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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%).
After eight rounds of the European Individual Championship three players are in the lead with 6.5/8 points, followed by 14 players with 6.0 points each. Note the two youngsters in the group: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, who is 17, and Fabiano Caruana of Italy, who is all of fifteen years old.
The leader Emil Sutovsky of Israel
| 1 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | 2630 | ISR | 6.5 |
| 2 | GM | Tregubov Pavel V | 2629 | RUS | 6.5 |
| 3 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | 2695 | SVK | 6.5 |
| 4 | GM | Laznicka Viktor | 2578 | CZE | 6.0 |
| 5 | GM | Iotov Valentin | 2531 | BUL | 6.0 |
| 6 | GM | Efimenko Zahar | 2660 | UKR | 6.0 |
| 7 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | 2617 | GEO | 6.0 |
| 8 | GM | Volkov Sergey | 2633 | RUS | 6.0 |
| 9 | GM | Tiviakov Sergei | 2634 | NED | 6.0 |
| 10 | GM | L'Ami Erwin | 2600 | NED | 6.0 |
| 11 | GM | Motylev Alexander | 2666 | RUS | 6.0 |
| 12 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | 2632 | FRA | 6.0 |
| 13 | GM | Lupulescu Constantin | 2558 | ROU | 6.0 |
| 14 | GM | Grachev Boris | 2610 | RUS | 6.0 |
| 15 | GM | Damljanovic Branko | 2595 | SRB | 6.0 |
| 16 | GM | Caruana Fabiano | 2620 | ITA | 6.0 |
| 17 | GM | Baklan Vladimir | 2647 | UKR | 6.0 |
In the women's section Ukrainian talent Kateryna Lahno, who is a full grandmaster, defeated Lithuanian IM Viktorija Cmilyte in round eight. Kateryna shares the lead with her compatriot IM Anna Ushenina and veteran Swedish grandmaster Pia Cramling. Half a point behind the trio we have four players, and then a group of 14 players with 5.5/8 points.
Leading in the women's section: Kateryna Lahno
| 1 | GM | Lahno Kateryna | 2479 | UKR | 6.5 |
| 2 | IM | Ushenina Anna | 2474 | UKR | 6.5 |
| 3 | GM | Cramling Pia | 2539 | SWE | 6.5 |
| 4 | IM | Muzychuk Anna | 2486 | SLO | 6.0 |
| 5 | WGM | Zhukova Natalia | 2450 | UKR | 6.0 |
| 6 | IM | Dembo Yelena | 2429 | GRE | 6.0 |
| 7 | IM | Skripchenko Almira | 2443 | FRA | 6.0 |
| 8 | GM | Stefanova Antoaneta | 2538 | BUL | 5.5 |
| 9 | IM | Cmilyte Viktorija | 2466 | LTU | 5.5 |
| 10 | IM | Dzagnidze Nana | 2443 | GEO | 5.5 |
| 11 | IM | Houska Jovanka | 2390 | ENG | 5.5 |
| 12 | IM | Kovalevskaya Ekaterina | 2421 | RUS | 5.5 |
| 13 | IM | Danielian Elina | 2479 | ARM | 5.5 |
| 14 | WGM | Voiska Margarita | 2339 | BUL | 5.5 |
| 15 | IM | Javakhishvili Lela | 2466 | GEO | 5.5 |
| 16 | WIM | Batsiashvili Nino | 2304 | GEO | 5.5 |
| 17 | WGM | Melia Salome | 2413 | GEO | 5.5 |
| 18 | WGM | Pogonina Natalija | 2470 | RUS | 5.5 |
| 19 | WGM | Zawadzka Jolanta | 2397 | POL | 5.5 |
| 20 | IM | Gvetadze Sopio | 2350 | GEO | 5.5 |
| 21 | IM | Moser Eva | 2395 | AUT | 5.5 |
The women's section, with WGM Anjelija Stojanovic (SRB) v Stefi Bednikova
(BUL)
WFM Margarida Coimbra (POR) v Marie Boyarchenko (LUX)
WGM Nelly Aginian (ARM) v IM Eva Repkova (SVK)
The hall is empty, the last two pairs remain: IM Ekaterina Atalik (TUR)
vs IM Elina Danielian (ARM); back row left GM Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN)
GM Carlsson Pontus (SWE) and IM Dejan Bojkov (BUL)
Mystery solved. Our sleeping companion in the mini bus (see report
one) was GM Cao Sang (HUN). He is from Vietnam but has been living in Budapest
for many years. He took my sneaky photo with good humour.
Levon Ovanezov, the chess benefactor from Varna, visits the Championship in Plovdiv as a guest of honour. A player in his own right who has reached the level of a candidate master, later an international arbiter, today, at 81 years of age, Levon dedicates his time, work and his entire house to chess. For more then 35 years his house has been an open "chess home", a club where, apart from daily friendly meetings and games, there are rapid and blitz tournaments, held twice monthly. No membership or entry fees apply. All is free. But neither are there prizes –- only moral victory. Veselin Topalov is a honorary member and he presented the club with an electronic digital clock.
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