The European Chess Union Board meeting took place on the 24th of October in Batumi, Georgia. The meeting was held under excellent conditions in the hotel Batumi Hilton during the European Team Chess Championship 2019.

The main areas under discussion and decisions made were the following: 

Administration

• ECU Board approved the ECU Budget 2020 which submitted to the General Assembly.
• ECU Board was informed about the results of the projects submitted to the FIDE Development fund 2019 and the procedure for the year 2020.
• ECU Board informed about the recent investigation findings about the owner(s) and manager(s) of the shadow company “ECU Delaware”
• For the security and transparency of the bank transactions it was decided the bank accounts and their beneficiaries which are used for the European Championships to be obligatory published by the organisers either in the Tournament invitation or the registration forms on the ECU website. 

European Championships-Tournaments

• The European Corporate Chess Championship 2020 was awarded to Rotterdam, Netherlands to be held from 26th to 29^th June 2020. The venue of the tournament is a luxury boat that will be sailing during the rounds. The teams will be accommodated in Bilderberg Park Hotel.
• The European Amateur Chess Championship 2020 was awarded to Mali Losinj, Croatia to be held from 13^th  to 22^nd  June 2020.
• The European Amateur Chess Championship 2021 was awarded to Olbia, Italy to be held from 16^th  to 26th April 2021.
• The European Senior Championship 2021 was awarded to the Italian Chess Federation, which has to decide about the exact venue till March 2020.
• The European Youth Team Chess Championship 2021, according the evaluation results awarded to Bucharest Romania to be held from 3^rd to 11^th August 2021.
• The European Women Chess Championship 2021 (15-28 March) and the European Youth Chess Championship 2022 (17-28 August) awarded to Prague, Chess Republic according the results of evaluation.
• The option to organise the European Women Chess Championship 2022 and the European Youth Chess Championship 2023 awarded to Montenegro Chess Federation with the deadline to bring a detailed proposal to the ECU Board by March 2020.

New Projects & Information Technology

• The ECU Application for android and IOS system was presented to the Board.

The ECU APP is now available in the Play store for Android systems and in the Apple store for IOs systems! 

Step 1 – Search “European Chess Union” & download the app, 
Step 2- Register with your FIDE ID
Step 3- Open your activation e-mail 
Step 4- Set a password by following an email you have received
Step 5- Go back to the ECU App and login

Then you can follow the ECU Calendar and its updates, news, results and pairings for the running ECU Championships. You can also evaluate the ECU events and be informed online with push notifications for important matters!

• The ECU Arbiters Dress Code was presented to the Board.

• The ECU Marketing and PR Director Ms. Tea Kipshidze informed the Board about the preparations for the 1st European Golden Pawn Award Ceremony in Monaco.

ECU Board approved the list of winners for the first year which is dedicated to the Chess Legends (Annex_1).

European Chess Union General Assembly 2019

The European Chess Union General Assembly meeting took place on the 26^th of October with the representation of 37 federations members. The meeting was held under excellent conditions in the hotel Batumi Hilton during the European Team Chess Championship 2019.

ECU Board reported to the General Assembly and presented the new projects developed the last 10 months (Annex_2).

            The decisions of the meeting:

• The ECU budget 2020 was unanimously approved.
• The Accounts for the year 2018 was unanimously accepted and the Board discharged

The proposed amendments and additions in the ECU regulations were accepted with main changes:

A. The Selection of the Arbiters for the ECU Championships
B. The Guidelines for Accommodation, Transportation for ECU Competitions (Annex_3)
C. The Guidelines for Food & Beverages for ECU Competitions (Annex_4)
D. The minimum requirements for live games and the live studio for ECU Competitions.

European Championships – Meetings

• The European School Chess Championship 2021 awarded to Duress, Albania.
• The option of the European Women Chess Championship 2022 and European Youth Chess Championship 2023 is awarded to Montenegro Chess Federation.
• The ECU General Assembly approved the proposal of the ECU Board to organize the ceremonial ECU General Assembly 2020 (for the 35 years from the ECU establishment) in Monaco combined with the European Golden Pawn Awarding Ceremony.

Proposals for the new FIDE Charter

FIDE informed ECU about the new draft (Annex 5) prepared by the FIDE Constitutional Commission for the new FIDE Charter. European Chess Federations may send their notices direct to FIDE or through ECU.

Sincerely,

Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou
ECU Secretary General

ECU Circular letter No.2 can be downloaded as a PDF file here.