by Assi Philosoph
20.8.2025
Dear chess friends,
We are extremely happy to host you for the second edition of the Jerusalem Masters tournament, and are hoping that the competition will become a long-standing tradition.
This year, like last year, there will be both an open and a masters tournament, each held on different dates. However, this year there will be an interesting innovation: the two winners of the open section will qualify to play in the Jerusalem Masters. The opportunity to potentially play for big prizes should give some extra motivation to players in the open section.
Unfortunately, for another year running, the event is taking place in the shadow of the war, so let us not forget that 50 hostages, alive and dead, are still being held captive by Hamas. Last year, a huge simultaneous event was held in honor of those who have been kidnapped. At that time, we could not imagine that during the second edition of Jerusalem Masters there would still be 50 people trapped in Gaza, being starved, tortured, and falling sick.
The event for the hostages in Safra Square Jerusalem
Despite the current situation, the Israeli Chess Federation, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Sports, decided that it is important to continue our events in the country and not surrender to terrorism, trying to maintain some sense of normality despite the war.
To encourage foreign players to come to play, the Federation decided to provide financial support to the first 40 high titled players who registered. This decision had a superb outcome, with more than 50 titled players signing up after only 3 days. You can find the updating list of participants here.
The top players subscribed, so far.
The total prize pool will be an amazing amount of $170,000: $30,000 for the open section and $140,000 for the closed one. This is an unprecedented figure in Israeli chess when it comes to a rapid chess format.
Both tournaments will be played at a rate of 15 minutes plus 5 seconds per move. The open will have a total of 9 rounds in a Swiss system and the closed competition will have a round-robin of 11 rounds. The first 4 ranked players of the Masters qualify for the semifinals, which will be decided, like the finals, in a mini match of two rapid games. The final list of players will be confirmed soon. One scoop we can announce already is that last year’s winner - Peter Svidler - and the 5-times world champion – Vishy Anand – have both confirmed their participation.
If you are interested in recapping how the tournament ended last year, please click on the following link to articles providing positions and analysis from the games.
GM Peter Svidler, the first edition winner
We are looking forward to seeing you all for the second edition of Jerusalem Masters!