The 2026 Space Coast Open Chess Festival marked a significant milestone, transforming Melbourne, Florida, into a global chess hub for an intensive weekend from April 24–26. With a record-breaking roster of 246 competitors arriving from fifteen different U.S. states and countries as far as Morocco and Colombia, the 31st edition underscored the event's growing reputation. This page provides a centralized resource for the festival's varied highlights and competitive outcomes. Y

April 24-26, 2026 By Peter Dyson, Co-Chairman, Space Coast Open Organizing Committee Springtime in Melbourne, Florida, once again brought that quintessential mix of sun, sand, surf, and—most importantly—the most chess you can pack into a single weekend. The 31st edition of the Space Coast Open Chess Festival returned to the Atlantic coast with all the competitive heat we’ve come to expect. While the beachfront resorts of years past have given way to more inland venues, the "

We are pleased to present 48 games from the 31st Space Coast Open. The games are hosted in the ChessBase cloud at this link: http://cloudserver.chessbase.com/NTYzMjEzMzM=/replay.html (If the page does not display, try pasting the URL into your browser's address bar) All of the games are annotated. Most annotations were created using ChessBase Tactical Analysis running Stockfish 15.1. A few of the games have additional annotations by the players or comments from our brillianc

All photo credits to Peter Dyson unless stated otherwise Master / Expert 1st Place Open GM Jianchao Zhou 1st Place U2400 Lyubomir Gospodinov and Peter Dyson (photo credit: volunteer) U2000 (Left) 1st Place U1850 Braden Blackwell, (Right) 1st Place U2000 Pracheth Godlaveti 1st Place Tie U2000 Nicholas Tadros (photo credit: Tadros) U2000 Winners (Left to Right) Leandro Blanco Milhet, Kevin McDonald, Xiaoyao Li, and Owen Thornberry U1800 1st Place U1800 Mark Zakhary U1800 Winner

Sunday 3:30pm Round 5 — Final Round 10:30am Round 4 Saturday 9:15pm Blitz 4:30pm All Round 3 1:30pm 2 Day Round 2 10:30am 2 Day Round 1 / 3 Day Round 2 Friday 3 Day Round 1

Sunday 3:30pm Round 5 — Final Round 10:30am Round 4 Saturday 4:30pm All Round 3 1:30pm 2 Day Round 2 10:30am 2 Day Round 1 / 3 Day Round 2 Friday 3 Day Round 1

All photos taken by SureshKumar Rajamani Tournament Director Charles Tournament Director Jon Haskel

Brevard Sherriff Wayne Ivey with Board Members/Players (Left) Board Vice President Peter Dyson and (Right) Board President Dr. Peter Koretsky GM Samy Shoker Youngest Girl door prize winner Dhriti Singh Vendors Orlando Chess & Games Vendor Orlando Chess & Games Vendor, photo by Peter Dyson Orlando Chess & Games Vendor, photo by Peter Dyson Orlando Chess & Games Vendor Stock Larry Storch and his book "My Life In Chess", photo by Peter Dyson Staff Board Vice President SureshKuma

WELCOME CHESS PLAYERS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY The Space Coast Chess Foundation is delighted to welcome you to the 31st annual Space Coast Chess Festival. This will be our biggest and best Festival ever, with nearly 250 players, including 4 International Grandmasters, and over a dozen National Masters. Our goal is to provide an outstanding chess experience for you and a memorable chess vacation for your family. Your organizers have worked to provide a top-notch Chess Festival pa

International Grandmaster International Master Master Peter & Karen Dyson Expert Joseph McClure, Jr., MD Bob Brown Robert Glover Tom & Kathy Funk Adwait Jathal, MD Gobivenkata Balaji, MD Stellar Transport

31st Space Coast Open Chess Festival $20,000 prize fund fully guaranteed! An event created by chess players for chess players! This page was last updated April 21, 2026. ​​ The Event Has Concluded!​ ​​ View the Final Standings for the 31st Space Coast Open here View all the postings about the 31st Space Coast Open here ​ Welcome to Online Registration for the 31st Space Coast Open! You can register here and pay using a Credit Card via the ChessRegister website links below. Sc

Table of Contents for the 30th Space Coast Open

May 2-4, 2025 By Peter Dyson, Co-Chairman, Space Coast Open Organizing Committee Springtime, sun, sand, surf, and … chess! While the...

We are pleased to present 42 games from the 30th Space Coast Open. The games are hosted in the ChessBase cloud at this link: http://cloudserver.chessbase.com/NDc2NzE5MzE=/replay.html (If the page does not display, try pasting the URL into your browser's address bar) All of the games are annotated. Most annotations were created using ChessBase Tactical Analysis running Stockfish 15. A few of the games have additional annotations by the players, comments from our brilliancy pr

Link to the USChess final standings (prizes not shown, see below for prizes)

Master/Expert Section Master Section Co-Champions: John Ludwig, Ryan Amburgy, Eric Rodriguez (not shown Jianchao Zhou, Nikola Mitkov,...

Friday 3-day Round 1 Saturday 3-Day Round 2 & 2-Day Round 1 Saturday 2-Day Round 2 Saturday Round 3 Sunday Round 4 Sunday Round 5

Friday 3-day Round 1 Saturday 3-day Round 2 and 2-day Round 1 Saturday 2-day Round 2 Saturday Merged Round 3 Sunday Round 4 Sunday Round 5