Extremely competitive European Team Championship to start in Budva

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
11/8/2023 – The 24th edition of the European Team Chess Championships will take place on November 11-20 at the Conference Hall of Hotel Splendid in Budva, Montenegro. An open championship and a women’s championship will be played concurrently, with each event a 9-round Swiss tournament. Led by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov, the Azerbaijani team heads the starting rank in the open. In the women’s event, the Georgian squad, who recently won the World Team Championship, enters as the rating favourite. | Photo: A panoramic view of Budva, via Wikimedia Commons

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Azerbaijan and Georgia the rating favourites

European Team Chess Championships 2021The 24th edition of the European Team Chess Championships will take place on November 11-20 at the Conference Hall of Hotel Splendid in Budva, Montenegro.

An open championship and a women’s championship will be played concurrently, with each event a 9-round Swiss tournament. The time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30-second increments for every move from the first move.

Each ECU member has the right to enter one team of four players plus one reserve in the open competition, and one team of four female players plus one reserve in the women’s competition. A total of 38 teams registered to participate in the open, while 32 squads will fight for first place in the women’s event.

Schedule

  • Rounds 1 to 5: November 11-15
  • Rest day: November 16
  • Rounds 6 to 9: November 17-20

The action kicks off daily at 15.00 CET (9.00 ET, 19.30 IST)

Notably, the open section’s defending champions from Ukraine will not be participating (a women’s Ukrainian squad will play, with the absence of both Muzychuk sisters).

Open section

A total of 9 players rated 2700 or above will participate in the tournament, with no fewer than 60 players surpassing the 2600 rating barrier in the open section. Nonetheless, only the rating favourites from Azerbaijan can boast of having a 2700+ rating average.

The top 5 teams according to rating average:

  1. Azerbaijan (RtgAvg:2701 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2734 AZE
2 GM Radjabov, Teimour 2745 AZE
3 GM Abasov, Nijat 2679 AZE
4 GM Mamedov, Rauf 2644 AZE
5 GM Durarbayli, Vasif 2625 AZE
  2. Romania (RtgAvg:2676 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Rapport, Richard 2748 ROU
2 GM Shevchenko, Kirill 2665 ROU
3 GM Deac, Bogdan-Daniel 2700 ROU
4 GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2591 ROU
5 GM Lupulescu, Constantin 2582 ROU
  3. Germany (RtgAvg:2676 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Keymer, Vincent 2721 GER
2 GM Bluebaum, Matthias 2670 GER
3 GM Svane, Rasmus 2647 GER
4 GM Kollars, Dmitrij 2642 GER
5 GM Donchenko, Alexander 2664 GER
  4. England (RtgAvg:2671 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2712 ENG
2 GM Howell, David W L 2676 ENG
3 GM Adams, Michael 2670 ENG
4 GM Mcshane, Luke J 2626 ENG
5 GM Haria, Ravi 2508 ENG
  5. Armenia (RtgAvg:2667 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Sargissian, Gabriel 2686 ARM
2 GM Martirosyan, Haik M. 2708 ARM
3 GM Melkumyan, Hrant 2650 ARM
4 GM Sargsyan, Shant 2625 ARM
5 GM Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel 2618 ARM

...38 teams

With two 2730+ rated players, Azerbaijan enter the event as rating favourites. In addition, having Nijat Abasov in the lineup might be a relevant factor, since the 28-year-old from Baku is likely to be getting sponsors (public and/or private) to prepare for a potential participation in the 2024 Candidates Tournament.

Meanwhile, Romania and England have boosted their chances by adding naturalized players to their teams, with Richard Rapport and Kirill Shevchenko joining the Romanian squad, and Nikita Vitiugov becoming the top board for the English team.

Alireza Firouzja, who had a remarkable performance in the latest edition, will not be playing for the French team.

Women’s section

Among the women, Georgia will arrive in Budva as the clear favourites, with a large 78-point advantage over second-seeded Azerbaijan in terms of rating average. Moreover, the Georgians recently showed their remarkable team spirit by winning the World Women’s Team Championship in Bydgoszcz.

The top 5 teams according to rating average:

  1. Georgia (RtgAvg:2471 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Khotenashvili, Bella 2498 GEO
2 GM Batsiashvili, Nino 2487 GEO
3 IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2440 GEO
4 IM Arabidze, Meri 2458 GEO
5 IM Melia, Salome 2354 GEO
  2. Azerbaijan (RtgAvg:2392 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 IM Mammadzada, Gunay 2441 AZE
2 IM Fataliyeva, Ulviyya 2395 AZE
3 WGM Beydullayeva, Govhar 2383 AZE
4 IM Mammadova, Gulnar 2350 AZE
5 IM Balajayeva, Khanim 2328 AZE
  3. Germany (RtgAvg:2385 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Paehtz, Elisabeth 2473 GER
2 WGM Wagner, Dinara 2467 GER
3 WGM Schneider, Jana 2265 GER
4 WGM Heinemann, Josefine 2318 GER
5 WGM Klek, Hanna Marie 2282 GER
  4. Ukraine (RtgAvg:2365 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 WIM Rakhmangulova, Anastasiya 2324 UKR
2 GM Zhukova, Natalia 2308 UKR
3 IM Gaponenko, Inna 2335 UKR
4 GM Ushenina, Anna 2425 UKR
5 IM Buksa, Nataliya 2377 UKR
  5. Bulgaria (RtgAvg:2362 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
1 GM Stefanova, Antoaneta 2417 BUL
2 IM Salimova, Nurgyul 2412 BUL
3 WGM Krasteva, Beloslava 2262 BUL
4 WGM Radeva, Viktoria 2332 BUL
5 FM Peycheva, Gergana 2287 BUL

...32 teams


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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.