The European Individual Chess Championship for 2015 starts today in Ramada hotel in Jerusalem, where the opening ceremony will take place.
The championship is organized by the municipality of Jerusalem and the Israel Chess Federation under the auspices of the European Chess Union
The Championship gathers more than 250 players from 33 European federations, who will compete for this prestigious title. Also, for the best 23 participants this will be the ticket for the world cup in Baku, Azerbaijan later this year, a higher qualifier in the world championship cycle.
There are 6 players from the 2700+ club, led by the top seeds David Navara (CZE) and Nikita Vityugov (RUS) with 2735 points each.
Seven past European champions will try to make history by winning the title for the second time: Emil Sutovsky (ISR, 2001), Liviu- Dieter Nisipeanu (GER, 2005), Zdenko Kozul (CRO, 2006), Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS, 2010), Vladimir Potkin (RUS, 2011), Alexander Moiseenko (UKR, 2013) and Alexander Motylev (RUS, 2014).
The tournament will be played according to the Swiss System in 11 rounds, with the time control 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move one.
The total prize fund is 120,000 EUR with additional special prizes to the best ACP members and the best 50+ senior players.
Official website www.eicc2015.com