The European Open and Women’s Chess Club Cups 2026 are moving forward and the matches are becoming increasingly challenging with each round.
Today’s second round brought a few surprises. In the Open section, most of the top-seeded teams lived up to expectations and scored convincing wins against the lower-rated underdogs.
The rating favourite of the tournament Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club (Turkey) won against Crvena Zvezda (Serbia) with a final score of 5-1 as GM Temur Kuybokarov (Crvena Zvezda) defeated GM Amin Tabatabaei (Bayegan Pendik).
The second-seeded Alkaloid (North Macedonia) was perfect against Breidablik Chess Club A-team Iceland and scored the 6-0 win.
And the defending champions, SuperChess Romania scored a maximum 6-0 win against KBSK Brugge (Belgium).
The results from the top boards in the Open section are shown below:
| 1 | Crvena Zvezda | Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club | 1 | : | 5 |
| 2 | Alkaloid | Breidablik Chess Club A-team | 6 | : | 0 |
| 3 | Elektroprivreda *) | Mornar Split | 5 | : | 1 |
| 4 | KBSK Brugge | SuperChess Romania | 0 | : | 6 |
| 5 | Novy Bor Chess Club | Chessclub Differdange | 5 | : | 1 |
| 6 | De Sprenger Echternach | Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai | 0 | : | 6 |
| 7 | Mimoza | Ashdod chess club | 1½ | : | 4½ |
| 8 | Vugar Gashimov | SDP Wachtebeke | 6 | : | 0 |
| 9 | Dardania | Rishon LeZion A | 2 | : | 4 |
| 10 | Beer Sheva Chess Club | FC St. Pauli 1910 | 5 | : | 1 |
With 22 teams participating in the Women’s section, the matches of the second round were already quite difficult. The defending champion and top-seeded Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo played against the fifth-seeded Azerbaijan team Odlar Yurdu. After exciting games, Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo scored a 3-1 win with victories by GM Humpy Koneru and IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, while the games on the first and the fourth board finished in draws.
The second-seeded Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica from Serbia scored a narrow 2.5-1.5 win over Gambit ASEE (North Macedonia). IM Polina Shuvalova and IM Nurgyul Salimova scored for Sirmium, while WGM Viktoria Radeva (Gambit ASEE) defeated WGM Xeniya Balabayeva. The game on the second board between IM Leya Garifullina (Sirmium) and WGM Beloslava Krasteva (Gambit ASEE) finished in a draw.
The 8th-seeded Club Ajedrez Linares Spain heroically held the third-seeded SuperChess Romania to a draw. WGM Alicja Sliwicka (Linares) drew against GM Nino Batsiashvili (SuperChess) on the top board, WGM Michalina Rudzinska (Linares) defeated IM Dinara Wagner (SuperChess) after a very interesting game where Wagner had a winning position but blundered a piece and ended up in massive trouble. WFM Viviana Galvan Cipriani (Linares) drew against IM Deimante Dulyte-Cornette (SuperChess) as the latter saved a worse position she had throughout the game. And IM Marsel Efroimski (SuperChess) scored for the Romanian team after defeating WFM Rosa Adela Lorente Serrano (Linares).
The results of the Women’s event are shown below:
| 1 | Odlar Yurdu | Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo | 1 | : | 3 |
| 2 | Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica | Gambit ASEE | 2½ | : | 1½ |
| 3 | Club Ajedrez Linares | SuperChess Romania | 2 | : | 2 |
| 4 | CE Gambit Bonnevoie | SG 1871 Loeberitz | 3½ | : | ½ |
| 5 | GASCO Pardubice | Crvena Zvezda | ½ | : | 3½ |
| 6 | Velikova Chess Club | Zenski sahovski klub NAPREDAK Zenica | 2 | : | 2 |
| 7 | She Plays To Win Lionesses A | SK Radnicki | 3½ | : | ½ |
| 8 | Oslo Schakselskap | Klub Kolner Schachfreunde | 1½ | : | 2½ |
| 9 | Gostivar | She Plays To Win Lionesses B | 2½ | : | 1½ |
| 10 | Accademia Scacchistica Romana | Davit Jojua’s chess club | 0 | : | 4 |
| 11 | Wasa SK | Klaipeda | 2 | : | 2 |
The third round starts tomorrow at 14:00 CET, and live video broadcast can be followed through the ECU YouTube channel.
All results, rankings and pairings can be found here.
Detailed information about the event can be found through the Official website.
Photos by ECU