Tournament Review: Graz Open 2025
This is the first classical tournament I played in 2025. Graz, a beautiful city in Austria, has been organizing this tournament for decades. I met some nice people there, we stayed at a cozy apartment and went to explore some coffee shops, and of course, we will discuss the tournament in this blog!
Graz Open 2025 witnessed 10+ grandmasters and many strong titled players. The tournament, from 15th to 21st February 2025, and the A group, which I played in, is reserved only for +1900 rated players.
Organization
The tournament was held at Steiermark. I am not sure what it was, but it looked like some school or educational institute. The tournament was organized in classrooms, and there were 7-9 classrooms where players played games. All the facilities were great, including free water (which is rare in European events) and clean washrooms.
The tournament schedule was very busy. I haven’t played a 7-day event in the past few years, and playing continuous rounds is not easy. There were double rounds on day 2 and day 4. They also had double time control, which made rounds longer.
The only thing I was a bit worried about was fair play. In the public area (outside of the classrooms), parents were working on laptops and talking on phones, and those players who had finished their games were allowed to use mobile phones. Although the arbiters were doing their job pretty well, they were monitoring it closely.
About the Hotel
We stayed at the Arbio Hotel Apartments in Graz. We found this on Booking.com. The apartment was very nice and decent. We stayed from 14th Feb to 23rd Feb and paid 70,000 INR (approximately 740 Euros) for 3 people, which translates to 2700 INR per night per person or 28 euros per night per person. This aparthotel had all the amenities and also a cleaning staff, which was very helpful.
The commute was very easy for us, as it was a 5-minute walk from the tournament hall, and we saved a lot of time and also taxi/bus fare. The following is a photo taken from the Booking.com website.
About Graz
We didn’t have much time to explore the city. On the last day, we roamed around the park, ate in cafes, and found some really cool food.
I want to give a shout-out to the owner of Cafe Frohsinn. He was very friendly to us. He got impressed when we told him we came from India for a chess tournament and that we all do chess coaching. He even gave a little gift to us. We went to that cafe quite a few times.
I haven’t faced any issues in those 10 days, and people were very helpful. I would definitely consider coming back to Graz again.
Ratings
- Organization: 8.5/10 (Only because of not following fair play measures effectively)
- Hotel: 10/10
- Food: 10/10 (We haven’t tried much food, but the cafe experiences were top-notch)
- Safety: 10/10
Expense Breakdown
I played in 2 tournaments – Graz Open and the Cannes Open. Cannes Open’s review will be published after this one. So, I am putting half the expenses, and the remaining will be in the next article. (Euro prices are approximate; consider 3-7% fluctuation)
- Mumbai Vienna flight – 23,000 INR / 245 Euro
- Vienna Stay (1 day) – 2,700 INR / 28 Euro
- Graz Stay – 27,000 INR / 285 Euro Taxi,
- Food and grocery – 15,000 INR / 160
- Euro Entry fee – 7,500 INR / 80 Euro
Expenses to be continued in the next blog.
Photos:
Links