The Maltese Chess Championship is the yearly

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

championship organised by the Malta Chess Federation in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

which determines the national champion. Initially it consisted of an Open Championship. Now the National championships also include the Junior Championships, the Rapid Championships and the Blitz Championships. The current open National Champion is David Cilia Vincenti. Jack Mizzi holds the other 3 National titles: National Junior Champion, National Rapid Champion and National Blitz Champion.

Malta Open Championships

The first recorded open championship was held in 1923 and was won by Oscar Serracino-Inglott. Harry Camilleri won the championship a record eighteen times, first in 1965 and last in 2005, at the age of 72. The current Malta Open Chess Champion is David Cilia Vincenti.

Candidates phase

To qualify for the Final phase of the Open Championship a player needs to have either placed first or second in the previous year or have placed in the top N of the Candidates phase of that year. N is determined by the number of participants.

Preliminaries Phase

To qualify for the Candidates, a player must have reached an established Elo rating, currently 1700, or have placed in the top N of the Preliminaries. The youngest player to have won the Preliminaries in Malta is Jack Mizzi.

Past Winners of Final Stage

Malta Rapid Championships

Since 2017, the Malta Chess Federation started organising the Malta National Rapid Championship. In 2021 an online Rapid Gran Prix was held and this was won by Jack Mizzi. The 2022 Malta Rapid champion was Jack Mizzi. :

Malta Blitz Championships

Since 2017, the Malta Chess Federation started organising the Malta National Blitz Championship. In 2021, an online Blitz Gran Prix was held and this was won by Jack Mizzi. The 2022 and 2023 Malta Blitz champion was Jack Mizzi. Jack Mizzi set a new Malta Chess record when he won the 2023 Blitz championship with a perfect 9-0 score. :

Malta Junior championships

The first Malta Junior Championship was held in 1946 but the Malta Chess Federation only has records since 1987. The current Malta junior champion is Jack Mizzi. :