This event is taking place from March 6th to 18th 2010 in Rijeka, Croatia. Top players include Almasi, Bacrot, Movsesian, Navara, Vallejo, Motylev, Adams, Tomashevsky, Alekseev, Baadur, Naiditsch, Akopian, Volokitin, Bologan and Caruana.

Zero tolerance protest in Rijeka

At the Dresden Olympiad in 2008 some players forfeited their games when they appeared too late – sometimes by a few seconds – at their boards. Last June the Chinese Championship was effectively decided by a player not being present on his seat at the board when the start gong was sounded. All this is the result of a new "zero tolerance" rule introduced by FIDE to force players to be seated at their boards when the games are scheduled to start. The traditional one hour grace period (with the clock running) that was granted to players was reduced to zero seconds – be there or forfeit the game.

The participants of the 11th European Individual Championships in Rijeka have submitted a petition to the organisation committee and to the European Chess Union president requesting a change: instead of the zero seconds the players should be allowed a grace period of up to thirty minutes. A total of 110 participants have signed this petition. The decision of FIDE, the ECU and the organisation committee is pending.

• Here are the details and a full discussion of the zero tolerance rule

Round four leaders

Thirteen players went into round four with a perfect 3.0/3 score, and two came out with an additional point: Baadur Jobava, who beat Michal Karsenkow with the black pieces, and Zahar Efimenko, who beat Arkadij Naiditsch, also with the black pieces.

Krasenkow,M (2652) - Jobava,Ba (2695) [B38]
11th EICC Men Rijeka CRO (4), 09.03.2010
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.e4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Be2 b6 9.0-0 Bb7 10.f3 Qb8 11.Qd2 Rd8 12.Rad1 e6 13.f4 Ne7 14.Bf3 Ne8 15.Qf2 Qc8 16.Qh4 Bf6 17.Qh3 Bg7 18.Rc1 f5 19.g4 Nd6 20.gxf5 Nxc4 21.Ncb5 exf5 22.Be2 d5 23.exd5 Bxd5 24.b3 a6 25.Bxc4 Qb7 26.Nc7 Bxc4 27.Rxc4 b5 28.Rcc1 Rxd4 29.Nxa8 Qxa8 30.Rc7 Re4 31.Rd1 Nd5 32.Rd7 Rxe3

White is doing well enough, and after Qh4 and Rxd5 he might be playing for a win. But not after 33.Qg2?? Bd4! 34.Rxd4 Re1+ 35.Qf1 Ne3 and White is going to be mated. 0-1.

In the women's section four players had perfect scores after three rounds, but only one of them was able to win the fourth game in a row:

Links Official tournament site All games in zipped PGN: Men – Women A selection of 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. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!