The ladies battle it out in Moldova

The event is being held from June 10 (day of arrival) until June 25 (day of departure) 2005. The venue is the Republic Palace in Chisinau. The championship is a 12 round Swiss. Rate of play: 40 moves in 1½ hours, and additional 15 minutes to finish the game. There is an increment of 30 seconds per move from the first move. The European Women’s Championship is open to any female player representing ECU Chess Federation (FIDE zones 1.1-1.9) regardless of their title or rating. The tournament is a preliminary qualification event for the next World Women’s Chess Championship. Twelve players will qualify for the WWCC.

The course of the tournament so far has been fairly even, with 41 players at 3½ or 3 after four rounds (after two rounds twenty players had won both their games). Top seeds Tatiana Kosintseva and Kateryna Lahno are to be found at the top of the table, whereas third seed Inna Gaponenko has had a slow start and is currently at place 82. Reigning champion and local darling Almira Skripchenko is also not yet under steam and can be found at number 75.

The official web site is in English and very informative. Obviously a lot of effort has been put into it and the organisers, for once, seem to have got their priorities right. The games files provided are close to faultless, and there are even small characterisations of the key games. The picture gallery with photos by Zlobin Gheorghe is very nice, only one problem needs to be solved (not just by these organisers): the pictures are in urgent need of captions. How frustrating is it to see scores of pictures of people, mostly beautiful young ladies, with no clues as to who most of them might be.

Below the following full score table (prepare your mouse wheel for some heavy-duty scrolling) you will find our own selection of pictures, where we have taken pains to identify most of the subjects.

Standings after four rounds

• All games so far in zipped PGN
• Official web site

Picture Gallery

The openings ceremony

Local hero Almira Skripchenko, who has a sports complex named after her, addresses the audience

Festivities at the opening ceremony

The tournament hall, with top boards on the stage

The championship under way

Almira Skripchenko preparing for game one in this tournament

And surveying the event she helped to organise

Sixth seed Cmilyte Viktorija of Lithuania

Oh the intensity! An uncaptioned player at the championship

[Sotiris Logothetis of Athens, Greece, wrote in to day that this was Karina Szczepkowska of Poland. André Schulz, the editor of our German newspage, is fairly sure it is the younger of the Muzychuk sisters, Mariya.]

Another uncaptioned young lady

[Tomasz Pintal of Stalowa Wola, Poland writes: "This is Elena Cherednichenko of Ukraine, the sister of Svetlana Cherednichenko, who was ten years ago the U12 girls champion. I saw her and her sister with their mother in Poland on the tournament near the place where I live. Sotiris Logothetis says this is Irina Vasilevich of, Russia. The latter appears to be correct.]

Top seed Tatiana Kosintseva against Rakhil Eidelson in round one (Tatiana won)

Blitz tournament for journalists (a new form of accreditation?)

Round four in full swing