official headline prize fund without carrying forward the individual prize amounts from the first edition.

For comparison, the inaugural President’s Cup in 2025 was promoted with a $50,000 overall prize fund, so the second edition represents a substantial increase in tournament funding.

🧩 Sections / Groups

The tournament is divided into two groups based on FIDE rating.

Group A is expected to attract Grandmasters, International Masters, and other strong titled competitors. Meanwhile, Group B provides opportunities for developing international players, juniors, local competitors, and players below the 2200 threshold.

The exact rating list date, rules for unrated players, play-up conditions, and any organizer wild cards will be determined by the final 2026 tournament regulations.

👥 Organizer

The Chess Federation of Tajikistan is the national governing body responsible for the tournament. The federation is headquartered in Dushanbe and organizes national championships, youth tournaments, international competitions, and development programs throughout the country.

Official website:
https://tjchess.tj/

📍 Venue

The second President’s Cup returns to the Istiqlol Hotel, which hosted the playing sessions of the inaugural tournament.

Istiqlol Hotel – 12 Sportivnaya Street, Dushanbe 734000, Tajikistan

The property includes hotel accommodation, restaurant facilities, meeting spaces, and conference facilities. Its location in central Dushanbe also places players within convenient reach of the city’s principal administrative, cultural, and recreational areas.

The 2025 President’s Cup was played in the hotel’s conference facilities, making Istiqlol an established venue for this event.

🚆 How to Get There

International participants will normally enter Tajikistan through Dushanbe International Airport (DYU). The airport is the main international gateway to the capital.

The Istiqlol Hotel is approximately a 20-minute drive from the airport under normal traffic conditions.

Participants should wait for the official 2026 regulations before booking any organizer-provided transfer package, because the transfer prices published for the inaugural edition apply specifically to 2025 and have not yet been reconfirmed for 2026.

ℹ️ Other Information

The President’s Cup was launched as a major international event intended to strengthen Tajikistan’s connections with the international chess community, support talented players, improve tournament organization to FIDE standards, and promote the country through chess.

The inaugural 2025 edition attracted a strong international field. Indian Grandmaster Pranav Anand won Group A with an unbeaten 7/9, finishing half a point ahead of a large chasing group of titled players. The field included Grandmasters and International Masters from India, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Sweden, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and other chess federations.

Among the prominent players in the first edition were GM Pranav Anand, GM Bharath Subramaniyam, GM Sergey Drygalov, GM Sankalp Gupta, GM Misratdin Iskandarov, GM Abhijeet Gupta, GM Artem Uskov, and GM Nikita Afanasiev.

The inaugural tournament also demonstrated the event’s international scope through separate Group A and Group B competitions. Group A alone featured around 80 players, many of them titled competitors.

Before the 2025 finals, the Chess Federation of Tajikistan worked with World Chess on a series of online national qualification tournaments. These qualifiers helped identify leading Tajik players, including juniors, women, and veteran competitors, for participation in the President’s Cup.

World Chess and the Tajikistan Chess Federation have also established a broader cooperation framework covering tournament infrastructure, online competition, training, fair play, and digital chess development.

2026 Technical Regulations

The full 2026 tournament regulations have not yet been publicly released in the sources currently available.

For this reason, the following details should not yet be copied from the 2025 regulations into the 2026 event page:

• exact number of rounds;
• final time control;
• detailed daily round schedule;
• entry fees;
• titled-player entry conditions;
• registration deadline;
• visa-support deadline;
• tiebreak system;
• half-point bye rules;
• default time;
• special-category prize breakdown;
• official hotel room rates;
• organizer airport-transfer rates;
• final accreditation procedure.

For reference only, the inaugural 2025 President’s Cup used a nine-round Swiss system with a 90+30 classical time control and supported conditions for international title norms. Those technical conditions may provide useful context, but they should not be presented as confirmed 2026 rules until the new regulations are issued.

The 2026 edition already has three major confirmed upgrades and continuities: it returns to Istiqlol Hotel, retains the 2200 rating boundary between Groups A and B, and increases the overall prize fund to $60,000.

FIDE Calendar:
https://calendar.fide.com/calendar.php?id=20134

Official organizer website:
https://tjchess.tj/