Two rounds have been played at the European Chess Club Cups 2024 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia.
Most of the favourites in the Open section kept the winning streak, including the top seeded SuperChess, Alkaloid, Novy Bor Chess Club, Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club, Turkish Airlines, who scored convincing victories.
Majority of 2700+ rated players were victorious yesterday including Gukesh D, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Arjun Erigaisi, Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Vincent Keymer etc. Praggnandhaa struggled again, and after the loss in the first round, yesterday drew his game against IM Yotam Shohat (2415, Etude Ramat Gan Dov Porat Memorial).
The World Chess Championship Challenger Gukesh D scored his second win in the tournament and joined ECU TV studio to analyze the game with GM Alojzije Jankovic.
In a few matches, the underdogs came to a score 3-3 against better rated players: 33th seeded Andreu Paterna drew against 12th seeds Rishon Le Zion A, 40th seeded Breidablik Chess Club played 3-3 against 19th seeds SV Werder Bremen, and the 42nd seeded Rishon Le Zion B upset 21st seeds Riehen with the same result.
The top seeded team of the Women’s Championship, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo played against Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica yesterday and the match finished in a tie. IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (2478, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo) suffered a loss against IM Leya Garifullina (2438, Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica), GM Vaishali Rameshbabu scored a win for the top seeds, but the other two games finished in a draw.
Other rating favourites were victorious, except for the 11th seeded Rudar Kostolac who drew against the 15th seed Rishon Le Zion.
Results, standings and pairings can be found here.
Round 2 video recap:
The third round starts today at 15:00 CEST, and live games and broadcast can be followed through the ECU TV platform. Live video broadcast with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and Dragana Nikolovska is also available on the ECU YouTube channel.