Six rounds have been played at the European Individual Chess Championship 2018 in Batumi, Georgia and all the players went to deserved rest day.
After six days of intense struggles, seven players emerged on the top to go on the free day cold heads as leaders of the event. Many of top seeders suffered huge upsets in first rounds of the Championship, but it seems that they are slowly coming back close to their starting rank positions.
The hero of the starting rank list elite is Wojtaszek Radoslav (POL, 2738) who didn’t loose the faith after suffering bad lost in the second round against Deac Bogdan-Daniel (ROU, 2572), but he managed to win 4 games in a row to come back in a game for the throne, leap to the top and to be one of the favorites again.
However, the current ranking list with Nabaty Tamir (ISR, 2690), Najer Evgeniy (RUS, 2683), Jones Gawain C B (RNG, 2651), Inarkiev Ernesto (RUS, 2684), Bok Benjamin (NED, 2622), Wojtaszek Radoslav (POL, 2738) and Sjugirov Sanan (RUS, 2652) who tie for the first place, each with 5 points, shows that the second half of the Championship will be filled with intense fights and very interesting games.
Seven leaders are followed with 21 players who reached the score of 4.5 points, among whom are top seeded: Jakovenko Dmitry (RUS, 2746), David Navara (CZE, 2737), Dubov Daniil (RUS, 2701), Cheparinov Ivan (ECU, 2693) and others.
On 21st of March, World Down Syndrome Day, organizers and participants of European Individual Chess Championship 2018 expressed their solidarity by supporting the initiative “Lots of Socks” created by the organization “World Down Syndrome Day”.
Today is the resting day, and the Championship will be continued with 7th round which will be played tomorrow at 3 pm, local time. Live transmission of 104 games together with the live commentary by GM Adrian Mikhalchishin can be followed through the official website of the event, while the live games with analysis can be followed through the ECU website, section LIVE.
Top pairings for the 7th round are:
| 1 | 16 | GM | Najer Evgeniy | 2683 | 5 | 5 | GM | Wojtaszek Radoslaw | 2738 | 2 | |||
| 2 | 11 | GM | Nabaty Tamir | 2690 | 5 | 5 | GM | Sjugirov Sanan | 2652 | 29 | |||
| 3 | 30 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | 2651 | 5 | 5 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | 2684 | 15 | |||
| 4 | 3 | GM | Navara David | 2737 | 4½ | 5 | GM | Bok Benjamin | 2622 | 51 | |||
| 5 | 36 | GM | Guseinov Gadir | 2646 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Jakovenko Dmitry | 2746 | 1 | |||
| 6 | 8 | GM | Dubov Daniil | 2701 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Volokitin Andrei | 2639 | 41 | |||
| 7 | 10 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | 2693 | 4½ | 4½ | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | 2601 | 69 |
The European Individual Chess Championship 2018 is qualification event for the next World Cup, with total prize fund of 100.000 EUR. The event is played in 11 rounds by Swiss system, with time control 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from the move one.
The event takes place from 16th-29th March in Batumi, Georgia.
