Casablanca Chess is an invitational rapid tournament held in Morocco since 2024 with a distinctive format: every game begins not from the standard starting position but from a historical chess position drawn from a famous match in chess history. The format is intended to neutralise computer opening preparation and showcase players’ pure positional and tactical understanding from the very first move.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for mid-June, with a four-player round-robin field typically featuring Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Hikaru Nakamura, or other top-ten grandmasters. Each round, the four players are given a position taken from a Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, or Fischer game; one player gets White and one gets Black, and the round is played from that position with double-round colours.
The 2024 inaugural edition was won by Magnus Carlsen. The 2025 edition was won by Vincent Keymer in an upset. The 2026 edition’s field is being finalised by the Royal Moroccan Chess Federation as of mid-2026.
The Casablanca format has been praised as a way to make rapid chess more interesting at the elite level — players cannot rely on memorised opening preparation and must demonstrate concrete understanding of historical positions from move one. Engine analysis of these games has been published showing wide divergences between elite-player choices and Stockfish’s preferred lines, which is a kind of insight that pure classical games rarely produce.
For confirmed schedule, broadcast links, and the historical position list, see the Royal Moroccan Chess Federation site and TWIC.