Gaston Boutchon 26.05.2026 9
To mark the 75th anniversary of the Borgerhoutse Schaakkring vzw, it is organizing
the Belgian Chess Championships 2026 in Antwerp together with the Schaakliga Antwerpen vzw.
Below you will find further details about this chess tournament.
Belgian Chess Championships 2026
Side activities outdoors or in the analysis room: open to everyone
Free admission
Xaverius College, Collegelaan 36, 2140 Antwerp
from July 4 to July 12, 2026, daily from 14:00 to + 20:00
Opening Ceremony Belgian Chess Championships 2026
Celebration of the 75th anniversary of Borgerhoutse Schaakkring vzw
District House Borgerhout, Moorkensplein 1, 2140 Antwerp
June 3, 2026
Steven Bellens 10.08.2026
Sunday, August 30th, the 19th Tonoli Memorial, the Belgian Rapid Chess Championship, will take place. More information and registration at…
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Steven Bellens 30.07.2026 3
The Royal Belgian Chess Federation (RBCF) is pleased to announce that the 2027 Belgian Standard Chess Championship has been officially…
Read more Steven Bellens 22.03.2026 6
This weekend, the website for the Belgian Championship 2026 launched. All practical details about the event, together with registration can…
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Steven Bellens 17.03.2025 4
We’ve put together a historic list of Belgian Chess Champions – Men, Women, and Youth—to the best of our knowledge. It’s an attempt to document the rich history of chess in Belgium, but we know there may be gaps or inaccuracies.
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Gaston Boutchon
20.06.2026 - 10:35Op het ogenblik dat ik de regels opstelde, leek me dit een goed idee, echter na alle argumenten die ik ondertussen gelezen heb, moet ik toegeven dat dit niet direct mijn beste idee was.
Toekomstgericht zal ik deze regels vermijden, voor dit kampioenschap zijn ze echter van toepassing.
Denis Luminet
16.06.2026 - 09:03“The Sofia rules apply, meaning that a game must have a minimum of 20 moves”
—> 1.f4 e6 2.g4 Qh4, so what?
—> 1.Nh3 Nc6 2.Ng1 Nb8 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Ng1 Ng8, the show must go on?
—> 1.e3 a5 2.Qh5 Ra6 3.Qxa5 h5 4.h4 Rah6 5.Qxc7 f6 6.Qxd7+ Kf7 7.Qxb7 Qd3 8.Qxb8 Qh7 9.Qxc8 Kg6 10.Qe6, what happens next?
Gaston Boutchon
16.06.2026 - 09:31When the game ends in checkmate, it just ends according to the rules (example 1).
Examples 2 and 3 are examples of unsportsmanlike behavior and could mean you get a warning from the arbiter and that the game itself might even be declared 0-0. If both players agree in advance to a draw, there are ways to do it without it being obvious, but watch out because this could mean the game might later be declared 0-0.
Denis Luminet
16.06.2026 - 10:00I’d rather say “players cannot agree to a draw in less than 20 moves without the consent of the arbiter” (Fide Laws of Chess, 9.1)
Now 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 e5 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.dxe5 Nxb5 7.a4 Nbd4 8.Nxd4 d5 9.exd6 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Qxd6 11.Qe4 Qe6 12.Qd4 Qd6 13.Qe4 Qe6 14.Qd4 Qd6… (Fide Laws of Chess, 9.2): is this obvious?
Gaston Boutchon
16.06.2026 - 10:08Of course, the idea that you can ask the arbiter to play a quick draw is possible, but I’m going to suggest to the team to always refuse this. You’re not playing a tournament just to make a quick draw, right? If there’s a good reason, of course we can’t refuse it. What counts as a good reason is hard to determine in advance, it will be handled pragmatically, but I hope we don’t have to deal with this too much.
Eddy Vanlerberghe
20.06.2026 - 05:51Personally I think that there are just too many (semi) good reasons why two players might want a quick draw, so I think that this rule should probably be abandoned.
Hervé Lagast
27.05.2026 - 09:09Gaston Boutchon
28.05.2026 - 09:27Hervé Lagast
28.05.2026 - 10:12