European Youth Chess Championship 2018 which takes place from 19th-30th August in Riga, Latvia, opens today.
The Championship gathered almost 1100 players coming from 46 European federations, and will be played in 6 age categories (12 open and girls groups): U8, U10, U12, U14, U16 and U18. Among 1100 young and talented players who will fight for the title of European Champion, there are 1 Grandmaster, 10 International masters, 79 FIDE masters, 6 Women International masters, 42 Women FIDE masters and in total 198 titled players!
The Opening Ceremony of the event will take place tonight at 20:00 o’clock (local time) when the Championship will be declared opened. After the Technical meeting which will be held tomorrow in the morning, the 1st round will start at 15:00 (local time) in International Exhibition Centre Kipsala, as the official playing venue of the Championship.
The event will be played in 9 rounds by Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The time control will be 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.
As every year, it will be interesting to watch young talents and see them becoming chess stars later. This year EYCC has the priviledge to welcome the world rating leader of her age – Badelka Olga from Belarus in G-u16 section and European rating leader of his age- Murzin Voloder (RUS) in category open U12.
The organizers provided LIVE transmission of the top boards of each section, which can be followed through the official website of the Championship.