European Women’s Championship to kick off in Montenegro

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
3/18/2023 – The 23rd edition of the European Women’s Individual Chess Championship will take place on March 17-30 at the Hotel Palas in Petrovac, Montenegro. The tournament grants 9 spots for the next Women’s World Cup. The top five seeds are Bella Khotenashvili (Georgia), Valentina Gunina (FIDE), Gunay Mammadzada (Azerbaijan), Marsel Efroimski (Israel) and Yuliia Osmak (Ukraine). | Photos: European Chess Union

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Nine World Cup spots up for grabs

The 23rd edition of the European Women’s Individual Chess Championship will take place on March 17-30 at the Hotel Palas in Petrovac, Montenegro.

The Championship will be played as an 11-round Swiss open, with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game and an increment of 30 seconds for every move starting from move one. The event gathers 139 players from 35 European federations.

The opening ceremony of the event is scheduled for Friday, March 17, while the first round kicks off on Saturday, 18th of March at 15:00 CEST.

The 23rd European Women’s Championship grants qualification spots for the next World Women’s Cup. According to the FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 9 players will qualify fromthis tournament. The total prize fund of the event is 60,000 Euros, with 10,000 Euros reserved for the winner of the event. 

Read the full regulations...

Monika Socko

Monika Socko will try to defend her title in Montenegro

Ulviyya Fataliyeva, Gunay Mammadzada

Ulviyya Fataliyeva (3rd place) and Gunay Mammadzada (2nd place)

A brief history of the European Championships

Established in 2000, the European Championships are among the strongest open tournaments taking place yearly in the chess calendar. Since the pandemic prevented the organization of the 2020 event, this year marks the 23rd editions of both the open and women’s championships.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which led to FIDE banning Russian squads from participating in team events, the Chess Federation of Russia announced in January that they had applied for membership in the Asian Chess Federation. The European Chess Union, organizer of the continental championships, informed that Russian players who live in Europe will be permitted to transfer to the ECU without paying fees to Russia and FIDE. The whole handling of the situation by FIDE and the ECU has raised concerns by detractors, the strongest of which is Peter Heine Nielsen.

As per the list of registered players for this year’s edition, the highest-rated Russian players are Valentina Gunina, Olga Badelka, Leya Garifullina, Alina Bivol and Evgenija Ovod.

The top five seeds are Bella Khotenashvili (Georgia), Valentina Gunina (FIDE), Gunay Mammadzada (Azerbaijan), Marsel Efroimski (Israel) and Yuliia Osmak (Ukraine).

The historic data from the women’s championship shows five players who have managed to win the title more than once: Valentina Gunina (Russia) won the event on three occasions, while Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine), Pia Cramling (Sweden), Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia) and Kateryna Lagno (both times representing Ukraine) have all won the tournament twice.

The one woman player who grabbed a medal in an open championship has been — no surprise here — Judit Polgar (Hungary), who finished third at the 2011 edition in Aix-les-Bains, France.

Valentina Gunina

Three-time European champion Valentina Gunina at the 2018 European Women’s Championship in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia


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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.