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. You will find...

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 "Chess Festival"...

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 brilliancy prize judge....