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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About Tbilisi

We could feed you the usual yadda-yadda about the city's economic this, and demographical that, but not every city has such a colorful story behind its baptism (source: Wikipedia):

According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Tbilisi was covered by forests as late as 458. One widely accepted variant of the legend of Tbilisi's founding states that King Vakhtang I Gorgasali of Georgia went hunting in the heavily wooded region with a falcon. The King's falcon allegedly caught or injured a pheasant during the hunt, after which both birds fell into a nearby hot spring and died from burns. King Vakhtang became so impressed with the hot springs that he decided to cut down the forest and build a city on the location.

Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia

The name Tbilisi derives from the Old Georgian word "Tpili" (თბილი), meaning warm. The name 'Tbili' or 'Tbilisi' ('warm location') was therefore given to the city because of the area's numerous sulphuric hot springs that came out of the ground.

After four rounds, the Lithuanian grandmaster Viktorija Cmilyte has taken the early lead with an impeccable 4.0/4 including a notable fourth round victory over Nadezhda Kosintseva, the second-seed with 2567 Elo. Right behind are GM Elena Danielian, IM Bela Khotenashvili, and Anastasia Bodnaruk with 3.5/4, followed by 25 players with 3.0/4.

Viktorija Cmilyte is leading the charge with a perfect 4.0/4

Standings after four rounds

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 one report

Round two report

Round three report

Round four report

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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