The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Trophy is Germany’s longest-running super-tournament, founded in 1973 and held annually at the Westfalenhallen each summer. The 2026 edition is the fifty-third running and marks the event’s continued recovery from the pandemic-era reduction in field strength.
History
Founded in 1973 as a small German national event, the Dortmund Sparkassen tournament grew through the 1980s and 1990s into one of the strongest annual super-tournaments in Europe. The event takes its name from the long-running sponsorship of the regional Sparkasse Dortmund savings bank — a sponsorship that has been the principal financial guarantor of the tournament’s continuity through the structural changes in European chess sponsorship.
The 2026 Edition
Eight players, single round-robin, classical 90+30 across an eight-day window. The 53rd edition’s field, announced in April, includes Vincent Keymer (the locally- supported German number one) plus seven international invitees in the 2680–2750 range. Prize fund €150,000, with €40,000 to the winner. Side events: a rapid open, a blitz open, and the traditional simultaneous exhibition on rest day, where the top-board grandmasters play exhibition games against the local chess-club field.
The Kramnik Decade
Vladimir Kramnik holds the record for most Dortmund titles (10, won across the 1995–2014 period) and used Dortmund as his primary home-circuit event for two decades. The tournament was central to his career arc: it was where he played his strongest classical chess outside of world-championship matches, and where his preparation methods and opening choices were most directly visible to the German chess audience. The record stands as one of the most one-sided dominances of any single major tournament in modern chess history.
Place in the European Summer Circuit
Dortmund’s early-August slot positions it as the final European super-tournament before the late-summer Sinquefield/St. Louis swing in the United States. For elite European players who prefer home-region competition, it remains the strongest single classical event of the summer; the event’s continued continuity since 1973 gives it a depth of tradition matched in Europe only by Hastings, Tata Steel, and the Tilburg/Vienna events that ran for shorter stretches.