ARMENIAN CHESS PLAYERS TO PARTICIPATE IN INDIVIDUAL SPEEDWAY EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP
PanARMENIAN.Net
03.03.2009 14:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ At the 10th European Individual Chess Championship
due on March 6-18, 2009, Budva, Montenegro, Armenia will be
represented by 7 chess players, including 2008 Olympic champions
Vladimir Hakobyan, Tigran Petrosyan, Artashes Minasyan, Armenia’s
champion Arman Pashikyan, grand masters Tigran Kotangyan, Zaven
Andreasyan and the international master Arthur Chibukhchyan.
So far, the Armenian chess players showed no outstanding results in
this tournament. Only Levon Aronian won the 3rd place in 2004 and
2005, and Sergaey Movsisyan, the Armenian Chess player, representing
Slovakia, won a silver medal last year.
The European Championship is open to all players representing the Chess
Federations which comprise the European Chess Union regardless of their
title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.
This year European Individual Chess Championship will host 310 chess
players. The opening ceremony will be held on March 5.
The championship will be 11 rounds, played in the Swiss system in
accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Laws of Chess.
The playing time will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes
for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move,
starting from move one.
The first tour kicks off on March 6, with tournaments days from March
6-17 and a day off on Mar. 18.
The prize fund is euro 120 000:1st prize – euro 15 000, 2nd prize –
euro 12 000, 3rd prize – euro 10 000.
The Individual European Championship 2009 is qualification event for
the next World Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the decision
of the ECU Board, 22 players will qualify.
The first unofficial European Championship was held in Munich from
Sep. 14-26, 1942 and organized by the president of German Chess Union
Edhardt Post.
Under wartime conditions, Jewish chess players, as well Germany’s
adversaries were not included in the list of participants.
The 1st official Individual European Chess Championships took place
in Saint Vincent Jul. 3-14, 2000.
During 2000-2008 the Individual Championship was held in Macedonia,
Georgia, Turkey (in 2003, 2004, 2006), Poland, Germany and Bulgaria.