The 2023 European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship starts tomorrow in Zagreb, Croatia!
Nearly 700 players coming from 41 European federations registered for the event, and the top seeds are: GM David Navara (CZE), GM Etienne Bacrot (FRA), GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR), GM Baadur Jobava (GEO), GM Laurent Fressinet (FRA), GM Sabino Brunello (ITA), GM Alexey Sarana (SRB), GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM), GM Eltaj Safarli (AZE), GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) etc.
The highest rated Croatian grandmaster and European Chess Champion (2018), GM Ivan Saric, will be the 11th seed in the Rapid event and the 15th seed in the Blitz tournament. On December 4th, 2023, Saric took part in a promotional event of the European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2023, playing a simul against Croatian public figures – sportsmen, politicians, TV directors and presenters, musicians and young chess talents.
The first event on the schedule will be the European Rapid Chess Championship 2023, taking place on 14-15 December. The event will be played in 11 rounds, swiss system. The time control of the event is 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment and the total prize fund of the event is 30.000 EUR.
European Blitz Chess Championship 2023 will be played on December 16th, and it will be played in 13 rounds, swiss system. The time control of the event is 3 minutes + 3 seconds increment, with the total prize fund of 15.000 EUR.
The championships will be held at the Zagreb Fair, pavilion 10a.
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Live broadcast of the event can be followed through the ECU YouTube channel with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and Dragana Nikolovska.
Useful links:
Starting list of players, pairings & results
Live broadcast – ECU YouTube channel
Facebook page of the event
Featured photo: View of Zagreb by J.Duval