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Every year, our friends from the Association of Czech Lockpickers, organize an international lockpicking championship for pickers from all over the world!
I've been there in the past and I had a lot of fun. Friendly people, very good pickers and so many nice locks to play with. The championship lasts 3 whole days, on September 13-15, 2019, in Nová Živohošť (45 min by car from Prague). This year, as usual, there will be picking disciplines: cylinders, padlocks, freestyle, blitz. And for the first time there will be also cylinders impressioning and safe opening (both combination and keyed locks).

On their website you can find all the info about the event.

I wish to see you there!

Cheers

Looking forward to see how many people participate in the safe stuff and how long it takes them to open the locks.

It looks like they have 60 minutes to open safe locks. It would of been great if it was here in the US. Not that I would enter but watching that kind of competition would be excellent. Go get them guys

The safe key lock competition is IMHO probably mostly a competition of tools. Of the 7 locks I would get with a Hobbs' hook open: 2 much faster than 30 minutes, 3 perhaps slightly faster than 30 minutes and 2 most probably not within 30 minutes. When I use the probably most used commercially available decoder for the last 2 locks then they would be open in under 30 minutes. The handling of the decoder could be improved for quicker openings and a complete own decoder design could be built. Of course training is also important.

I wonder what "Contestants may compete individually or in pairs." means.

For the keyed safes competition, 2 people can compete as one team. It is up to them how they do it. One may be opening some locks, the other one the rest. Or perhaps one of them can be opening everything and the other person can be just assisting, building the key or whatever based on tools used.

There are a couple of reasons for this:
This way, more people can compete, we have limited capacity for this competition.
Here in the Czech Republic is quite common that 2 safe technicians work together on a safe. I am expecting there will be two such Czech teams there.
Not everyone has tools for every lock.

This is somewhat unique and experimental competition format but we believe it could be very interesting. Next year the safecracking event will be separate from the lockpicking championship so that there is more time for manipulation. This year, the manipulation is just one 60 minute round, first to open wins. For keyed locks, we have at least 5 hours so there will be many 30 rounds.



Watching is not an option, unfortunately, for the safe locks. People are protective about their tools and methods. You could watch the lockpicking competitions, though it is much better experience to participate in the competition. All skill levels (beginners up to some of the best in the world) are going to compete.
A few years back, shortly after I had bought my first set of picks and opened some practice locks I went to see this championship. The organizers were nice and recommended me to try it so I participated in the competition. I opened my first real locks there and had a great time. The system is such that even if you do not advance to the finals, you have a chance to try to open a lot of lock. I highly recommend this event.

I really hope some people from the US can make it this year. The flights are not that expensive anymore and it is a great opportunity for visiting Europe.

M4estro, if I would compete some open questions to me would be:

1) How thick is the mounting setup? I.e. how long do the tools have to be?
2) What material is the mounting? Steel or plastic? I.e. do magnets stick to it?
3) I assume it is allowed, but it can't hurt to clarify: Contact microphone?

Sure, contact microphone is allowed. All nondestructive tools are allowed for keyed locks.
Some wooden boxes are being made. I haven't seen them yet but I am pretty sure the mounting layer will be very thin, there should be no problems with tool length. Since wood is used, magnets won't stick but if this is important for you, we can perhaps arrange it and put some metal inside so that you can mount your tool/microphone.

I like to use the Fornat M410 safe. It is pretty light and supports a standard lock mount.

Yes, that would be nice. We have a couple of small safes like that, but we want all the locks mounted the same way. Buying 14 small safes is quite expensive, we want to keep the costs as low as possible. The wooden boxes/frames will be probably donated by one of our members for free.

Results of that event:
http://lockpicking.team/en/2019/09/22/1 ... -memorial/

That nobody got open their combination lock within 60 minutes is a bit disappointing.

Disappointing is an understatement. I'll never forgive myself for not being able to open the lock. I found my first gate in less than 20 minutes. It was wheel #3. Then my strategy didn't go very well. Anyway, towards the end of the competition I failed to brute force wheel #2, otherwise I could have opened it!

The locks were very precise: even after the competition ended and we were given the correct combination, I had to dial it three times before being able to open the lock.

I had fun anyway

Were they R6730s?

I'm not sure. From the pictures I took those were 6700. Here they are. Dunno why the second picture is upside down LOL

6700 is a catch-all. I think even the 6630 has this cover.

Your problem opening with the correct combination might result in the LG dial, which can have a slightly different distance of opening and change index then the S&G dial.

Did all locks have the same combination?

Yes, they did have the same combination.