Viktorija Cmilyte wins European Women's Rapid Championship

Viktorija Cmilyte wins European Women Rapid Championship

Report by WGM Elena Partac

The European Women's Rapid and Blitz Championaships took place in Predeal, Romania, from August 8 to 10, 2007. 52 players from nine countries participated in the tournament, 12 WGMs and 10 WIMs. It was raining during the entire tournament, and the noise of the rain always accompanied you during the games. It actually seemed to grow louder when you made a bad move...

The entrance to the playing hall of the International Chess Festival in Predeal

A crowd in front of the bulletin board, where the parings have just been posted

Whom am I playing …?!

A stare at the start of the final round of the Rapid: Viktorija Cmilyte, 2467, LTU vs Lela Javakhishvili, 2460, GEO, draw, and Viktorija took first place!

Anna Muzychuk, 2456, SLO vs Corina Peptan, 2411, ROM: 1-0

Sopio Gvetadze, 2371, GEO took third place behind against Anna Muzychuk, 2456, SLO

Lela Javakhishvili, 2460, GEO, fifth, vs Margarita Voiska, 2314, BUL, eighth

Alina Motoc, 2289, ROM, took sixth place, Irina-Luiza Marin, 2166, ROM took 14th [yes, she is, and yes, he will be doing his usual superb commentary for the world championship in Mexico]

WGM Partac Elena, 2110, MDL, 16th, vs WGM Corina-Isabela Peptan, 2411, ROM, fourth place

The only Spanish player, Paloma Castillo Gutierrez, 2131, came in 32nd

“Interesting”… IM Boris Itkis, 2433, ROM, watching the games

A tough start for Mina Popova of Bulgaria, who unfortunately scored zero points

The winners: Sopio Gvetadze, third, Victorija Cmilyte, first, and Anna Muzychuk, second

After nine rounds of rapid chess, the closing ceremony was held. First place went to Victorija Cmilyte from Lituania, the second place to Anna Muzychuk of Slovenian (formerly from Ukrainian) and third place to Georgian WGM Sopio Gvetadze. The first nine players in the final standings took a prize.

Final standings of the European Women's Rapid Championship

At the closing ceremony, from left: Margarita Voiska (BUL), Szidonia Vajda (ROM), Alina Motoc (ROM), Sopio Gvetadze (GEO), arbiter Chirila Radu, Anna Muzychuk (SLO), Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU), Velchev Nicolay, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Chess Federation

The tournament finished, it’s time to relax… from left: Natalia Hryhorenko (UKR), Anna Muzychuk (SLO), Evgenia Doluhanova (UKR) and Mariya Muzychuk (UKR)

Elena also played in the tournaments, and was, understandably, not able to photograph during the Blitz Championship. But we have the results:

Final standings of the European Women's Blitz Championship

Links

• Full results of both tournaments
• All available games in zipped PGN
• Official web site