European Online Chess Championship 2020, the largest European chess Championship ever held with participation of almost 4500 players coming from all European federations, concluded yesterday on chess.com.
20 years old Russian Grandmaster, Alexey Sarana (RUS, 2618 rapid rtg) became the European Online Chess Champion after defeating Navara David (CZE, 2707) with score 2:0 in the Superfinals of Top16 Knockout Finals.
GM Sarana Alexey was the Winner of the 1st Grand Prix event for E group with score of 7.5 points, and placed 4th in the 2nd Grand Prix event for E group with 6.5 points. After the finish of the super-final match against Navara David, Sarana was interviewed in Chess.com TV Studio with commentators of European Online Chess Championship WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and GM Roeland Pruijssers, and emphasized: “I am very happy that this tournament was organised, because we, 2600 players, don’t have many chances to play and win some prizes.”.
The best ranked 14 players from two Grand Prix events of the group E, for players rated 2300+, qualified for the final Knockout phase, together with two ECU invitees: Anish Giri (NED, 2731) and Navara David (CZE, 2707 rapid rtg).
Second place in the Knockout stage came to David Navara (CZE, 2707 rapid rtg) and third place came to Sargissian Gabriel (ARM, 2693 rapid rtg).
Report of Chess.com on European Online Chess Championship, altogether with all games from the Final Top16 Knockout Stage is available here.
The pairings/results tree of Top16 Knockout:
Grand Prix events of E group were played on 29th and 30th of May, and the combined standings can be found here.
Based on combined results of group E, Batsiashvili Nino (GEO) took a title of European Women Online Chess Champion, scoring 10 points from both events. Second place went to Shuvalova Polina (RUS) with 9.5 points, who had better ties than Daria Voit (RUS) with the same score of 9.5 points.
Both GrandPrix events of Group E, as well as the knockout Top16 were LIVE broadcasted in chesscomTV.
European Chess Union President, Mr.Zurab Azmaiparashvili, was a special guest of LIVE Broadcast of Knockout Top16. He announced European Youth Online Chess Championship as the future project of ECU, together with European Online Team Chess Championship.
The Special guest of LIVE Broadcast of Knockout Top16 broadcast chesscomTV Studio was also ECU Vice-President, WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola. WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola was one of the participants of the event in group D and scored 4/8 in Finals of D group!
ECU Vice-President WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola playing the finals of D group from Latvian Parliament 
Fair Play Specialist, Mr. Kenneth Regan, joined WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and GM Roeland Pruijssers in chesscomTV LIVE Studio and explained anti-cheating measures taken during European Online Chess Championship.
PGN file of 1st Grand Prix event for group E played on 29th of May can be downloaded here:
PGN 1st Grand_Prix- group E 29th of May
PGN 2nd Grand_Prix- group E, 30th of May
European Online Chess Championship 2020 was played in 5 rating categories: A (for players rated 1000-1400), B (for players rated 1400-1700), C (for players rated 1700-2000), D (for players rated 2000-2300) and E (for players rated 2300+). A, B, C and D event were played through 2 stages: qualification stage, where top 250 players qualified for the 2nd day Finals, and 100 top ranked finalists qualified for the next rating category.
The Winners of A category were:
- Sezgin Mustafa (TUR, 1201 rapid rtg)
- Aghayeva Gulsana (AZE, 1329 rapid rtg)
- Popov Roman (CZE, 1379 rapid rtg)
Full Prize list for A group participants can be found here.
The Winners of B group are:
- Stalmach Richard (CZE, 1667 rapid rtg)
- Domovic Ognjen (CRO, 1544 rapid rtg)
- Donmez Ahmet (TUR, 1483 rapid rtg)
Full prize list for B group participants can be found here.
The Winners of C group are:
- Pavel Sebastian-Ion (ROU, 1996 rapid rtg)
- Mehtiyev Elnur (AZE, 1968 rapid rtg)
- Davtyan Artur (ARM, 1854 rapid rtg)
Full prize list for C group participants can be found here.
The Winners of D category are:
- Ibrahimli Murad (AZE, 2155 rapid rtg)
- Gadimbayli Abdula (AZE, 2254 rapid rtg)
- Davtyan Artur (ARM, 1854 rapid rtg)
Full prize list for D group participants can be found here.
