European Championship – prepare for a Wednesday spectacle

10th European Individual Chess Championship
in Budva, Montenegro, March 5-19th, 2009

This tournament is being organised by the Montenegro Chess Federation, the City of Budva and the European Chess Union. It is taking place in Budva, Montenegro, in the Congress Hall of the “Splendid Spa & Resort Hotel”. The event is an 11-round Swiss, with a playing rate of 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.

The total prize fund of the Individual European Championship is 120,000 Euros. First prize is € 15,000, second is € 12,000, third € 10,000 up to 25th prize, which is € 1,000. According to Montenegro law all prizes are taxable (maximum 10%). The first 22 players will in addition qualify for the World Cup.

Top final standings after eleven rounds (7.5/11 and higher)

• The full table with all 306 players and all tiebreak points is available here

Tiebreaks

The technical Commission decided late at night that the following system would be used: the six players with the lowest tiebreak points will play two-game rapid chess (15 minutes + 5 seconds) matches against each other, with 5/4 armageddon games in case of ties. The winners then play against the three players with the highest tiebreak points, while the two players in the middle (Tomashevsky and Navara) play against each other. The system is the same (rapid and armageddon). The tiebreaks are then continued in the regular fashion. Pairing tables are already up.

There will also be tiebreak matches (same system) for World Cup qualification with fourteen participants. Pairings are available here. The tiebreak games are expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. Thanks to Playchess Sysop Holger Lieske for providing this information.

Some of tomorrow's tiebreakers

Rk.	Ti.	Name	Nat.	Rtng.	Pts.	Perf.
2	GM	Inarkiev Ernesto	RUS	2656	8.0	2778

3	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	GER	2693	8.0	2767

5	GM	Navara David	CZE	2638	8.0	2747

8	GM	Jobava Baadur	GEO	2669	8.0	2765

9	GM	Kobalia Mikhail	RUS	2634	8.0	2748

Photos by Nebojsa Baralic

Links Official tournament site (with many hundreds of very nice but uncaptioned pictures) All available games in zipped PGN (340 KB download) Key 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 the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.