European Individual Chess Championship 2017, which takes place in Minsk, the capital of Belarus officially started yesterday.
Chess fans all over the world must be delighted to be able to follow live broadcast of 100 boards, along with professional commentary in English and Russian, done by by Evgeniy Miroshnichenko and Sergey Shipov.
The first round brought few upsets on the top boards, as GM Anton Korobov (UKR 2688) lost to IM Pier Luigi Basso (ITA 2447), as well as GM NIls Grandelius (SWE 2665) who lost to IM Luca Kessler (AUT 2431). The top seeds GM David Navara (CZE 2739), GM Dmitry Andreikin (RUS 2723) and GM Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR 2712) drew their games.
IM Meri Arabidze (2374) defeated GM Mykhaylo Oleksiyenko (UKR 2636), while WFM Alfia Nasybullina (RUS 2162) defeated former World and European Senior Champion GM Zurab Sturua (GEO 2555).
WGM Olga Girya (RUS 2476) defeated Artsiom Strybuk (BLR 1693), and IM Elisabeth Paehtz (GER 2474) defeated Evgeniy Furseev (BLR 1649). WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS 2470) also started with the victory, against Belarus player Makar Rasanau.
Many other women players managed to make draws at the start of the Championship – IM Ana Matnadze (ESP 2413), WIM Narmin Khalafova (AZE 2237), WFM Bibisara Assaubayeva (RUS 2224), WIM Dina Drozdova (RUS 2214), WFM Anastasia Sazanova (RUS 2191), etc.
The opening ceremony of the event took place on Monday 29th May, with the attendance of many distinguished guests, players and media representatives. The ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili addressed to the audience, welcomed all the present and officially opened the Championship. Before the 1st round started, Mr. Azmaiparashvili made the first symbolic move in the game of the top seed David Navara and officially started the tournament.
