Schaffhausen international chess open

Between Switzerland and Germany are the Rhine falls and Schaffhausen, a small and quiet medieval Swiss town.

We travelled to Schaffhausen for the international chess open 2022. This 5 round tournament takes place over a week-end. Its starts on Friday night and ends on Sunday afternoon; this enables locals to play the first game after working hours.

The tournament venue is the Kronenhof hotel with excellent playing conditions. The 2022 edition welcomed 86 players from 11 countries.

For accomodation, as a ches player, it was possible to get a discount in the Kronenhof hotel but instead we chose the youth hostel which was a 20-minute walk from the tournament venue. This allowed us to reduce the budget and enjoy a daily walk to the game.

The youth hostel building is quite interesting, it was once the property of a writer and is surrounded by a park. The situation is lovely and peaceful.

The youth hostel has a common room with a piano, a few games and a volleyball court. We had an excellent stay but we must note that the sound insulation was insufficient (the wooden floor was creaking and we heard the neighbours a lot).

Our results

Zoe

A reasonable performance with victories against weaker opponents and defeats against stronger opponents. It was sometimes difficult to turn advantages into a win but the games where quite good overall.

Clement

A disappointing tournament with a tough defeat round 3 despite a huge advantage and a draw round 5 against a weaker player. The main problem seems to have been poor time management making it too difficult to calculate winning variations when needed.

As a whole we had a very nice time in Schaffhausen and enjoyed walking through the sunny streets. Our only regret is not staying longer.

Summary

Tournament type: Swiss FIDE system
Duration: 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move
Rythm: 5 rounds over a week-end (1st round on Friday night)
Number of players: 86 (edition 2022)
Difficulty: Medium (3-10 titled players)
Location: Switzerland, Schaffhausen
Dates 2022: 18-20 march 2022
Dates 2023: 10-12 march 2023
Tournament website
Results 2022
Swiss Chess Tour

Tournament fun fact

Schaffhausen is in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and we were constantly switching between French, German and English to communicate with our opponents. It was a bit disturbing because we never knew which language to speak, especially with Swiss players.

Chess journey