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 – View Larger Map

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.

Final standings after eleven rounds

Cmilyte is champion!

Danailov together with Viktorija Cmilyte, the European Women Champion at the prize giving

After going strong with five in five and then stumbling over Bulgarian Stefanova, Cmilyte's run for the gold seemed in doubt. In fact she had already been a silver medalist three times and was understandably anxious about her chances. In her interview (see the video below) she explains that while happy with her start, she knew that nothing was real until the very last rounds. Her wisdom and experience also weighed in on her strength of character as she plowed through the field and came up with an impressive 9.0/11, for a 2692 performance in spite of her round six loss. In sole second was Stefanova, who was unable to keep up the pace with he Lithuanian, but still scored a superb 8.5/11.

Antoaneta Stefanova, proud silver medalist of the European Women Championship

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 nine report

 
With an interview of Anna Muzychuk

Round ten report

 
In music

Round eleven report

with an exclusive interview of Viktorija Cmilyte, and some bites of the closing ceremony

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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