13th European Championship has started in Plovdiv

The 13th European Individual Championship is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from March 20th to 31st, 2012, with fifteen players rated over 2700. The rate of play is 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. Communication between players (draw offers) is forbidden until the 40th move has been played. In case of pre-arranged results the chief arbiter can decide that the result of the respective game is 0-0. The zero-tolerance rule is being applied (if a player is not at his board at the starting time of the round he or she automatically loses the game). Finally the ECU dress code rules will be applied at this competition.

The total prize fund is 100,000 Euros, with the top three taking 14,000, 11,000 and 9,000 Euros respectively. According to Bulgarian law all prizes are taxable (10%). If a prize winner is absent during the closing ceremony, the money prize will be reduced by 20% with a minimum of 100 Euros. In accordance with the ECU regulations, GMs, IMs, FMs (as well as WGMs, WIMs, WFMs) are required to pay the ECU a fee of 65 €/person, while other players are pay 130 € each. If the entry fee is not paid until end of round two, the participant will not be paired in subsequent rounds. There is also an organization fee of 100 EUR per player, which covers the transfer from and to Sofia airport (140 km) by bus, transfer from and to railway/bus station Plovdiv by bus, free water, coffee and tea for players in the playing hall during the rounds. Accommodation is provided on a half board basis (breakfast plus lunch or dinner) in the five-star Novotel Plovdiv at a price of 56 Euros for a single and 74 Euros for a double, with a 12 Euro FB supplement.

The playing hall during round one

The Championship started with a few surprises: second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew with white against GM Petar Drenchev, who is over 250 points below him on the Elo scale. GMs Riazantsev, Jobava, Grachev, Navara, Efimenko, Inarkiev and Vallejo suffered similar upsets. All eyes were on the boards of the two young stars, Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, 19, rated 2767 and currently number six in the world on the live rankings, and Anish Giri of the Netherlands, almost exactly two years his junior, rated 2717 and number 27 in the world. Their games have been annotated for us by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

Top seed Fabiano Caruana (right) at the start of his game

Note that on our JavaScript player you can use the cursor keys to play through the main line or click on moves to jump to them on the board. You can also click on the evaluation profile below the board to go straight to critical positions. The ChessBase training DVDs shown below the evaluation profile teach you more about the opening played in the game. The games will be more extensively analysed for the next issue of ChessBase Magazine.

Round two will bring us two interesting encounters between youngsters. Caruana will have white against Hungarian GM Tamas Banusz, who is 22 and rated 2583, while Giri has black against 15-year-old Ukrainian GM Illya Nyzhnyk. Ilya gained international attention when he won the B Group of the 2007 Moscow Open at the age of ten, with a nearly flawless score of 8.5/9 and a 2633 performance. He went on to become the eleventh youngest GM in history (Giri was the 15th youngest).

Results of round one

• Click to view results of all 150 games

Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and some 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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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