The 40th European Chess Club Cup and the 29th European Women’s Chess Club Cup will commence this weekend in Rhodes, Greece!
The events will be played in 7-swiss round, with the time control of 90 minutes for 30 moves, plus 30-minute until the end of the game, with 30-second increment for each move starting from move one.
The event features the record-breaking participation of 122 clubs (102 in Open event and 20 teams will participate in Women’s championship) represented by 800 players – 111 GMs, 137 IMs, 11 WGMs, 16 WIMs, and 142 FMs competing for their teams.
The prestigious European Club Cup gathers strongest Chess Clubs and Teams of Europe, and the Open section line-up is headlined by teams of BayeganPendik Chess Sports from Turkey (average rating of players 2711), Alkaloid from North Macedonia (average rating of players 2701), defending Champions Novy Bor from Czech Republic (average rating of players 2683), SuperChess from Romania (average rating of players 2678), and Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub from Hungary (average rating of players 2638).
The teams are represented by Europe’s and World’s best Grandmasters, including: Arjun Erigaisi (Alkaloid, 2773), Anish Giri (BayeganPendik Chess Sports, 2759), Vincent Keymer (Novy Bor, 2755), Wei Yi (Alkaloid, 2754), reigning World Champion Gukesh D (SuperChess, 2752), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (BayeganPendik Chess Sports, 2742), Richard Rapport (BayeganPendik Chess Sports, 2724), Vladimir Fedoseev (Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub, 2720), Yu Yangyi (Alkaloid, 2720), Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (Novy Bor, 2716) and others.
The rating favourites in the Women’s section are Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo from Monaco (average rating of players 2490), Turkish Airlines Sports Club from Turkey (average rating of players 2474), defending Champions Tajfun SK Ljubljana from Slovenia (average rating of players 2455), SuperChess from Romania (average rating of players 2421) and Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica from Serbia (average rating of players 2409).
The Clubs gather World’s top Women chess players, including: GM Jiner Zhu (Tajfun SK Ljubljana, 2569), GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, 2541), GM Anna Muzychuk (Turkish Airlines Sports Club, 2525), GM Divya Deshmukh (Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, 2498), GM Nana Dzagnidze (Tajfun SK Ljubljana, 2496), GM Mariya Muzychuk (Turkish Airlines Sports Chess Club, 2485), GM Nino Batsiashvili (SuperChess, 2469), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, 2469), IM Yuliia Osmak (C’Chartres Echecs, 2464), and IM Leya Garifullina (Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica, 2453).
Starting lists of teams and players can be found here.
The opening ceremony of the European Club Cup 2025 will be held at the “Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights” in Rhodes Medieval City, on 18 October from 18:00 to 19:30, in accordance with the monument’s operating hours. The Technical meeting for the Captains will take place afterwards, at 21:30, in the playing venue of the event – Rodos Palace Hotel.
Live games and live video broadcast of the event with expert commentaries can be exclusively followed through the ECU YouTube channel!
Detailed information about the event can be found on the Official website.