The 2026 European Individual Chess Championship starts tomorrow in Katowice, Poland, and will be played from 7-19 April at the Arena Katowice.
With 502 registered players coming from 43 European federations, the event will likely set a new participation record which was previously seen in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia at the 2023 edition with 484 players. A very strong field includes 93 Grandmasters, 98 International Masters, 7 WGMs, 8 WIMs, and a total of 345 titled players.
The top seeds are: GM Igor Kovalenko (UKR, 2685), GM David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2656), GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2655), GM Aydin Suleymanli (AZE, 2653), GM Shant Sargsyan (ARM, 2647), GM David Navara (CZE, 2643), GM Alexander Donchenko (GER, 2642), GM Anton Demchenko (SLO, 2636), GM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2635), and GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2633).
Starting list of players can be seen here.
The Opening ceremony of the event will take place tomorrow, shortly before the start of the first round, and the tournament will be officially opened by the ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
The tournament will be played in 11 rounds, swiss system, with time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes until the end of the game, with 30-second increment for each move starting from move one.
The total prize fund of the Championship is 100.000 EUR, with 20.000 EUR reserved for the Winner of the event. The prize fund features 92.000 EUR for General prizes, and 8.000 EUR for special prizes and best ranked female players, senior players, Juniors U18, and best ranked Polish players.
The European Individual Chess Championship 2026 is part of the World Chess Championship Cycle, and according to the FIDE regulations for World Cup and the ECU Board decision, 20* players will qualify. (*Under the current FIDE World Cup regulations, FIDE is the only body responsible for the qualification spots)
The event will be live broadcasted on all major live-games broadcasting platforms. Live video broadcast with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic, WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian can be followed through the ECU TV YouTube channel.
Detailed information about the event can be found on the Official website.