European Club Cup 2010
The 2010 European Club Cup is underway in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The team competition runs from 17-23 October and features more than 20 players rated above 2700 Elo, with the top rated participant being current world #3, Lev Aronian.
More than 50 men's teams and over 20 women's teams are competing, and although the clubs must be affiliated to the European Chess Union to take part, their members can be drawn from anywhere in the world - Gata Kamsky is playing, for example.
Team SOCAR Azerbaijan are the rating favourites (Mamedyarov, Grischuk, Shirov, Radjabov, Vachier-Lagrave, Kasimdzhanov, Mamedov, Safarli). A list of all the teams and their players can be found here.
A women's team competition will also take place, alongside the main event. All games start at 15:00 local time in Plovidv, Bulgaria. More information and live game coverage can be found at the official website.
Silvio Danailov (ECU President) and Kirsan Illyumzhinov (FIDE President) at the opening ceremony
The top players:
| Aronian Levon | ARM | 2783 |
| Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2761 |
| Grischuk Alexander | RUS | 2760 |
| Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2756 |
| Ivanchuk Vassily | UKR | 2754 |
| Gelfand Boris | ISR | 2751 |
| Shirov Alexei | ESP | 2749 |
| Radjabov Teimour | AZE | 2748 |
| Karjakin Sergey | RUS | 2747 |
| Wang Yue | CHN | 2732 |
| Svidler Peter | RUS | 2731 |
| Adams Michael | ENG | 2728 |
| Jakovenko Dmitry | RUS | 2726 |
| Malakhov Vladimir | RUS | 2725 |
| Wang Hao | CHN | 2724 |
| Movsesian Sergei | SVK | 2723 |
| Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2721 |
| Fressinet Laurent | FRA | 2718 |
| Jobava Baadur | GEO | 2710 |
| Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2709 |
| Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2706 |
| Kamsky Gata | USA | 2705 |
| Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2701 |
| Caruana Fabiano | ITA | 2700 |
Picture from the ECC2010 website gallery
