The European Team Chess Championship 2025 commenced today in Batumi, Georgia! The event is played in 9 rounds, swiss system, Open and Women’s sections separately, with the participation of 76 teams (40 teams in Open tournament and 36 teams participate in the Women’s championship).
The Opening ceremony of the event took place shortly before the start of the first round. The ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili and the President of the Georgian Chess Federation Mr. Akaki Iashvili addressed the players and captains and officially declared the event opened. The Chief Arbiter of the event Mr. Panagiotis Nikolopoulos briefly introduced the tournament rules and invited the players to start their games.
The first round of the event saw the underdogs meeting the favourites, with a few upsets on the first boards. The rating favourite of the Open section – Germany, lost their match against 21st seeded Denmark team. GM Dmitrij Kollars (GER, 2642) blundered a stunning tactical motive which his opponent GM Mads Andersson (DEN, 2556) spotted to gain the decisive advantage. Andersson won the game and brought his team a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory since the other three games finished in a draw.
Another major upset happened on the third board in the match between 3rd-seeded Hungary and 23rd-seeded Georgia 1. GM Baadur Jobava (GEO, 2573) defeated GM Sanan Sjugirov (HUN, 2632) with the black pieces to bring his team a 2.5-1.5 win with the other three games resulting in draw.
Most of the other favourites of the first round won their matches, except from Spain which played a draw against 28th-seeded Switzerland since all four games finished in a draw.
A few surprising results marked the first round in the Women’s tournament. The third seeded Ukrainian team was hold to a draw by 21st-seeded Austria. GM Natalia Zhukova (UKR, 2305) defeated WIM Exler, Veronika (AUT, 2180, but WFM Bozhena Piddubna (UKR, 2265) lost against WFM Emilia Deak-Sala (AUT, 2170), while the games on the first two boards finished in draws.
The 25th-seeded team of Slovakia defeated the 7th-seeded Spain with a narrow 2.5-1.5 result. IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (ESP, 2444) won against IM Eva Repkova (SVK, 2332), but WFM Viktoria Nadzamova (SVK, 2126) and WFM Lucia Sevcikova (SVK, 2116) won their games for the Slovakian teams against WGM Monica Calzetta Ruiz (ESP, 2221) and WFM Gal.La Garcia-Castany (ESP, 2201), while the game between IM Sabrina Vega Gutierrez (ESP, 2362) and WIM Svetlana Sucikova (SVK, 2162) ended in draw.
Ranked 14th on the starting list, Greece drew against 32nd-seeded Iceland. IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE, 2453) played a draw against WGM Lenka Ptacnikova (ISL, 2167), WFM Hallgerdur Thorsteinsdottir (ISL, 2031) defeated WIM Ekaterini Pavlidou (GRE, 2217), WFM Antonia Christodoulaki (GRE, 2171) drew against WCM Gudrun Fanney Briem (ISL, 1981), and WFM Georgia Grapsa (GRE, 2086) won against WCM Idunn Helgadottir (ISL, 1874).
All results, rankings and pairings for the second round can be found here.
The second round starts tomorrow, at 15:00 (local time). Live video broadcast with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili can be followed through the ECU YouTube channel or ECU TV platform.
Photo gallery by ECU can be found here.
