European Youth Team Chess Championship 2018 has started in Bad Blankenburg, Germany, with participation of 44 temas. Boys and girls of sections Under 18 have already played 3 rounds, while 4 rounds have been played in section Open U12 and 5 rounds have been played in section Girls U12.
The event has been declared opened during the short Opening ceremony which took place before the start of the first round. Around 150 players were addressed by Dr. Marcus Fenner (DSB Director), Gabi Ohler, who represented the State of Thuringia, and Johann Poecksteiner, European Chess Union Board member and the event has officially started.
In Girls section U12, 6 teams are competing for the European Youth Team Chess Champion title. They will play 10 rounds according to double Robin round system. After 5 rounds, the teams of Hungary and Germany 1 emerged on the top with score of 9 match points, while the current third place is in hands of France who reached 5 match points.
Team of Israel emerged as the sole leader of Open U12 category with score of 7 match points. The runner-ups after 4 played rounds are Turkey with 6 match points and France with 5 match points. Top seeded Belarus suffered huge upsets in the first round, and surprisingly scored only 2 match points.
A few upsets happened also in Girls section U18, where top seeded team of Serbia suffered one lost and two drawn matches to achieve only 2 match points out of 3 played rounds. Poland emerged on the top with maximum result and score of 6 match points, while 5 teams tie for the second place: Germany 1, Romania, Slovenia 2, Croatia and Slovenia 1, each with score of 4 match points.
In category Open U18, Romania came on the top with perfect 6 match points. Teams of Poland and Austria tie for the second place, each with 5 match points, while top seeders of this group, Germany 1, also have suffered upset, and currently holds the 5th place.
Pairings, results and standings
This surprises of the first rounds promise very interesting and intense finish of the event. All the games, pairings and results can be seen on the Official Website of the event. All the games are live transmitted, and the live broadcast of the games can be followed here.
The event is played in 7 rounds Swiss system, except in the category for Girls U12, where 10 rounds will be played according to the round Robin system, according to ECU and FIDE Tournament rules, with time control 90 minutes for 40 moves+ 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment for every played move starting from the move one. Draws before the 30th move made by black are strictly forbidden.
Official Website of the Championship
