European Individual Championships 2008 in Plovdiv

The IX European Individual Chess Championship is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from April 21st to May 3rd 2008, with one free day, on Monday, April 28. The tournament halls are in the Novotel Plovdiv. The championship is an 11 round Swiss, playing time 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. The total prize fund in the men's section is 92,200 EUR (first 15,000, 2nd 10,000, third 8,000, fourth 6,500, fifth 5,500 etc.) and in the women's section 34,500 EUR (first 6,000, second 5,000, third 4,000, fourth 3,000, fifth 2,000, etc.). According to Bulgarian law all prizes are taxable (10%).

Special rules (note especially the last one) state:

• Any player who doesn’t shake hands with his/her opponent before the game starts (and doesn’t do it after being asked to do so by the arbiter) or deliberately insults his/her opponent or the officials of the event, will immediately and finally lose the relevant game.
• Players are not allowed to leave the playing venue (Playing area, Refreshment area, Players restrooms, Smoking area) without permission of the arbiter. Violation of this rule could be punished up to declaring the game to be lost.
• It is strictly forbidden to bring a mobile phone, not authorized by the chief arbiter, into the playing hall. If a player’s mobile phone rings in the playing venue during play, that player shall lose the game.
• As long as the game is in progress a player may talk only to an arbiter or with his opponent.
• In case of pre-arranged results the chief arbiter has to decide that the result of the respective game is 0-0.

The Championships are qualification events for the next World Cup and the next World Championship for Women: 22 players from the men's section and 13 players from the women's section will qualify.

Participants

We have counted 96 grandmasters in the field, with 70 in the "Super-GM" category of 2600 rating points or higher. Compare that to the recent Russian Team Championships in Sochi: there we had 90 GMs, with 16 sporting ratings over 2700 (which took our breath away at the time). In Plovdiv There are 105 IMs (in Sochi there were three) and a bunch of WGMs, WIMs and WFMs. Very nearly 500 strong chess players, together with their seconds, partners, relatives, friends – how does Plovdiv, the Bulgarian Chess Federation and the European Chess Union do it?

Results and standings for the first two rounds will be provided here later tonight.

Picture Gallery

Plovdiv, the second-largest city in Bulgaria (after Sofia), with a population of 380,000

Saints Cyril and Methodius church

The two saints Cyril and Methodius were Byzantine Greek brothers born in the 9th century. They became Christian missionaries among the Slavs and are credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet, the first alphabet used to transcribe the Old Church Slavonic language. The Cyrillic alphabet, which was based on the Glagolitic alphabet, is still used in a number of Slavic and other languages. You will know all of this if you have been paying attention.

Plovdiv at night

The men's section in the ’Plovdiv’’ hall of the Novotel Plovdiv

Top seed Sergei Movsesian (left), 2695, SVK, won his first round game against *
Bulgarian GM Krasimir Rusev, 2516, convincingly in 36 moves

GM Julian Radulsky or Bulgaria, 2514, against Zoltan Almasi of Hungary, 2674 (Almasi won)

Hey, but who is behind the camera? Our photo reporter IM Dejan Bojkov, playing in Plovdiv

The women's section of the European Individual Championships

GM Antoaneta Stefanova, second seed in the women's section (Elo 2538)

All pictures by IM Dejan Bojkov

Links European Championship Website All games in zipped PGN: Men + Women The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member of Playchess you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use this program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. Download free PGN reader ChessBase Light now.