The Mitropa Cup 2024 starts this Wednesday in Apolda, Germany. The event will be played from 15-23 February at the local city hall, Stadthalle Apolda.
The event is played in Open and Women’s sections separately, with participation of 10 federations: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The Championships are played in 9 rounds, round-robin system, with time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment for each move from move one.
Each team consists of 4 players, plus one reserve player. The top-seeded team in the Open section is Germany (Rating average of 2636) with GM Matthias Bluebaum (Germany, 2658), GM Alexander Donchenko (Germany, 2636), GM Rasmus Svane (Germany, 2632), GM Dmitrij Kollars (Germany 2619), and GM Frederik Svane (Germany 2618) in the team. The team of Italy is second on the starting list with an average rating of 2511, while Austria and Switzerland have teams with an average rating of 2479.
German Women’s Team headlines the Women’s championship with an average rating of 2309 and WGM Josefine Heinemann (Germany, 2328), WGM Jana Schneider (Germany, 2320), WGM Hanna Marie Klek (Germany, 2279), FM Lare Schulze (Germany 2308) and WIM Kateryna Dolzhykova (Germany, 2255) in the team. Hungary is seeded second with an average rating of 2241, and Italy is the third seed with rating average of 2216.
Starting list of players and teams compositions can be found here.
Live games and detailed information about the event are available on the official website.
About the Mitropa Cup:
The Mitropa Cup is the annual team chess tournament for national teams from Central Europe. The traditional team event this year brings together 10 nations competing against each other in an Open and a Women section on 4 boards each. Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland. The event commenced in 1976 in Innsbruck.