The third round of the 2025 European Chess Club Cup took place today in Rhodes, Greece, highlighted by the arrival of reigning World Chess Champion Gukesh D, who joined his SuperChess team at the venue for the first time in the event.
Only nine teams in the Open section, and two teams in the Women’s section, kept the perfect score of 6 match points, and share the lead in the tournament after three played rounds.
The leading teams of the Open section are: Bayegan Pendik chess sports club from Turkey, SuperChess from Romania, Vugar Gashimov from Azerbaijan, Rishon Le Zion from Israel, Alkaloid from North Macedonia, Novy Bor from Czech Republic, Turkish Airlines sports club from Turkey, Kfar Saba from Israel, and Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub from Hungary.
All eyes today were on the reigning World Chess Champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, who made his debut in this year’s edition of the European Chess Club Cup. It was a good day for Gukesh, who started the tournament with a win against GM Sergei Movsesian.
Reigning World Chess Champion @DGukesh debuts in the 2025 European Chess Club Cup with a win against GM Sergei Movsesian! 🙌👑
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) October 21, 2025
👉Don't miss the action live: https://t.co/uNOMlMb58v#Chess #clubcup2025 #gukesh pic.twitter.com/BmwrZQy1Mr
Only two teams in the Women’s section remained at the perfect score of 6 match points: Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo from Monaco and Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica from Serbia.
The top-seeded Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo defeated the defending Champions Tajfun SK Ljubljana. IM Alina Kashlinskaya was the hero of the team, as she brought her team a narrow 2.5-1.5 match victory, after defeating IM Agrawal Vantika. The other three games finished in draws.
Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica took a close win over CE Gambit Bonnevoie, and the match finished with a score of 2.5-1.5. The only decisive game of the match happened on the fourth board, where WGM Xeniya Balabayeva outplayed IM Klaudia Kulon.
Interestingly, Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica is a very young team, and their top-board, 25-year-old reigning European Chess Champion IM Teodora Injac, is the captain and the oldest player in the composition. In the interesting interview with our host WIM Lena Govedarica, Teodora spoke more about Sirmium’s composition, and the complete interview can be seen on the ECU YouTube channel.
In another clash between the second-seeded Turkish Airlines sports club and fourth-seeded SuperChess, we had seen two decisive results, but the match finished in a tie with 2-2.
IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (Turkish Airlines) scored against IM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (SuperChess) after a very interesting game, with lots of dynamics on the board. After the game, she joined us for the interview and analysis with our host WIM Sandra Djukic.
GM Nino Batsiashvili (SuperChess) delivered a phenomenal win against GM Anna Muzychuk (Turkish Airlines), pushing for a point in a very difficult endgame with two Knights against the Rook. Eventually, the endgame transposed into two Knights versus pawn, where Batsiashvili successfully found a mating net and brought her team a match point since the games on the second and the fourth board finished in draws.
Scoring 5 match points each, SuperChess and Turkish Airlines sports club now tie for the third place.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
Photo gallery can be found here
The dynamical atmosphere from the venue reflects to our ECU TV studios in Rhodes, Greece. Our hosts, GM Alojzije Jankovic, WIM Lena Govedarica and WIM Sandra Djukic, analyzed games and discussed different topics with plenty of guests. All the interviews and videos can be found on the ECU YouTube channel.