The Prague International Chess Festival, abbreviated as PICF, is an annual chess tournament that takes place in Prague, Czech Republic, since 2019.
It consists of several separate groups, including Masters, Challengers, Futures, held with the round-robin system, and an open tournament, held with the Swiss system, accompanied by a series of side tournaments.[1] The winner of Challengers group receives an invitation to the Masters group the following year, while the winner of the open tournament receives an invitation to the Challengers group. The festival is organized by the Nový Bor Chess Club and the playing venue is the Don Giovanni Hotel Prague.[2]
The average rating of the Masters group is usually around 2700 and the average rating of the Challengers group is about 2550. The tournament has featured a number of participants of the Candidates Tournament, including Alireza Firouzja, Richárd Rapport, Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh D, R Praggnanandhaa, Wang Hao, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Nijat Abasov, the World Chess Championship 2012 challenger Boris Gelfand and Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun.
In each group there is a couple of Czech players nominated by the Chess Federation of the Czech Republic.[3]
Winners of the Masters group:
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019 | ||
| 2 | 2020 | ||
| 3 | 2021 | ||
| 4 | 2022 | ||
| 5 | 2023 | ||
| 6 | 2024 | [4] |
Winners of the Challengers group:
| Year | Winner(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019 | ||
| 2 | 2020 | ||
| 2021 | cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||
| 3 | 2022 | ||
| 4 | 2023 | ||
| 5 | 2024 |