The 10th European Individual Chess Championships is underway in Budva, Montenegro. This 11-round Swiss competition is open to men and women, although there is a separate Women's Individual European Championship also underway in St. Petersburg, Russia. The top seeds from the 'men's' event are:
| 1 |
Francisco Vallejo Pons |
ESP |
2702 |
| 2 |
Vladimir Akopian |
ARM |
2700 |
| 3 |
Arkadij Naiditsch |
GER |
2693 |
| 4 |
Vladimir Malakhov |
RUS |
2692 |
| 5 |
Alexey Dreev |
RUS |
2688 |
| 6 |
Viktor Bologan |
MDA |
2687 |
| 7 |
Nikita Vitiugov |
RUS |
2687 |
| 8 |
Sergei Tiviakov |
NED |
2685 |
| 9 |
Ivan Cheparinov |
BUL |
2679 |
| 10 |
Alexander Motylev |
RUS |
2676 |
The first prize is € 15,000, second € 12,000 and third € 10,000. Sergei Tiviakov (pictured) is the defending champion. Yelena Dembo is one of the few women taking part, and with an Elo of 2456 she is ranked 166th in a field of more than 300 players.
The top ten seeds from the Women's championship are:
| 1 |
Anna Muzychuk |
SLO |
2540 |
| 2 |
Nana Dzagnidze |
GEO |
2518 |
| 3 |
Ketevan Arakamia-Grant |
SCO |
2500 |
| 4 |
Anna Ushenina |
UKR |
2499 |
| 5 |
Tatiana Kosintseva |
RUS |
2497 |
| 6 |
Natalia Zhukova |
UKR |
2490 |
| 7 |
Kateryna Lahno |
UKR |
2488 |
| 8 |
Nadezhda Kosintseva |
RUS |
2486 |
| 9 |
Thanh Trang Hoang |
HUN |
2483 |
| 10 |
Natalija Pogonina |
RUS |
2467 |
The strength of the women's championship has been affected somewhat by an unfortunate scheduling clash with the first event of FIDE's inagural Women's Grand Prix. The full line-up of this round-robin event is:
| 1 |
Humpy Koneru |
IND |
2621 |
| 2 |
Hou Yifan |
CHN |
2571 |
| 3 |
Antoaneta Stefanova |
BUL |
2557 |
| 4 |
Pia Cramling |
SWE |
2548 |
| 5 |
Marie Sebag |
FRA |
2529 |
| 6 |
Maia Chiburdanidze |
GEO |
2516 |
| 7 |
Martha L. Fierro Baquero |
ECU |
2403 |
| 8 |
Zhu Chen |
QTR |
2496 |
| 9 |
Elina Danielian |
ARM |
2496 |
| 10 |
Shen Yang |
CHN |
2448 |
| 11 |
Zeinab Mamedjarova |
AZE |
2362 |
| 12 |
Betül Cemre Yildiz |
TUR |
2214 |
Three games from the hundreds already played are below. More games and pictures can be found by visiting the official websites at the links given above.