Many of Europe’s strongest grandmasters will compete next month in Jerusalem, Israel. Officially it’s called the “European Individual Chess Championship.” It will be held in Jerusalem from February 23 to March 8, and is organized by the Israel Chess Federation and the Municipality of Jerusalem, under the auspices of the European Chess Union.The tournament will be held at the Jerusalem Ramada Hotel, located at Ruppin Bridge at Herzl Blvd. This is also the official accommodating hotel.
The 2015 European Championship is open to all players representing 54 chess federations in the European Chess Union, regardless of their title or rating. It will be a very strong and big open tournament, not least because the European Championship is a qualification event for the next FIDE World Cup, to be held later this year in Baku, Azerbaijan. Currently nearly 200 players from 29 countries have confirmed their participation with not less than 148 of them are titled players of which 101 carrying the supreme chess title of a grandmaster! 6 of those grandmasters belong to the prestigious world elite group having a rating of more than 2700. Israel’s No.2, Maxim Rodshtein is leading the growing group of local participants which will naturally be the largest in the field. There is a generous prize fund of 120,000 Euros at stake but not less important: The top 23 finishers will qualify to the prestigious world cup which is a higher qualifier in the world championship cycle. You may find the updated list of participants here: http://www.eicc2015.com/participants/
At the same time It’s also a long open tournament: not nine, not 10 but 11 rounds will be played providing the participants more opportunities than usual to score norms for international titles. The time control is the standard FIDE rate of play: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
2015 European Championship | Schedule
Recently the organizers added a prize fund of 10,000 Euro for chess players above the age of 50. On top of that, there is another 10,000 Euro (20 additional prizes) dedicated exclusively to premium members of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP).
2015 European Championship | Prizes
Participating in the European Championship is a unique chance to combine chess with a visit to the 3,000-year-old, holy city of Jerusalem.
It is also a city with a long chess tradition, as Yochanan Afek writes on the official website
There has been chess life in the Israeli capital for almost a whole century. In fact it was the cradle of chess in Israel (or Palestine-Eretz Israel before 1948) in the beginning of the 20th century. The country’s first chess club was the International Chess Club founded in Jerusalem in 1918 by Sir Ronald Storrs, the first military governor of Jerusalem and Judea following the conquest of Palestine by the British army under the command of General Allenby. Ever since this first initiative Chess life in the city has never ceased for nearly 100 years. The last decade however has been its best period with the appearance of the prosperous Jeruchess club. You may read all about it in Yochanan Afek’s pair of articles “Chess in Jerusalem- a brief journey” and “Jeruchess- the revival” on the official website www.eicc2015.com .
Boris Gelfand simultaneous exhibition in Jerusalem municipality hall
As a chess fan you’ll be able to follow the tournament from home. Chess.com will be providing the live show (video stream) for the official website as well as Chess.com/TV, with commentary by GM Alon Greenfeld and GM Ronen Har-Zvi during all 11 rounds!
