What also starts tomorrow...
Besides the first Grand Prix tournament in Baku, the European Individual Championship also starts tomorrow. With pretty strong chess players too.The European Championships for men and women will take place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 20 April to 4 May. Both are 11-round Swisses, with 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes to end the game, plus 30 seconds increment. There is one rest day (April 28). In addition to the championship medals, players fight for 22 tickets for the 2009 World Cup for men and 13 spots for the Women World Championship.The total prize fund is 140,000 Euros (100,000 for the men's section; 40,000 for the women's section). In the men's section, the first prize is 15,000 Euros; the best women will win 6,000 Euros.The last round is on May 2, and if it's necessary to determine the champion, medalists and qualifiers, tie-breaks will be played on May 3rd.
Plovdiv, BulgariaIn the men's tournament a total of 332 players have entered; in the women's tournament 165 will play. Apparently both title holders, Tkachiev and T. Kosintseva, are not playing. Top 50 of both lists:
SNo. Name IRtg FED 1 GM Movsesian Sergei 2695 SVK 2 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2684 ESP 3 GM Volokitin Andrei 2684 UKR 4 GM Almasi Zoltan 2674 HUN 5 GM Akopian Vladimir 2673 ARM 6 GM Fedorchuk Sergey A 2671 UKR 7 GM Motylev Alexander 2666 RUS 8 GM Bologan Viktor 2665 MDA 9 GM Georgiev Kiril 2665 BUL 10 GM Nikolic Predrag 2665 BIH 11 GM Timofeev Artyom 2664 RUS 12 GM Efimenko Zahar 2660 UKR 13 GM Roiz Michael 2659 ISR 14 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2658 RUS 15 GM Fressinet Laurent 2656 FRA 16 GM Areshchenko Alexander 2650 UKR 17 GM Moiseenko Alexander 2650 UKR 18 GM Ivanisevic Ivan 2649 SRB 19 GM Sakaev Konstantin 2649 RUS 20 GM Baklan Vladimir 2647 UKR 21 GM Socko Bartosz 2644 POL 22 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2643 ARM 23 GM Miroshnichenko Evgenij 2642 UKR 24 GM Beliavsky Alexander G 2641 SLO 25 GM Predojevic Borki 2641 BIH 26 GM Fridman Daniel 2640 GER 27 GM Delchev Aleksander 2639 BUL 28 GM Riazantsev Alexander 2638 RUS 29 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2635 GEO 30 GM Tiviakov Sergei 2635 NED 31 GM Nepomniachtchi Ian 2634 RUS 32 GM Volkov Sergey 2633 RUS 33 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime 2632 FRA 34 GM Asrian Karen 2630 ARM 35 GM Smirin Ilia 2630 ISR 36 GM Solak Dragan 2630 SRB 37 GM Sutovsky Emil 2630 ISR 38 GM Nielsen Peter Heine 2629 DEN 39 GM Tregubov Pavel V 2629 RUS 40 GM Istratescu Andrei 2628 ROU 41 GM Khalifman Alexander 2628 RUS 42 GM Kobalia Mikhail 2627 RUS 43 GM Najer Evgeniy 2627 RUS 44 GM Rodshtein Maxim 2626 ISR 45 GM Guseinov Gadir 2625 AZE 46 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2625 POL 47 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2624 GER 48 GM Caruana Fabiano 2620 ITA 49 GM Miton Kamil 2620 POL 50 GM Mamedov Rauf 2617 AZE
SNo. Name IRtg FED 1 GM Cramling Pia 2539 SWE 2 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2538 BUL 3 IM Socko Monika 2505 POL 4 IM Muzychuk Anna 2486 SLO 5 GM Lahno Kateryna 2479 UKR 6 IM Danielian Elina 2479 ARM 7 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 2477 HUN 8 IM Ushenina Anna 2474 UKR 9 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2470 RUS 10 IM Cmilyte Viktorija 2466 LTU 11 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2466 GEO 12 GM Peng Zhaoqin 2455 NED 13 IM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan 2452 SCO 14 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2450 UKR 15 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2449 GER 16 IM Dzagnidze Nana 2443 GEO 17 IM Skripchenko Almira 2443 FRA 18 IM Ovod Evgenija 2437 RUS 19 IM Bojkovic Natasa 2434 SRB 20 IM Dembo Yelena 2429 GRE 21 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina 2421 RUS 22 IM Matveeva Svetlana 2420 RUS 23 IM Peptan Corina-Isabela 2415 ROU 24 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2413 ARM 25 IM Vajda Szidonia 2413 HUN 26 WGM Melia Salome 2413 GEO 27 IM Tairova Elena 2412 RUS 28 IM Rajlich Iweta 2411 POL 29 IM Atalik Ekaterina 2409 TUR 30 IM Lomineishvili Maia 2400 GEO 31 WGM Zawadzka Jolanta 2397 POL 32 IM Collas Silvia 2395 FRA 33 IM Moser Eva 2395 AUT 34 IM Vasilevich Irina 2395 RUS 35 IM Houska Jovanka 2390 ENG 36 IM Kachiani-Gersinska Ketino 2388 GER 37 WGM Muzychuk Mariya 2387 UKR 38 IM Repkova Eva 2381 SVK 39 IM Ciuksyte Dagne 2380 ENG 40 IM Turova Irina 2380 RUS 41 WGM Stepovaia Tatiana 2378 RUS 42 WGM Foisor Sabina-Francesca 2375 ROU 43 WGM Cosma Elena Luminita 2374 ROU 44 WGM Kovanova Baira 2372 RUS 45 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2371 GEO 46 IM Foisor Cristina Adela 2364 ROU 47 WGM Chelushkina Irina 2363 SRB 48 WGM Zimina Olga 2363 ITA 49 IM Vasilevich Tatjana 2360 UKR 50 WIM Molchanova Tatjana 2359 RUS
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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