Plovdiv: Exciting final round on Friday

The IX European Individual Chess Championship is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from April 21st to May 3rd 2008, with one free day, on Monday, April 28. The tournament halls are in the Novotel Plovdiv. The championship is an 11 round Swiss, playing time is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The total prize fund in the men's section is 92,200 EUR (first 15,000, 2nd 10,000, third 8,000, fourth 6,500, fifth 5,500 etc.) and in the women's section 34,500 EUR (first 6,000, second 5,000, third 4,000, fourth 3,000, fifth 2,000, etc.). According to Bulgarian law all prizes are taxable (10%).

Round ten report

The going is getting rougher, a bunch of eight grandmasters are in the lead together, with 7.5/10 points each and just one round to go (today at 13:30h CEST = 11:30 UTC).

Top standings after ten rounds (total 337 players)

The top pairings for the final round are:

In the women's section GM Kateryna Lahno is in the sole lead with 8.0/10 and a performance of well over 2600. She is followed by four players with 7.5 points each.

Top standings after ten rounds (total 159 players)

Kateryna Lahno faces her compatriot IM Anna Ushenina in the final round. The other direct contenders, Natalia Zhukova, Almira Skripchenko and Pia Cramling are well-known international players.

You can watch the final round games on the official web site or on the Playchess server (links and instructions are at the bottom of this page). In case of equal scores there will be tiebreak games on Saturday to establish the title and medal winners.

Picture Gallery

Robert Zelcic vs Emil Sutovsky (front) and Igor Kurnosov vs Sergei Movsesian (back)

Hot contenders: Pavel Tregubov and Emil Sutovsky

Intense concentration in the round nine game Bologan vs Halkias

German GM and poker crack Jan Gustafsson, 2603, 6.5/10

The youngest participant: Twelve-year-old Alexander Monev of Bulgaria, rated 2038, with 4.0/10 points

GM Kateryna Lahno of Ukraine vs WIM Katerina Nemcova of the Czech Republic

Title aspirations: IM Anna Muzychuk, 2486, SLO, 7.0/10

IM Jovanka Houska of England, rated 2390, with 7.0/10

IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, 2421, RUS, 6.5/10 gives autographs before a game

Former women's world champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova, 2538, BUL, 6.5/10

A quick prayer before the game? WFM Elena Cherednichenko, 2155, UKR, 3.5/10

Veronika Minina of Russia, 2148, 4.0/10 points

All pictures courtesy of the official tournament site

Links European Championship Website All games in zipped PGN: Men + Women The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member of Playchess you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use this program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. Download free PGN reader ChessBase Light now.