5/23/2026 – The 25th edition of the European Women's Chess Championship begins on 25 May in the Georgian city of Batumi. The tournament will take place at the Euphoria Convention & Casino Hotel. More than 150 players from more than 30 European federations have registered to participate. Ten players have an Elo rating above 2400. The defending champion, IM Teodora Injac of Serbia, has not entered the eleven-round Swiss-system tournament, which will be broadcast live on ChessBase. | Photos: Mark Livshitz, Jim Laga (European Chess Union) / Title image: Uwe Brodrecht, Wikimedia Commons
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
In this course GM Ganguly turns calculation into a trainable skill with a structured path for any level.
€39.90
The field
Greek player Stavroula Tsolakidou goes into the European Women's Championship as the rating favourite. The International Master tops the starting list with her current rating of 2455. IM Yuliia Osmak of Ukraine and the 2024 European champion, IM Ulviya Fataliyeva of Azerbaijan, follow only 4 and 5 points behind respectively.
The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Facing the Sicilian doesn’t have to be complicated. The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) offers a simple yet highly effective solution to all major Sicilian lines, by sidestepping them with 2.c3. Whether your opponent plays the Najdorf, Taimanov, or Dragon, the Alapin lets you take control of the game as early as move two.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: 2...g6
The strongest of the seven German participants is IM Dinara Wagner. She is seeded ninth. Last year, as the fifth seed, she finished only in 64th place.
Dinara Wagner - pictured here at the Bundesliga final rounds in Berlin - is hoping for a better tournament than last year and for qualification to the World Cup | Photo: Stefan Liebig
Schedule
Games will be played daily from 25 May to 4 June at 15:00 local time. The final round will take place on 5 June at 13:00. Sunday, 31 May, is a rest day.
Regulations
Each federation may nominate any number of players. Qualification places for the FIDE Women's World Cup will be awarded at the 25th European Women's Championship. According to the ECU decision, at least 10 players will qualify. Under the current regulations of the FIDE Women's World Cup, FIDE alone is responsible for the rules concerning qualification places for the FIDE Women's World Cup.
The total prize fund of €60,000 will be distributed as follows: prize money will be awarded to the top 20 finishers. The first three places carry prizes of €10,000, €8,000 and €7,000.
The tournament will be played over 11 rounds using the Swiss system, with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game. A 30-second increment will be added from move one. In the event of a tie on points, the first criterion for the final standings will be the direct encounter, followed by Buchholz scores 1 and 2, then the number of games played with Black, and finally the higher number of wins.
Venue
Batumi is a port city on the Black Sea. As the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara in south-western Georgia, it has 172,100 inhabitants (as of 2021) and is therefore the country's second-largest city. Batumi is the seat of a diocese of the Georgian Orthodox Church and is also a centre of education and research, with colleges, a university, a maritime faculty and an agricultural institute. (Source: Wikipedia)
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
Last year's podium, from left: Irina Bulmaga, Teodora Injac and Mai Narva | Photo: Mark Livshitz, Jim Laga (European Chess Union)
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Stefan LiebigStefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
While tactics decide the game in concrete moments, strategy guides the entire battle. Understanding how to improve your pieces, create weaknesses, execute maneuvers, and steer the game toward favorable structures is what defines strong players.
The Italian Four Knights is the ideal choice. It combines the solid foundation of classical openings like the Ruy Lopez or the Italian Game with an active, initiative-driven style of play.
IM Andrew Martin shows why this 19th-century opening weapon still is a fantastic choice for club players. The Evans produces exciting chess and teaches the art of attack.
The major part of the material on which the Petroff Defence Powerbook 2026 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 357 000 games. This imposing number is supplemented by another 17 000 from Mega and from correspondence chess.
€9.90
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