We are pleased to accept entries for the 2025 Las Vegas International Chess Festival. Don’t forget returning players who enter the National Open by January 31st qualify for the Early Bird Discount. We are making a few changes to the 2025 event to improve your tournament experience. This applies especially to the Youth events which […]
Chess and Wanderlust, the Twain Shall Meet
You may have heard of the Knights Tour problem in chess, but about 8 months ago in October 2023, Chicagoan Megan Chen completed a tour of her own. Today was a historic day for my #chess life. I wrapped up the 50 states quest in Alaska, with Fairbanks Chess Club's #NationalChessDay G/15 d5 rapid event […]
The Future of Chess, Youth Champions Crowned
Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes, https://x.com/LennartOotes, https://www.lennartootes.com/ While norm seekers and GM’s are battling it out in the National Open, several hundred youth were putting up their own fight in the International Youth and Youth Trophy championships at the Flamingo as well. Just as important as the learning game itself is fostering values of etiquette […]
Couldn’t Stay For Your Prize or Trophy?
Unclaimed checks will be mailed within 10 business days to the address given with your registration. If you have moved, send your new address, with the subject “address for prize for [name]” to vegaschess@gmail.com. If you won more than $599 you must fill out a w-9 form and email it to vegaschess@gmail.com or mail it […]
Poker Tournament
FM Eugene Yanayt is the 2024 Vegas Chess Festival Poker Champion. In addition to the coveted Chess Festival Poker Bracelet Eugene won $1,450 in cash.
GM Vasif Durarbayli Takes Clear 1st, Wins the Edmondson Cup!
Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes, https://x.com/LennartOotes, https://www.lennartootes.com/ After an early Round 2 draw against IM Matias Perez Gormaz in a French Advance gridlock, Vasif wins the next five games, including one against last years defending champion Illya Nyzhnyk, and norm seeker Ryo Chen. These pair of wins allow Vasif to climb up the leader board, […]
GM Vasif Durarbayli in clear first, IM Ryo Chen on Norm Alert
We are heading into the last day, and through 7 grueling rounds, GM Vasif Durarbayli is a full point ahead of the field (6.5/7) with one round to go after defeating defending champion GM Illya Nyzhnyk. Vasif faced a Najdorf that transposed into a Scheveningen in the opening and picks up a pawn in the […]
1000GM Has a Mission
For the past couple of years, we have worked with 1000GM to bring more FIDE Norm tournaments to Las Vegas. Founder Srikanth Bangalore has a mission to help kids begin their chess journey as early as Kindergarten. You can join Srikanth on this quest with a moment of your time and possibly a small donation. […]
GM Ben Finegold takes on a simul with a single loss…
Regardless of how strong you are, playing a single game is taxing enough, let alone over 36 at the same time. We are thankful for GM Ben Finegold for putting on quite a display. After the simul, Ben mentioned how exhausted he was and how much concentration it took to play. Chess is hard. Ben […]
Done With your Game? Check out the Following!
Boston Mike will be taking on all comers in Blitz outside of El Dorado from ages 5 to 155 until 1pm todayBoston Mike will also be signing autographs after joining Ben Johnson on the Perpetual Chess podcast in the Chess StoreFollow Mike at Coffee Chess on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@CoffeeChess For the past couple of years, we have […]
A Rose by any Other Name is still a Thorn in the Side of Titled Players, so is Ryo Chen, 4/4
Photo courtesy of Tim Hanks Congrats to FM Rose Atwell, who picked up a WIM norm in the 1000GM Tournament that took place this past week at the Flamingo. She picks up where she left off, with win vs IM Mark Heimann and this draw against GM Neuris Delgado, analysis provided by GM Ben Poppa […]
Boston Mike taking on all comers in Blitz for 5+ Hours and and an appearance by Elaynah
Photo courtesy of Dylan Not that Dylan…this Dylan All Comers Blitz is happening now at the escalators near El DoradoFollow on Twitch courtesy of Elaynah
Our First Champions Crowned
An exciting finish as we conclude the US Womens Championship! While last year we ended up with a solo first place finish, we had another year where several people were tied going into the last round, much like the previous two years. WCM Avery Yu, a top ranked female under the age of 14 had […]
Cant Make the Meet and Greet? We are streaming live courtesy of Elaynah
This stream has ended, but you can view her Twitch CLICK HEREThank you for your stream, Elaynah!❤️❤️❤️ Subscribe and follow ElaynahYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@elaynahTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/elaynahInsta: https://www.instagram.com/elaynahbb/Twitter: https://twitter.com/elehnahTikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@elaynahhh
Streamers Meet and Greet Friday Morning!
Our fabulous streamers are looking forward to meeting you fabulous fans! 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM in the Virginia Ballroom, here is our Stream Team! Smash that like button and subscribe to them. Also…@MNchess (Jiten Patel, site contributor) @ChrisBirdIA (Chris Bird, site contributor) and @Vegas_Chess GM Ben FinegoldYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GMBenjaminFinegoldTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/itsbenandkarenTwitter: https://twitter.com/ben_finegold IM Kostya Kavutskiy (Chess […]
WHERE THE FLAMINGO AM I??
PATH 1: Are you in the Lobby? Great!Take the Lobby Elevators to Floor 3Sorry I do not have any elevator hacks🙍…IFYKYK This will take you to the following: Keep reading, more useful information PATH 2 Are you in the Lobby? Great!Looking for Red Rock and the Youth Tournaments? See the Starbucks? Great!Keep Walking…PASS the UP […]
The National Open has Begun!
Welcome to the 2024 Las Vegas International Chess Festival! 🦩🦩 Welcome everyone! The 2024 Vegas Chess Festival has begun!Don’t forget to meet your favorite Streamer in our Friday Morning Meet and Greet LIVE GAMES (When available) US WOMEN’S Elaynah will be streaming LIVE!NATIONAL OPEN Welcome everyone! The 2024 Vegas Chess Festival has begun!Don’t forget to […]
Special Guests
We have been receiving some questions about who will be some of our special guests at the event, and in the coming weeks we will have a comprehensive list. Right now, we can tell you that GM Ben Finegold and GM Kayden Troff will be there as will Ben Johnson from the Perpetual Chess Podcast, […]
Now Taking Entries for 2024
We are now taking entries for the 2024 Las Vegas International Chess Festival. The Early Bird Discount for returning players will be valid through January. Enter now! Reserve your room early to qualify for the free room lottery. The earlier you reserve, the more virtual tickets you receive.
Checks
We understand that some of the checks issued to prize winners had a misprint that is preventing the banks from cashing them. We are sorry for this inconvenience, if you are impacted by this, please contact us at contact@vegaschessfestival.com so that we may get your hard earned winnings to you ASAP. UPDATE AS OF 6/30, […]
Chess me, out of the bearded barley…
From left to right, the streamers are IM Eric Rosen, Eliana Lopez, GM Ben Finegold, Elayah, Sara Herman and IM Kostya Kavutskiy Our streamers for the National Open were gracious enough to give their time for a panel Q&A followed by a meet and greet. Thank you to Elayah who provided a live stream of […]
I, want to Rock and Chess all Night…
…And Party Every day Friday morning started off with the annual Grandmaster Camps, open to all who are eager to learn from highly trained instructors, or wanting to get some advice before competing in the National Open or the International Youth Championship. Thank you to our wonderful instructors for making this possible: Melik GM Melik […]
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR SATURDAY!!
IMPORTANT NOTE! Due to Stanley Cup parade for the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, there will be various road closures in town, starting at approximately 2:00 pm. This means if you are not staying at the Rio, and traveling each day to the tournament, you should plan to take this into account! There is […]
Watch the streamers Q&A courtesy of Elaynah!
For those that are missing the Live Streamers, check out this feed, courtesy of Elaynah Click Here! Click on the following to links for our following streamers: GM Ben Finegoldhttps://www.youtube.com/@GMBenjaminFinegoldhttps://www.twitch.tv/itsbenandkarenhttps://twitter.com/ben_finegold IM Eric Rosenhttps://www.youtube.com/@eric-rosenhttps://twitter.com/IM_Rosenhttps://www.twitch.tv/imrosenhttps://imrosen.com/ IM Kostya Kavutskiy Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hellokostya YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IMKostyaKavutskiyOfficial Site: https://www.hellokostya.com/Twitter: https://twitter.com/hellokostyaTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hellokostyaFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/KostyaKavutskiy/Blog: www.chess.com/blog/hellokostya Sara Hermanhttps://www.twitch.tv/zefcatthttps://www.instagram.com/zefcatt/https://twitter.com/ZefCatthttps://www.tiktok.com/@zefcatt Elaynahhttps://www.youtube.com/@elaynahhttps://www.twitch.tv/elaynahhttps://www.instagram.com/elaynahbb/https://twitter.com/elehnahhttps://www.tiktok.com/@elaynahhh Eliana Lopezhttps://www.instagram.com/chessxercise/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100058194677775https://chessxercise.com/
Day 1: It Started out with a KISS
Welcome to Opening Day of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival at the Rio, a change from our previous home the last few years at the Westgate. The show will go on, and the tracks will keep rolling as we bid adieu to Elvis and welcome KISS. The KISS World Museum has been open since […]
