European Team Chess Championship 2019, with participation of 72 teams coming from 40 European federations, opens today in Batumi, Georgia. The first round starts tomorrow, and the event will take place from 23rd October-3rd November.
40 teams registered for the Open section of the Championship, and the top seeds are: Russia (average rating of players 2722), England (average rating of players 2690), Poland (average rating of players 2688), Azerbaijan (average rating of players 2679) and Armenia (average rating of players 2676).
Starting rank list-Open section
In Women’s section 32 teams will participate the event, with following teams as the top seeders: Russia (average rating of players 2529), Georgia (average rating of players 2451), Ukraine (average rating of players 2419), Poland (average rating of players 2397) and Azerbaijan (average rating of players 2383).
Starting rank list- Women’s section
The Opening ceremony of the event takes place today at 20.00 (local time) in Batumi Theatre, and afterwards, the Technical/Captains’ meeting will take place at 22.00 (local time).
Teams of Azerbaijan (in Open section) and Russia (in Women’s section) will be in position to defend the European Team Chess Champion title, since they have won the European Team Chess Championship 2017 in Hersonissos-Crete, Greece.
The first three teams in open and women’s sections will receive cup and prize money of 32.000 EUR in total. Also, the cups, medals and money prizes will be awarded to the best players per boards.
The event will be played in 9 rounds, Swiss system, with the time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment for every move played, starting from the move one.
The LIVE transmission of the games will be available through the official website of the event.