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.

Silence the Sicilian - Win with the Alapin Variation (2.c3)

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 64^th 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 25^th 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)

Links

• Organiser's website
• Starting list and technical info on Chess-Results

Top of the table in 2025

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

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)

Fritz 21

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.
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