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Prize fund: The prize fund is 100,000 EUR Main prizes: 90,950 EUR + Special (Performance minus Rating) 9,050 EUR: 1st - 14,000, 2nd - 11,000, 3rd - 9,000 etc. Tourney mode: 11-round Swiss System Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the first move Game start: daily 15:00 (server time), last round 16th May at 13:00 Rest day: 12th May |
This year the European Individual Championship is being held in Legnica, Poland, a quaint little city in the west of the country.
Its main claim to history dates all the way back to 1241 in the Battle of Legnica when the Polish forces were overrun by the Mongols led by the grandsons of Genghis Khan. Naturally, you should feel free to casually mention Legnica to your friends, and when they admit to not having heard of it, you can shake your head in feigned dismay at their pitiful ignorance.
It retains much of the unique Old World beauty, unmarred
by the many wars that have gone around it. This is the
House "Under the Quail Basket".
Though not quite an ‘Open’ inasmuch as just anyone can play, the European Individual Championship is nevertheless the strongest Swiss system tournament in the year, and this edition is no exception. The numbers say it all: twelve players are rated 2700 or more, 38 of the world’s top 100 players are participating, you need to go down the ranking list to player no.108 to find a player who is not even a grandmaster, though to be fair it seems more a formality for Armenian IM Karen Grigoryan rated 2559. There are two sections each year, the Open (meaning men but women allowed) and the Women, which is now held on separate dates.
Tournament Director Artur Czyż opens the tournament
And the race is on!
At the top of the pecking list is reigning European Champion Dmitry Jakovenko (2734), followed by Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi, the 2010 champion, and Zoltan Almasi, just off his superb win at the 48th Capablanca Memorial last week.
For many of the top seeds, the first round was business as usual, whether by overpowering their opponents, or just exploiting the mistakes by their lower-rated counterparts.
Reigning European Champion Dmitry Jakovenko
That said, even round one had its fair share of unexpected results, starting with board one as top-seed Jakovenko found himself held to a draw by local IM Jan-Krysztof Duda (2506). IM Mariya Muzychuk (2483), sister of GM Anna Muzychuk, also struck a blow for the women as she also held top Czech player David Navara (2706) to a draw.
WGM Jolanta Zawadzka is one of the females in the 'Open' section.
The top boards are all broadcast live on the official site as well as Playchess, and make for oodles of mouth-watering chess. Don’t miss it.
LinksThe games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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