European Individual Chess Championships
The 11th European Individual Chess Championships start soon in Rijeka, Croatia. This annual event was established in the year 2000 under the auspices of the European Chess Union.
The format of the event is an 11-round Swiss, with the first round kicking off on 6 March and the last on the 17 March (with tie-breaks the following day if necessary).
There are men's and women's titles up for grabs and the total prize fund is a very impressive 120,000 euros for the men, and 60,000 euros for the women.
Over 400 men have registered and over 160 women are taking part, making it the biggest European Championships yet. Top seed is Zoltan Almasi from Hungary (pictured).
The top 20 men are:
| Seed | Name | Country | ELO |
| 1 | Almasi Zoltan | HUN | 2720 |
| 2 | Bacrot Etienne | FRA | 2714 |
| 3 | Movsesian Sergei | SVK | 2709 |
| 4 | Navara David | CZE | 2708 |
| 5 | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2708 |
| 6 | Motylev Alexander | RUS | 2705 |
| 7 | Adams Michael | ENG | 2704 |
| 8 | Tomashevsky Evgeny | RUS | 2701 |
| 9 | Alekseev Evgeny | RUS | 2700 |
| 10 | Jobava Baadur | GEO | 2695 |
| 11 | Naiditsch Arkadij | GER | 2691 |
| 12 | Akopian Vladimir | ARM | 2688 |
| 13 | Volokitin Andrei | UKR | 2687 |
| 14 | Bologan Viktor | MDA | 2684 |
| 15 | Caruana Fabiano | ITA | 2680 |
| 16 | Sargissian Gabriel | ARM | 2675 |
| 17 | Kurnosov Igor | RUS | 2674 |
| 18 | Areshchenko Alexander | UKR | 2670 |
| 19 | Fressinet Laurent | FRA | 2670 |
| 20 | Georgiev Kiril | BUL | 2669 |
The top 20 women are:
| Seed | Name | Country | ELO |
| 1 | Stefanova Antoaneta | BUL | 2555 |
| 2 | Kosintseva Nadezhda | RUS | 2554 |
| 3 | Muzychuk Anna | SLO | 2533 |
| 4 | Kosintseva Tatiana | RUS | 2524 |
| 5 | Cramling Pia | SWE | 2523 |
| 6 | Sebag Marie | FRA | 2506 |
| 7 | Mkrtchian Lilit | ARM | 2503 |
| 8 | Javakhishvili Lela | GEO | 2500 |
| 9 | Zhukova Natalia | UKR | 2492 |
| 10 | Danielian Elina | ARM | 2491 |
| 11 | Hoang Thanh Trang | HUN | 2487 |
| 12 | Paehtz Elisabeth | GER | 2486 |
| 13 | Cmilyte Viktorija | LTU | 2485 |
| 14 | Dzagnidze Nana | GEO | 2479 |
| 15 | Gaponenko Inna | UKR | 2472 |
| 16 | Melia Salome | GEO | 2467 |
| 17 | Socko Monika | POL | 2465 |
| 18 | Rajlich Iweta | POL | 2459 |
| 19 | Dembo Yelena | GRE | 2457 |
| 20 | Gunina Valentina | RUS | 2457 |
The official tournament website is well organised and promises live coverage of the event. Games start at 15:30 local time (CET) every day (14:30 GMT, 9:30 EST).
The historic city of Rijeka is heavily featured in this promotional video from the official site (commentary in Croatian). Good luck to all the participants!
