Five rounds were played and there are only two rounds left before the announcement of the European Chess Club Cup winners for 2026!
Two teams in the Open section score perfect 10 match points, tying for the top: defending champions SuperChess Romania, and Novy Bor Chess Club (Czech Republic). In the Women’s section, CE Gambit Bonnevoie (Luxembourg) remined the only team with the maximum score and all five match wins to maintain the sole lead in the tournament.
Playing on the top board yesterday, Novy Bor Chess Club (Czech Republic) defeated Alkaloid (North Macedonia) with the score 4-2. Four games finished in a draw in the match, but GM Pentala Harikrishna and GM Anton David Guijarro scored for Novy Bor in their games against GM Yu Yangyi and GM Aravindh Chithambaram (respectively).
SuperChess Romania scored a convincing 5.5-0.5 victory over SK K Cero Invest Nitra Slovakia. GM Vasyl Ivanchuk played a draw with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov on the top board of the match, and SuperChess scored wins on all other boards.
CE Gambit Bonnevoie (Luxembourg) remained perfect in the Women’s section after defeating Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica (Serbia). The match finished with the 2.5-1.5 score, as IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (CE Gambit Bonnevoie) defeated IM Teodora Injac (Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica), while the other three games finished in draw.
The final two rounds will be decisive for the final standings, and the 6th-round top-board pairings in the Open section are:
| 1 | SuperChess Romania | Novy Bor Chess Club | : | ||
| 2 | Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai | Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club | : | ||
| 3 | Elektroprivreda *) | Alkaloid | : | ||
| 4 | Rishon LeZion A | C.A Silla Integrant Col-lectius | : | ||
| 5 | SK K CERO INVEST Nitra | SK Rockaden team 1 | : | ||
| 6 | Schachfreunde Berlin 1903 | Marseille Echecs | : | ||
| 7 | Cheddleton Savills Caterling | TJ Slavia CAISSA Cadca | : | ||
| 8 | Crvena Zvezda | Ashdod chess club | : | ||
| 9 | Beer Sheva Chess Club | Oslo Schakselskap (OSS) | : | ||
| 10 | Perfect | Aix-en-Provence | : |
The pairings in the Women’s event are:
| 1 | CE Gambit Bonnevoie | Odlar Yurdu | : | ||
| 2 | Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo | SuperChess Romania | : | ||
| 3 | Club Ajedrez Linares | Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica | : | ||
| 4 | Crvena Zvezda | SG 1871 Loeberitz | : | ||
| 5 | Gambit ASEE | Velikova Chess Club | : | ||
| 6 | Davit Jojua’s chess club | Zenski sahovski klub NAPREDAK Zenica | : | ||
| 7 | GASCO Pardubice | SK Radnicki | : | ||
| 8 | Gostivar | Klub Kolner Schachfreunde | : | ||
| 9 | She Plays To Win Lionesses A | Klaipeda | : | ||
| 10 | Wasa SK | Oslo Schakselskap | : | ||
| 11 | She Plays To Win Lionesses B | Accademia Scacchistica Romana | : |
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
Live games with commentaries by GM Simon Williams, WIM Lena Govedarica, WIM Sandra Djukic and WCM Tallulah Roberts can be followed through the ECU YouTube channel.
Featured photo by Patricia Claros Aguilar