FIDE World Senior Team Championships Begin Monday in Prague

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The 2025 FIDE World Senior Team Championships begin Monday, February 17, in Prague, Czech Republic, with Team USA sending both an Open 50+ and Women's 50+ team. Last year, in Krakow, Team USA earned its second consecutive championship in the Open 50+ event, and the Women's team finished second among Women's 50+ teams.

Open 50+ Team

For the Open 50+ roster, three members of last year's team return: GMs Jaan Ehlvest, Igor Novikov, and Alexander Shabalov. Joining them are GM Gregory Kaidanov (from the 2023 championship squad) and IM Stuart Rachels. As of now, Shabalov is the team captain.

The inclusion of Rachels is a bit of a shakeup among the "usual suspects" who compete annually in the U.S. Senior Chess Championships. The 55-year-old former U.S. Champion had been inactive for years before returning last fall to win his sixth Alabama State Championship. This will only be Rachels' second FIDE-rated event this century. Is that enough to update his Wikipedia page, which still states he is "no longer an active player?"

Despite being the alternate on this year's team, it's worth remembering that Shabalov is the reigning World Senior Champion, and as such he should not be taken lightly!

Women's 50+ Team

The Women's 50+ roster consists of WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia, WFM Olga Sagalchik, WFM Natalia Tsodikova, WFM Ivona Jezierska, and WIM Alexey Root. As of now, Sagalchik is the team captain.

Tsodikova enters as the reigning U.S. Senior Women's Champion, while Belakovskaia won the inaugural event in 2023. Jezierska, who was the only member of the roster unable to compete in Utah last December, also competed for the Women's 50+ team in Krakow last year.

As was the case last year, the tournament consists of one combined section featuring both Open 50+ and Women's 50+ teams. The three Women's teams with the highest scores make up the podium for the Women's 50+ "section," but they will be competing in the same section as the Open teams. The full roster of teams is available here.

As Root points out in her preview for SparkChess, the Olympik Hotel in Prague was also the host of the event for the 2020 edition. The tournament, which took place in March of 2020 (!) was shortened by two rounds due to COVID-19-related travel restrictions.

As Root writes, there are no longer any travel restrictions in place, and — despite people aged 65 or older being one of the most at-risk groups for COVID-19-related hospitalizations — the World Senior Team Championship remains a popular event among competitors. After a hiatus in 2021, the tournament has gone the full nine rounds for each of the past three years.

In addition to the two US Chess-sponsored American teams, the U.S.A. 5 Brothers team returns once again to compete in the 50+ section. Despite the name, the team consists of the same four Jhunjhnuwala brothers who have been competing in this event since at least 2018.

While no US Chess-sponsored teams are competing in the 65+ section, which takes place alongside the 50+ event, a United States team consisting of Bob Holliman, Kenneth Thomas, Lawrence Cohen, and William Montross is making the trip to Prague. 

The defending champions from England often enter as the top-seeded team in the 65+ event, but this year not even names like GMs John Nunn, Anthony Kosten, and Glenn Flear can match the firepower of Lasker Schachstiftung GK. Captained by Dr. Gerhard Koehler (2215 FIDE), the rest of the team features GMs Artur Jussupow, Rainer Knaak, Sergey Kalinitschew, and Jakob Meister. The result is a team averaging 2455, which is over 50 points ahead of England's top team.

How to Watch

Games begin daily starting Monday, February 17 at 3:00 p.m. local time (8:00 a.m. EST) with the exceptions of Saturday, February 22 (rest day) and Wednesday, February 26, when the game begins two hours earlier.

Full regulations are available here.

Games will be broadcast live on Chess.com and Lichess.

WGM Sabina Foisor will be providing game analysis on the US Chess Youtube channel.

Chess Life Online will report on results throughout the event, and we will share even more updates on X.