European Team Championship Under Way in Warsaw
On Friday the European Team Championship for men ('open') and women took off in Warsaw, Poland. 38 teams in the open group and 32 teams in the women's group are playing a 9-round Swiss and many top players have travelled to the Polish capital.
The European Team Championship is organized by the Polish Chess Federation under the auspices of the European Chess Union. The event takes place Novewmber 7-18, 2013 is the Novotel Warszawa Centrum in Warsaw, Poland.
Each national federation affiliated to the European Chess Union (ECU) has the right to enter one team of four players and one reserve in the open competition and one team of four female players and one reserve in the women’s competition.
The tournament is a 9-round Swiss. The time control is 90 miniutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment for every move played starting from the first move. Players may only agree to a draw after the 40th move has been made by black. The zero–tolerance rule will be applied for each round.
An huge number of world class players have gathered in Warsaw. The list in the open section has Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Peter Svidler, Etienne Bacrot, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri and Alexander Morozevich.
The women's section doesn't make a bad impression either with Nana Dzagnidze, Kateryna Lagno, Bela Khotenashvili, Hoang Thanh Trang, Alexander Kosteniuk, Marie Sebag, Valentina Gunina, Viktorija Cmilyte, Natalija Pogonina, Antoaneta Stefanova and Anna Ushenina.
The top seeded team from Russia started with a solid 2.5-1.5 win over Serbia, with Alexander Morozevich deciding the match:
The match between Armenia and Bulgaria saw four draws, including the absolute top clash between Aronian and Topalov. A slightly disappointing start for the second seeded Armenians.
The following game was really crazy and part of the match Sweden vs Azerbaijan.
There was a surprising and disappointing start for both Dutch teams. In the women's section the loss against Belgium was quite embarrassing; in the men's section, they lost to Austria due to the following game:
