The 2026 European Youth Chess Championship kicked off today in Hersonissos, Crete, Greece!
The Opening day commenced with the Technical meeting, which took place in one of the playing venues of the event this morning. The Head of Delegations – representing delegations from 49 European federations, attended the meeting and were introduced to the rules by the Arbiters team led by the Chief Arbiter Mr. Marco Biagioli.
The Opening ceremony of the event took place shortly before the start of the first round. The President of the European Chess Union, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, addressed the players and guests before officially declaring the championship open. Mr. Azmaiparashvili then played the ceremonial first move on the top board of the Open U12 section in the match between Jan Burel and Boris Kolodziejczyk. With the Chief Arbiter wishing the players good luck and inviting them to start their clocks, the battles officially began!
Nearly 1,250 players from across Europe are competing in this year’s championship, with the first round featuring an extraordinary 612 games! Players demonstrated an incredible fighting spirit right from the start, resulting in 519 decisive games and just 96 draws after hard-fought battles.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the rating favourites, as the opening round delivered a few major upsets on the top boards across several sections.
All results, pairings of round 2 and current standings can be found here.
Live games of the top boards of each group can be followed here, while the live video broadcast with commentaries by WIM Sandra Djukic can be followed through the ECU YouTube channel.