THE 9TH EDITION of the World Senior Chess Championships is currently underway in Gladenbach, Germany. This tournament used to be more of a social event than a real chess competition, but lately more and more strong players over the age of 60 have started to take part in this annual event.

In fact, one of the few "senior citizen" GM's who has yet to compete in this tournament, is Viktor Korchnoi. And that's probably just as well, since he's still strong enough to take on most of his contemporaries in a simul!

Another name missing from lists so far, is Bent Larsen of Denmark. The Great Dane hasn't been able to maintain his playing strength in the same way Korchnoi has, but he'd still be one of the heavy favourites if he decided to take part.

OK, let us now turn our attention to this year's field, which features 9 Grandmasters, 5 International Masters and 13 FIDE Masters amongst the 192 players in the open section.

After six rounds, defending champion Vladimir Bagirov of Latvia is tied for first with Germany's Heinrich Fronczek on 5.5 points. The Latvian GM is ranked second in this year's event, and I wouldn't be surprised if he became the first player to win the Senior title twice. Bagirov still makes regular contributions to modern opening theory, and he has managed to keep his energetic style intact: