The European Women Chess Championship is underway and runs from May 7-18 at Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The event is open to any female player registered with a federation that is part of the European Chess Union. It is a swiss system with eleven rounds played at 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 KO, with a 30-second increment as of the first move.

The top fourteen players will also qualify for the World Cup. As in the overall European Championship held earlier this year, there will be no tiebreak matches. In case of a tie, the tiebreaks used in order are: performance, Median-Buchholz, Buchholz, and the number of wins.

Satellite view of Tbilisi with the surrounding mountain range
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After eight round rounds, little has changed at the top, though Lithuanian grandmaster Viktorija Cmilyte's perfect score is no more. In the sixth round Bulgarian GM Antoaneta Stefanova knocked heads with her and came ou the victor, joining her in the lead. They were joined by five others, and suddenly the top spot's destiny was murky again. In the seventh round, not to be deterred, Cmilyte beat IM Romanko, while Stefanova had little time to enjoy her victory as she lost to Georgian IM Khotenashvili. This left them both in the lead with 6.0/7, followed by Lahno, Javakhishvili, and Cramling with 5.5/7. In round eight, the leaders met and drew, but no one was capable of reaching them and they maintined their very slim lead with 6.5/8, now trailed by seven on 6.0/8.

Standings after eight rounds

A gallery of pictures

Could the readers kindly helps us identify the ones with no names?

On their rest day, the ladies were treated to some local tourism

Here is a closeup of one

And also an evening dancing. Sadly, with the men's event on a different date it was
mostly between themselves.

(note to self: volunteer services for next year's event)

Robert Fontaine from Europe Echecs has been covering the event with daily video reports which he kindly shared. They are short and fun. Enjoy.

Round five report

 
With an interview of Viktoria Cmilyte and Sava Stoisavljevic

Round six report

 
In music

Round seven report

There is also a long interview of the general sponsor Socar in Russian

Round eight report

 
Includes an interview of Pia Cramling

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games.

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