The 16th European Senior Chess Championship 2016 begins tomorrow in Yerevan, Armenia in Chess House after Tigran Petrosian.
The Championship will be played in two categories: Senior 50+ and Senior 65+. So far, 16 female players are registered in both categories, 8 in each category, but will play in the Open tournaments with separate prizes.
The top seeds in the category Senior 50+ and only two players rated over 2500 are GM Rafael A Vaganian (ARM 2577) and GM Zurab Sturua (GEO 2545), 2014 World Senior Champion and 2015 European Senior Champion in 50+ categories. The top female seed is WGM Galina Strutinskaia (RUS 2237).
The top seed in 65+ category is GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (RUS 2509), the only player with 2500+ rating. Female players are led with former World Champion GM Nona Gaprindashvili (GEO 2299).
The Championship will be played in 9 round according to Swiss System, with time control 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
Total prize fund is 10.000 EUR, and the first prizes are 1.000 EUR (Open sections) and 650 EUR (Women sections).