European Championship: Strong juniors

The second round of the European Individual Championship in Terme Catez has been played. Almost 320 players are taking part. The Ukrainian authorities have not only allowed their players to leave the country, they may even have an interest in showing their country's colours here. In general, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave Ukraine because of the general mobilisation after the Russian invasion, but 35 Ukranians take part in the European Championships and Anton Korobov is the number two seed behind David Navara. Players from Russia or Belarus do not take part in the European Championships.

The playing venue

Among the Ukrainian chess players is the former world-class player and World Championship candidate Alexander Beliavsky, who, however, has been playing under the Slovenian flag since the mid-1990s. The 68-year-old was born in Lviv.

Alexander Beliavsky

With few exceptions, the top players had started the tournament with wins in round one, including David Navara, Anton Korobov, Croatian Ivan Saric and Andrei Volokitin as the second best Ukrainian grandmaster in the field and fifth in the seedings.

It was the 15-year old Aydin Suleymanli who caused the biggest upset in round two when he defeated co-favourite Anton Korobov. In February 2020 Suleymanli had already attracted attention by winning the Aeroflot Open and he will probably play a role at this European Championship.

Two other young players who belong to the large group of players with 2.0/2 are Luka Budisavlevic from Serbia, who won against Bogdan-Daniel Deac in round two, and Olexiy Bilych from Ukraine, who defeated Szymon Gumularz.

For the friends of the endgame, Karsten Müller has picked some tricky endgames from the first two rounds.
 

Standings after two rounds

...320 players

Games

Links

• Tournament page...
• Chess-results...
• European Chess Union...
• Regulations...