European Individual Chess Championship 2025 is halfway through and tomorrow is the free day.
After six played rounds, GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP, 2654) kept the sole lead in the event following today’s draw against GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2630).
Daniil Yuffa had white pieces and got a clearly better position and a pawn up after the opening, but he entered a drawish endgame with Bishops and Rooks on the board. Being low on time, Hovhannisyan made mistake with 71…Be3? allowed Yuffa to play for a win, but the Spanish Grandmaster missed his chances and the players shortly after shook hands for a draw. With the score of 5.5/6 points, GM Daniil Yuffa heads to the free day with the sole leadership.
As many as 11 players tie for second place scoring 5/6 points, each: GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2630), GM Baadur Jobava (GEo, 2578), GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2658), GM Aryan Tari (NOR, 2621), GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2628), GM Lorenzo Lodici (ITA, 2559), GM Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2643), GM Gleb Dudin (HUN, 2544), GM Maxime Lagarde (FRA, 2615), GM Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 2603) and GM Paul Velten (FRA, 2515).
The 6th round was opened by Consul General of Turkey in Romania Mr. Ozan Cakir, Vice President of the Romanian Chess Federation Mr. Alin-Mile Berescu and Secretary General of the Romanian Chess Federation Mr. Gabriel Grecescu.
Mr. Ozan Cakir and Mr. Alin-Mile Berescu made the first ceremonial move in the game between GM Gleb Dudin (HUN, 2544) and GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (TUR, 2605) to inaugurate the start of the round.
Our hosts in the live studio GM Alojzije Jankovic and WIM Sandra Djukic analyzed the games of today’s round, and our followers could join the poll on the ECU YouTube channel, guessing what will the players do during the free day tomorrow. The majority of the voters (49%) believe the players will use the day to prepare for the seventh round which starts on Saturday, 22nd of March, at 15:00 local time.
The top-board pairings are:
Live games and live video broadcast can be followed through the ECU TV platform and the ECU YouTube channel.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
Photos by David Llada