Two top events about to start
Less than a week after the end of the World Cup two new top events are about to start. On Sunday the first round of the European Club Cup will be played while on Monday the first round of the Grand Slam Masters Final is scheduled.
European Club Cup
The 27th European Club Cup for Men and 16th European Club Cup for Women will be held September 24th - October 2nd in Rogaska Slatina, a famous spa in Slovenia, located about 100 km from the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, about 100 km from the Croatian capital Zagreb and about 100 km from Graz, Austria. It is organized by the European Chess Union, the Slovenian Chess Federation and Sahohlacnik Maribor (technical organizer). The Championship will be held in Grand Hotel Rogaska Slatina (Crystal hall and Music hall) and in the Convention Center of Hotel Sava Rogaška Slatina.
The Championship will be 7 rounds, played following the Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules. The time control will be 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. The tournament will follow the 'zero-tolerance rule' which means that players are not allowed to arrive at the board after the start of the round. The teams shall be composed of six players.
Participation is open to:
- Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov (Russia), the current cup holder in the men's competition.
- Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo, the current cup holder in the women's competition.
- Two clubs per federation in which a national team championship is organised one club per federation in which no national team championship is organised.
- Third club is allowed to that federation(s) in which a national team championship is organised provided that at least 20 grandmasters and/or players with a FIDE-rating over 2600 have participated in this national team championship.
- One additional club (only in man competition) for the federations which are ranked in the first five places of the federation ranking list. For the competition 2011 the federations are Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Germany, Israel.
Each federation has to pay an entry fee of 300 EUR for the participating club for the men's competition and 200 EUR per participating club for the women's competition. The first team prize in the men's is 12,400 Euro and in the women's 4,000.
The Championship will be incredibly strong. For example, here are the line-ups of the strongest ten teams:
| Bo. | Ti. | Name | Rating | Fed. |
| 1 SOCAR | Rtg-Ø:2720 | |||
| 1 | GM | Grischuk Alexander | 2746 | RUS |
| 2 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2700 | ISR |
| 3 | GM | Volokitin Andrei | 2683 | UKR |
| 4 | GM | Kasimdzhanov Rustam | 2669 | UZB |
| 5 | GM | Radjabov Teimour | 2744 | AZE |
| 6 | GM | Safarli Eltaj | 2622 | AZE |
| 7 | GM | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | 2765 | AZE |
| 8 | GM | Mamedov Rauf | 2679 | AZE |
| 2 SHSM-64 | Rtg-Ø:2708 | |||
| 1 | GM | Gelfand Boris | 2746 | ISR |
| 2 | GM | Wang Hao | 2718 | CHN |
| 3 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2711 | ITA |
| 4 | GM | Giri Anish | 2701 | NED |
| 5 | GM | Riazantsev Alexander | 2688 | RUS |
| 6 | GM | Potkin Vladimir | 2682 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Grachev Boris | 2680 | RUS |
| 8 | GM | Najer Evgeniy | 2643 | RUS |
| 3 Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov | Rtg-Ø:2699 | |||
| 1 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | 2697 | UKR |
| 2 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | 2715 | UKR |
| 3 | GM | Roiz Michael | 2669 | ISR |
| 4 | GM | Tomashevsky Evgeny | 2707 | RUS |
| 5 | GM | Alekseev Evgeny | 2659 | RUS |
| 6 | GM | Andreikin Dmitry | 2696 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Ni Hua | 2662 | CHN |
| 8 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | 2711 | RUS |
| 4 Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation | Rtg-Ø:2698 | |||
| 1 | GM | Svidler Peter | 2739 | RUS |
| 2 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | 2733 | RUS |
| 3 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2700 | ARM |
| 4 | GM | Efimenko Zahar | 2706 | UKR |
| 5 | GM | Zvjaginsev Vadim | 2659 | RUS |
| 6 | GM | Khairullin Ildar | 2649 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | 2632 | RUS |
| 5 OSG Baden Baden | Rtg-Ø:2695 | |||
| 1 | GM | Adams Michael | 2715 | ENG |
| 2 | GM | Shirov Alexei | 2714 | ESP |
| 3 | GM | Bacrot Etienne | 2710 | FRA |
| 4 | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | 2706 | GER |
| 5 | GM | Nielsen Peter Heine | 2681 | DEN |
| 6 | GM | Gustafsson Jan | 2634 | GER |
| 7 | GM | Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | 2641 | ROU |
| 6 Ugra | Rtg-Ø:2693 | |||
| 1 | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2736 | RUS |
| 2 | GM | Malakhov Vladimir | 2706 | RUS |
| 3 | GM | Dreev Aleksey | 2711 | RUS |
| 4 | GM | Rublevsky Sergei | 2684 | RUS |
| 5 | GM | Zhigalko Sergei | 2689 | BLR |
| 6 | GM | Sjugirov Sanan | 2629 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Kabanov Nikolai | 2520 | RUS |
| 8 | GM | Pridorozhni Aleksei | 2550 | RUS |
| 7 Tomsk-400 | Rtg-Ø:2691 | |||
| 1 | GM | Ponomariov Ruslan | 2764 | UKR |
| 2 | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2685 | RUS |
| 3 | GM | Areshchenko Alexander | 2682 | UKR |
| 4 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | 2679 | RUS |
| 5 | GM | Bologan Viktor | 2678 | MDA |
| 6 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | 2656 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Kurnosov Igor | 2633 | RUS |
| 8 A DAN DZO & PGMB | Rtg-Ø:2654 | |||
| 1 | GM | Jobava Baadur | 2713 | GEO |
| 2 | GM | Korobov Anton | 2671 | UKR |
| 3 | GM | Azarov Sergei | 2648 | BLR |
| 4 | GM | Kryvoruchko Yuriy | 2652 | UKR |
| 5 | GM | Guseinov Gadir | 2625 | AZE |
| 6 | GM | Savchenko Boris | 2615 | RUS |
| 7 | GM | Zubarev Alexander | 2597 | UKR |
| 8 | GM | Zherebukh Yaroslav | 2590 | UKR |
| 9 Mika Yerevan | Rtg-Ø:2623 | |||
| 1 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | 2663 | ARM |
| 2 | GM | Pashikian Arman | 2616 | ARM |
| 3 | GM | Petrosian Tigran L | 2636 | ARM |
| 4 | GM | Andriasian Zaven | 2616 | ARM |
| 5 | GM | Grigoryan Avetik | 2608 | ARM |
| 6 | GM | Melkumyan Hrant | 2600 | ARM |
| 7 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | 2556 | ARM |
| 10 G-Team Novy Bor | Rtg-Ø:2615 | |||
| 1 | GM | Wojtaszek Radoslaw | 2683 | POL |
| 2 | GM | Laznicka Viktor | 2681 | CZE |
| 3 | GM | Hracek Zbynek | 2624 | CZE |
| 4 | GM | Bartel Mateusz | 2611 | POL |
| 5 | GM | Markos Jan | 2585 | SVK |
| 6 | GM | Cvek Robert | 2506 | CZE |
| 7 | GM | Haba Petr | 2504 | CZE |
| 8 | GM | Kalod Radek | 2500 | CZE |
Grand Slam Masters Final
The 4th edition of the Grand Slam Masters Final runs from September 25th until October 11th and will be played in two different venues. The first leg of this double round-robin event will be played in Sao Paulo, Brazil from 25th of September to 1st of October, and the second leg will be played in Bilbao, Spain from 6th to 11th of October. In both venues, the Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo and the Bilbao Alhóndiga, the traditional big class cube will be installed, inside which Magnus Carlsen, Vishy Anand, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Paco Vallejo will play a double round-robin.
The schedule looks as follows:
- Round 1: September 26th , Sao Paulo.
- Round 2: September 27th, Sao Paulo.
- 28th September rest day.
- Round 3: September 29th, Sao Paulo.
- Round 4: September 30th, Sao Paulo.
- Round 5 and closing ceremony: October 1st , Sao Paulo.
- October 5th presentation in Bilbao.
- Round 6: October 6th , Bilbao.
- Round 7: October 7th , Bilbao.
- Round 8: October 8th , Bilbao.
- October 9th rest day,
- Round 9: October 10th , Bilbao.
- Round 10, October 11th , Bilbao.
The rate of play will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 60 minutes to finish the game, with 10 seconds increment per move from move number 41. Players are not allowed to agree to a draw without the arbiter’s permission. In case both players request it to him, the arbiter will make his decision after consulting with the technical assistant: GM Jose Luis Fernandez. The football scoring system will be used: 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 for a loss.
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. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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