G. European Youth Championship
The European Youth Championships shall include the following separate competitions: the European Open -8, -10, -12, -14, -16 and -18 Championships and the European Girls -8, -10, -12, -14, -16 and -18 Championships.
G.1. Participation
G.1.1 Entitled to participate are chess players from the ECU Chess Federations who shall not have reached the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 or 18 years, respectively, by January 1st of the year in which the tournament will commence.
G.1.2 The players placed 1-3 in the previous European Youth Championship will have the personal right to participate in the tournament of the corresponding age-category or a higher age-category if they fulfil the conditions of Art. G.1.1. This privilege may be exercised once exclusively in the subsequent year following the year of qualification.
G.1.3 In addition to the players mentioned in G.1.2, each ECU Chess Federation will have the right to send one representative to each Championship. The organising federation shall have a second place in the tournaments, and holds a player in reserve to make an even number of participants, if necessary.
G.1.4 Subject to the agreement with the organisers, and without prejudice to previous regulations on the number of participants in this competition, each federation shall be entitled to register any number of participants it deems necessary provided the following conditions are met:
(a) payment to ECU of the approved fee (see Annex 2) per player in advance;
(b) payment of the full board and lodge of the additional player(s) to the organising
chess federation;
G.1.4.1 The additional participants shall not be entitled to any other privileges such as payment of pocket money, etc. (if any), already reserved to the original nominee(s) of each federation.
G.2. Organisation
G.2.1 The competition shall be organised between August 1 and November 30. In exceptional cases the Board may accept other dates.
G.2.2. The playing venue(s) shall have enough space to host 1300 players and the necessary number of arbiters stations. The playing venue(s) shall include at least 2 subsidiary rooms (office-size) for the arbiters’ and anticheating needs.
G.2.3 Each playing venue shall be at a walking distance, in any case not more than 500 metres, from the official accommodation(s).
G.2.4. In case that there is more than one playing venue, they cannot be more than 250 metres far from one another.
G.2.5. Official accommodation shall host at least 2500 people.
G.2.6. In case that there is more than one official accommodation, each of them shall respect the clauses G.2.2, G.2.3 and G.2.4.
G.2.7. Bids which doesn’t meet the previous requirements can be rejected before presentation to the General Assembly upon the inspection report.
G.2.8. The ECU Board can waive one or more requirements under 1-5 in case of very high level and budgeted bids. In this case, before signing the contract and at least one year before the start of the tournament, the organiser shall pay a deposit of 100.000,00 euros to the ECU bank account. The deposit shall be available to the ECU without any restrictions to be used to improve the championship conditions if deemed necessary by the ECU Technical Delegate or other highest officer in charge.
G.3. Tournament Regulations
G.3.1 Each championship shall be played in 9 rounds according to the Swiss system.
G.3.1.1 If in any age group there are 11 to 15 participants only 7 rounds will be played.
G.3.1.2 If in any age group there are 10 or fewer participants a round robin tournament will be played.
G.3.1.3 The tournament may have a free day.
G.4. Titles and Prizes
G.4.1 The organising federation shall award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the players taking the first three places in each Championship.
G.4.2 The organiser should award special prizes to as many participants as possible and publish the list of prizes and the rules for their award before the start of the first round.
G.4.3 The winner of each European Youth Championship shall have the personal right to participate in the World Championship of the corresponding or of a higher age category if the relevant stipulation of the FIDE Tournament Regulation is met. This privilege may be exercised exclusively in the same or subsequent year following the qualification. The winner of the European –18 Championship has the right to participate in the World Championship –18 as well as –20.