The 15th European Senior Chess Championship for Men and Women will be held in Eretria, Greece, from 28th April untill 8th May, 2015. The official venue is he conference center of the 4-star “Eretria Village” Hotel, which is near the ancient city of Eretria.

The Championship is open to all players representing ECU Chess Federations who have been born in the year 1965 or earlier. There is also no limit in the number of participants per federation. Applications have to be sent by the National Federations or to be approved by the National Federations.

The Championship will be played in two categories: category SENIOR 50+ and category SENIOR 65+, Men and Women separately. If there are less than 10 participants in the category 65+ then there will be only one Women tournament under category 50+ with separate prizes. If in total the Women participants are less than 10 they will play in the Open tournaments with separate prizes.

The European Senior Chess Championship will be played according to the Swiss System in 9 rounds, with the time control 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game+ 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move one.

Total prize fund of the Championship is 8.000 Euros, and the first 3 places will be awarded with cups and medals. Prizes will be equally shared among the players with the same score.

The top 3 players from each category of the Euroepean Senior Championship 2015 are qualified with personal rights (free board and lodging in single rooms) to the World Senior Championship 2016.

The current registrations can be seen here

For all information you can contact the Tournament Director: FIDE IO Nikos Kalesis

tel.: (+30) 6938326161, fax: (+30) 2641500112

e-mail: euroseniors2015@gmail.com

Regulations for download: European Seniors 2015_inv

Last weekend, 6-7 December, 2014 at the beginning of the 6th London Chess Classic tournament, ‘Chess and Mathematics – Chess and Education Conference’ was held, in London/England. The Conference was organized by the Chess in Schools and Communities and it gathered 130 participants from more than 30 countries.

The conference was organised in a professional manner with the efforts of organisers to establish a regular European forum for exchanging ideas and experiences on different issues important for the chess development.

The programme of the Conference was very rich and various, with many interesting lectures given by the leading experts in the fields of scholastic chess and mathematics education, workshops and competitions. The winner of the New Game Design Competition was Tatyana Ogneva from Moscow, with her concept ‘Football Chess’. Malcolm Pridmore from England was the Runner Up with ‘Middle Game Chess’.

Jesper Hall and Magdalena Zielinska

Mr. Jesper Hall (SWE), Chairman of the ECU Educational Commission, Mr. John Foley (ENG), Mr. Walter Raedler (GER), Mr. Kasim Yekeler (TUR), members of the ECU Educational Commission, and Mr. Martin Huba, the ECU Treasurer attended the conference, where they met Mrs. Magdalena Zielinska (POL) the Project Leader of Chess in Schools in Polish Chess Federation and Mr. Kevin O’Connell, Chairman of FIDE CiS. They had an informal meeting where they discussed about the Chess in Schools movement in their countries as well as about the general work of the ECU Commissions.

Jesper Hall and Bo Johansson, professor of Psychology at Uppsala University

Some of the suggestions given by the ECU Commissions’ members were to make a co-operation between the ECU and the European Universities on higher academic chess education as well as in the area of chess pedagogy. Also, the ECU should take the initiative in the activities reflecting the chess needs within Europe. One of the proposals was to create a project involving all the European federations, which will have interesting research works or studies for mutual benefit of all member federations.

London Conference was a source of many interesting ideas and information for the ECU members. The recently established ECU Commissions could play a substantial role in the development of chess, presenting the ECU as a strong and Europe-wide organisation willing to invest in education and raising awareness of the importance of chess and its impact on children’s development.

More information at London Chess Conference official website

Photos by Ray Morris-Hill

The Russian Chess Championship Super Final, the 67th for men and the 64th for women, took place from 27 November till 8 December in the city of Kazan, in a branch of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan (the Khazine Gallery).

Both tournaments were played as 10-player Round Robin for the prestigious title – the Champion of Russia.

In the Men’s tournament Grandmaster Igor Lysyj (ELO 2686) won the tournament with 5.5 points. Silver medal went to Dmitry Jakovenko (ELO 2745) with 5 points, and Denis Khismatullin (ELO 2679) took bronze with the best tie-break among 4 other players.

Men’s Championship Final standings:

In the women’s tournament, the encounter in the final round was to decide the Champion. It was the game between the leaders Alisa Galliamova (ELO 2471) and Valentina Gunina (ELO 2522), which eventually Gunina won and triumphed, while Galliamova took silver. Bronze medal went to Aleksandra Goryachkina (ELO 2438) with 5.5 points.

Final standings of Women’s Championship:

The Superfinal’s closing ceremony was held at the Khazine Gallery on the same day. The participants received congratulations and awards from Mr. Vladimir Leonov, Tatarstan Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Mr. Igor Baradachev, Deputy General Director of the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation, Mr.  Gennady Zakharov, President of the Tatarstan Chess Federation, and Mr. Mark Glukhovsky, Chairman of the Management Board of the Russian Chess Federation. Mr. Andrey Filatov, President of the Russian Chess Federation congratulated the winners and officially closed the event.

The tournament was a follow-up of the Chess in Museums project, an international programme run by the Russian Chess Federation (RCF) in conjunction with the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation.

More information at http://ruchess.ru/

Yesterday, at Tbilisi Chess Palace, the Presidential Election of the Georgian Chess Federation was held. 56 delegates attended the elections, among whom Georgian chess legend Grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili, the ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili and chess Olympic Champions Nana Alexandria, Nana Ioseliani and Nino Gurieli.

The delegates unanimously re-elected Mr. Giorgi Giorgadze as President, and later the members of the board were approved.

The Montenegro Chess Federation organizes the “December Days of Chess” in Podgorica from 10th to 20th December 2014, when numerous competitions and activities will be held.

The Montenegro Chess Federation feels it is time to get significant chess competitions again in the Capital, which has always been responsible for the development of chess in Montenegro, with a large number of chess players, and even larger number of chess fans. At the same time, the “December Days of Chess” will join the celebration of the 19th December, the day of liberation of Podgorica.

In the period from 10th till 20th December, the Montenegro National Championships for Men and Women will be held in the hall of the National Library “Radosav Ljumovic”. After more than twenty years, this is the first championship in the Men’s competition which takes place in the capital city. The last championship was played in Podgorica back in 1993. The Championship is very strong and gathers almost all the best players from Montenegro, members of the Olympic team, as well as the most promising players, so this will be the great opportunity to see the clash of generations – the combat between chess “veterans” and young players whose time is yet to come.

Women’s Championship has always been in the shadow of the Men’s championship and so it is this time. One of the main tasks of the Montenegro Chess Federation will be to improve the quality of women’s chess. Great results achieved by our women’s team, the individual results of Aleksandra Milovic and Marija Stojanovic at the Chess Olympiad in Norway, and especially the recent exceptional results of Tijana Blagojevic oblige us to do so.

After the opening ceremony of the championship, the Ordinary Assembly of the Montenegro Chess Federation will be held at the Hotel City starting at 4.00 pm, where the current situation in Montenegro Chess Federation will be discussed, with the work and financial reports.

Within the festival, on 14th December, the Montenegro Youth Rapid Chess Championship will be held. It is expected the participation of nearly 100 young chess players from all over Montenegro.

After a long break, the Montenegro Chess Federation organizes the Arbiter’s Seminar, 12-14 December at the Hotel City. A great interest has been shown for the seminar, as 20 participants have already applied so far.

Quality work of the Montenegro Chess Federation in the previous period is highly rated by the officials of the World and European Chess Institutions. Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, President of the European Chess Union, famous Georgian Grandmaster and former European Chess Champion confirmed his arrival to Podgorica in the period 18-20 December, 2014, and will attend the closing ceremony of the Championships. This will be a great opportunity to talk with the ECU President at the highest level, about the possibilities of cooperation between the European Chess Union and Montenegro Chess Federation.

In the last 3 months, after Tromso ECU GA and elections, the European Chess Union administration managed to find organizers for 6 European Championships, without a schedule for the years 2015 and 2016. The efforts continue with the target to finalize the entire ECU calendar for the next 2 years.

Regarding the “European Individual Women Championship 2015”, during the Board meeting in Batumi, the ECU received a letter of interest from the Israel Federation to host the event in Jerusalem, at the same time as the European Individual Championship (23.02 – 09.03.2015).
Israel Chess Federation asked for one month period to confirm and finalize this offer.

After formal discussions and negotiations it was decided that the ECU President, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili will have an inspection trip to Jerusalem, on 11th-12th December, 2014.

This will be the final date for the ECU to announce if the tournament will be held in Jerusalem. If, for any reason, this is not feasible, the tournament will be postponed for another available date in 2015. We note that all qualifiers for the Women World Championship 2015 are qualified from the competitions in 2013 and 2014.

The European Chess Union has published the November 2014 edition of the monthly Newsletter.

In the November 2014 edition you will find:

• Carlsen – Anand match – report about the World Championship Match 2014;
• The report about the European Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship 2014 in Tallin;
• Short previewabout the 4th Quarter FIDE Presidential Board Meeting in Sochi;
• Who are the members of the appointed ECU Commissions;
• EUSA Convention in Ljubljana 2014 decided the European Chess University Championship 2015;
• Fun Zone;
• Upcoming events in December – announcement about the important ECU and European tournaments;

ECU Newsletter November 2014

The European University Sports Association (EUSA) Convention was held from 14 to 16 November. EUSA Convention is supported by the International University Sport Federation (FISU).

The EUSA Convention formally started with a reception at the Rectorate of the University of Ljubljana on Friday, November 14.

Participants were the Organisers of the European Universities Championships 2015, Organisers of the European Universities Games 2014 and 2016, Technical and Medical Commission members, EUSA staff and invited guests met in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to develop closer cooperation and enable best conditions for the participants of EUSA sporting event – student athletes.

During the presentations the organizers from Armenia presented the European Universities Chess Championship, which will be held in Yerevan, Armenia from 6 to 10 October, 2015 with the help of the Chess Federation of Armenia and the Armenian Student Sports Federation.

Armenian Student Sports Federation is training approximately 100 students who will work as volunteers during the European Universities Chess Championship in Yerevan in October 2015. They will work in different areas: sport venues, transport, accommodation and catering, communication, award ceremonies, liaison with the European University Sports Association.

The European Chess Union expresses great thanks to Technical Delegate Chess of EUSA, Ukrainian Grandmaster Oleksandr Sulypa for his contribution in this important success.

More information at the official website

The World No. 1 Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen defeated the challenger Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the result 6.5 – 4.5 and retained the World Champion title gained last year in Chennai. The World Championship match was played in the Winter Olympic City of Sochi, Russia, and finished after 11 rounds.

The Norwegian took the lead in the 2nd round, but Anand immediately equalized the score in the next game, which predicted one of the most exciting chess matches. Carlsen again took the lead in the 6th game, and after that managed to keep the advantage, and again won in the penultimate 11th round, after Anand’s risky play with Black.

Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen!

More information at the official website of the match

The 8th edition of the Kings Chess Tournament will have a new format this year. The Romanian Chess Federation and Elisabeta Polihroniade Chess Club, in cooperation with the company ROMGAZ are proud to announce the match between the Olympic team of Romania and the current Olympic Champion – team of Republic of China.

The match is taking place in the Natural Gas House in the city of Medias/Romania from 23^rd until 26^th November, 2014.

The Chinese team consists of  GM Wang Yue (ELO 2711), GM Ni Hua (ELO 2677), GM Wei Yi (ELO 2649) – all three members of the winning team of the Chess Olympiad in Tromso, and the World Youth Champion 19 year old GM Lu Shangley (ELO 2566).

Romanian team, selected by the International Master Sergiu Grunberg, consists of GM Constantin Lupulescu (ELO 2643), GM Mircea Emilian Parligras (ELO 3594), GM Vlad Cristian Jianu (ELO 2588) and GM Vladislav Nevednichy (ELO 2563).

The match will be played according to the Scheveningen system (each player of one team plays each player of the other team). The Arbiters of the match will be Farik Gasanov (AZE) and Radu Chirila (ROU).

Today a ten-player Blitz tournament was held in Grand Hotel Continental in Bucharest, in which all the members of both Romanian and Chinese Olympic teams took part. Additional players were two young Romanian hopes – IM Daniel Bogdan Deac (ELO 2385), the youngest International Master in the World (at 13 years old) and FM Mihnea Costachi (ELO 2382), bronze medalist at the World Junior Championship held in September. The winner became GM Lu Shangley with 6.5 points out of 9. Final standings at Chess-Results

The official opening of the Kings Tournament will be held on Sunday, 23^rd November at 2.30 pm in the Natural Gas House in Medias, and will be followed by the games of the round 1. The closing ceremony is scheduled on Wednesday, 26^th December at 7.00 pm.

Romanian Chess Federation expresses a great thanks to the Chinese Chess Federation for the cooperation.

More information here.