Few tournaments in chess history rival the legacy of the Hastings International Chess Congress. From its inaugural event in 1895 — widely regarded as one of the greatest tournaments ever held — Hastings has drawn many of the world’s top players. That first edition saw giants like Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Mikhail Chigorin compete, only to be sensationally defeated by Harry Nelson Pillsbury, a relatively unknown American master whose victory stunned the chess world. Since then, Hastings has welcomed an extraordinary list of champions, contenders, and creative forces, each leaving their mark on the game and on Hastings itself!
With Pierre Laurent-Paoli, Sarunas Sulskis, Marius Deuer, Tor Fredrik Kaasen, Stephen Gordon, and Stanley Badacsonyi, Bodhana Sivanandan, and many more local stars in the list, Hastings Chess 2025 – 2026 is promising to be a fantastic competition.
Hastings International Chess Congress 2025 – 2026 participants
1
GM
Laurent-Paoli, Pierre
FRA
2539
2
GM
Sulskis, Sarunas
LTU
2475
3
IM
Deuer, Marius
GER
2475
4
IM
Kaasen, Tor Fredrik
NOR
2471
5
GM
Gordon, Stephen J
ENG
2465
6
Plat, Vojtech
CZE
2461
7
IM
Hagner, Bennet
GER
2451
8
IM
Kuru, Atilla
TUR
2449
9
GM
Kovchan, Alexander
UKR
2447
10
GM
Williams, Simon K
ENG
2434
11
IM
Ghimpu, Samuel-Timotei
ROU
2428
12
IM
Wang, Hao(Zj)
CHN
2426
13
Grutter, Tim
NED
2397
14
GM
Gormally, Daniel W
ENG
2396
15
IM
Mazur, Stefan
SVK
2392
16
IM
Golding, Alex
ENG
2370
17
IM
Skytte, Rasmus
DEN
2354
18
FM
Badacsonyi, Stanley
ENG
2317
19
FM
Kalavannan, Koby
ENG
2275
20
IM
Balaji, Aaravamudhan
ENG
2270
21
Southcott-Moyers, Indy
ENG
2266
22
FM
Hobson, Kenneth
ENG
2264
23
Ashton, Adam G
ENG
2247
24
CM
Lau, Lut Yin Luke
HKG
2243
25
Demac, Elias
NOR
2230
26
WIM
Sivanandan, Bodhana
ENG
2229
27
FM
Martin, Nils
FRA
2222
28
FM
Wall, Tim P
ENG
2219
29
Bryant, Harry
ENG
2207
30
Saunders, Aron
ENG
2201
31
CM
Finn, Peter
ENG
2200
32
Vaidyanathan, Adithya
ENG
2189
33
Kapechun, Mikhailo
UKR
2184
34
Brewer, Callum D
ENG
2175
35
Zhang, Junyi
ENG
2172
36
CM
Manmay, Chopra
IND
2170
37
Janse, Jan Jaap
NED
2170
38
CM
Yoon, Jacob D
ENG
2165
39
Adams, Henry
ENG
2159
40
WFM
Blanquet, Camille
FRA
2132
41
WFM
Verbin, Valentina
MDA
2122
42
Burrows, Martin P
ENG
2117
43
Hill, Alistair
ENG
2104
44
Both, Bert
NED
2102
45
Brown, Thomas
WLS
2082
46
White, Stuart A
SCO
2072
47
WFM
Rida, Ruqayyah
ENG
2068
48
Bharat Kumar, Balahari
ENG
2068
49
Tudoroiu, Razvan-Catalin
ROU
2063
50
Patel, Zain
ENG
2058
51
Clarke, Connor
ENG
2058
52
Onuoha, Obioma
NGR
2056
53
WFM
Varney, Zoe
ENG
2053
54
Barbu, Simon-Alexandru
ROU
2051
55
CM
Skytte, Robert
DEN
2050
56
Herzwurm, Robert
GER
2047
57
Dupuis, Denis K
ENG
2045
58
Verbytski, Oleg
ENG
2039
59
Kilambi, Venkata Ananth Akshay
ENG
2038
60
Balzer, Lars
GER
2026
61
Woods, Yannick
IRL
2023
62
Byron, Alan M
ENG
2022
63
Brett, Andrew R
ENG
2011
64
Ortiz Sanchez, Luis
WLS
2007
65
Kendall, Arthur
ENG
2000
66
Sciupokas, Arunas
LTU
1990
67
Rayner, Francis
WLS
1983
68
WCM
Ashton, Alannah
ENG
1983
69
Dewangan, Aayush
ENG
1981
70
Chapman, Luke
ENG
1976
71
Vaddhireddy, Sai
ENG
1960
72
Ward, Cian
ENG
1947
73
Turner, Lewis A
ENG
1945
74
Rastogi, Nayan Keats
ENG
1939
75
Gorskovs, Andrejs
ENG
1920
76
Rubeck, Jonathan
ENG
1913
77
WFM
Norinkeviciute, Rasa
LTU
1904
78
Fryer, David W
ENG
1902
79
Binks, Michael
WLS
1898
80
Lee, Younggyu
KOR
1892
81
Gibson, Christopher A
ENG
1887
82
Shankar, Yashwardhan
SCO
1886
83
Sadler, Ben
ENG
1882
84
Anjulan, Ashwin
ENG
1876
85
Swiatkowski, Dominik
ENG
1874
86
CM
Kim, Changhoon
KOR
1874
87
Freeman, Luke
ENG
1867
88
Siddharth, Gopakumar
ENG
1864
89
Napolitano, Domenico
ENG
1863
90
Hu, Junyan
ENG
1862
91
Ruane, Brendan J
ENG
1857
92
Ratcliffe, James
ENG
1845
93
Swiatkowski, Aram
ENG
1843
94
Pai, Sidhanth
ENG
1842
95
Vaidyanathan, Sathya
ENG
1842
96
Sow, Miaogeng Malcolm
ENG
1842
97
Venkatesh, Anuj
ENG
1825
98
AFM
Gupta, Aditya
ENG
1808
99
Saxena, Advik
ENG
1806
100
Prince, Alan R
ENG
1803
101
Liu, Yiyi
ENG
1791
102
Butt, Laurence
ENG
1790
103
Eldridge, Albert
ENG
1781
104
Wilson, Matthew R
ENG
1772
105
Jacobs, Simon
ENG
1749
106
Halas, Kim Aleksander
NOR
1729
107
Oh, Sejun
KOR
1695
108
Williams, Ad (Tony)
ENG
1671
109
Lee, Ain
KOR
1666
110
Saxena, Reyansh
ENG
1641
111
Siddhartha, Shankar Srivastava
IND
1589