Meanwhile, ECC & Essent started
On this second rest day of the World Championship match, we have time to look around and yes, we have to admit that there's more than just the Anand-Kramnik match! We'll focus on two events that started last Friday: the European Club Cup and the Essent Tournament.Let's begin with the smallest first: the Essent Tournament, which takes place October 17-25 in Hoogeveen, The Netherlands. This year already for the 12th time there's a Crown Group consisting of four players, who play their games with chess boards and pieces of glass. The tournament once started with the formula "(former) top player / the world junior champion / the best Dutch player / the best female player" but in recent years it's been more and more difficult to keep this tradition. Last year Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored his second win in Hoogeveen, finishing ahead of Ponomariov, Van Wely and Andriasian. 
The successor of Andriasian at the World Junior Championship was GM Ahmed Adly (2586) and despite the fact that there's already a new World Junior Champion (GM Abhijeet Gupta, who did travel to Hoogeveen this year to play in the open tournament!), it was Egypt's number one who was invited to the crown group this year, together with GMs Ivan Sokolov (2650), Jan Smeets (2604) and Marie Sebag (2533).Like every year, the four players play a small round-robin of just six rounds, played on October 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 and 25. Results of the first round: Sokolov-Sebag 1-0, Smeets-Adly 1/2. Alongside the Crown Group there are amateur and youth groups, and last but not least a strong, nine-round Swiss event with 19 GMs and 13 IMs. Keeping another tradition, this group is a nice mixture of experience (like GMs Romanishin and Hort) and rising stars (like 13-year-old IM Roy Robson or last year's surprising winner GM Eltaj Safarli). Regular ChessVibes contributors IM Yochanan Afek and IM Merijn van Delft are participating as well. More info at the tournament website. 
The European Club Cup 2008 (24th European Club Cup for Men, 13th European Club Cup for Women) takes place October 16-24 in Kallithea, Greece. 85 teams from 37 European Federations (64 men & 21 women) have registered and many big names are playing in Greece in the coming two weeks, such as Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Shirov, Svidler, Aronian, Koneru, Xie Jun and Stefanova.The championship is a 7-round Swiss event (17-23 October, no rest day) and obviously in the first two rounds there were many 6-0, 5.5-0.5 or 5-1 results. We'll certainly be covering this event again at a later stage, but for now there are two news facts that caught our eye.Firstly, starting from this year, there's a dress code, an idea we quite like:ECU and Organizing Committee encourages all the teams in a same sports appearance during the games. The T-shirts can be made by teams (in case there are not ready from previous events) or can be ordered from the Organizing Committee in a reasonable package price.
FRONT SIDE:
A. Number of board (Basic list)
B. Team logo
C. Team nameBACK SIDE
A. Player name
B. Competition logo or sponsorThe proposal for the Printing
Secondly, there was some disappointing news for the fans of Fabiano Caruana, and especially for Caruana himself: shortly after he had arrived in Greece, he was told he wasn't allowed to play! How could this happen?Well, it comes down to the simple fact that Spanish champion Linex-Magic hadn't done their homework properly. They had invited Caruana to play for their team at the European Club Cup, but according to rules of the European Chess Union, a player participating in the ECC should have played at least two games in the national or regional club competitions.Chief arbiter Dirk de Ridder and ECU president Boris Kutin decided to let the team captains vote on the issue, but since three captains voted against, Caruana will have to spend his next two weeks in the swimming pool. (In an interview he stated that he will stay to support his team.)Later more on both events!Links:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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Secondly, there was some disappointing news for the fans of Fabiano Caruana, and especially for Caruana himself: shortly after he had arrived in Greece, he was told he wasn't allowed to play! How could this happen?Well, it comes down to the simple fact that Spanish champion Linex-Magic hadn't done their homework properly. They had invited Caruana to play for their team at the European Club Cup, but according to rules of the European Chess Union, a player participating in the ECC should have played at least two games in the national or regional club competitions.Chief arbiter Dirk de Ridder and ECU president Boris Kutin decided to let the team captains vote on the issue, but since three captains voted against, Caruana will have to spend his next two weeks in the swimming pool. (In an 
