The 23rd edition of the European Individual Chess Championship 2023 kicked off in Hotel Zepter Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. The 11-round Swiss tournament with classical time control stretches over nearly two weeks from March 02-14.
The event broke the participation record with more than 490 players from 40 European federations. The list of participants includes 48 players rated 2600+, 128 Grandmasters, 105 International masters, and a total of 379 titled players.
The top-seeds are GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2699), GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2686), GM David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2685), GM David Navara (CZE, 2685), GM Alexandr Predke (FIDE, 2684), GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POl, 2682), GM Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2680), GM Jules Moussard (FRA, 2690), GM Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2674), GM Ivan Saric (CRO, 2674), GM Alexey Sarana (FIDE, 2668), GM Kirill Shevchenko (ROU, 2668), GM Evgeniy Najer (FIDE, 2666), GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR, 2664), and GM Ivan Cheparinov (BUL, 2661).
The complete starting list of players can be found here.
The European Individual Chess Championship 2023 is a qualifying event for the FIDE World Cup 2023. According to the FIDE regulations for World Cup and the ECU Board decision, 23 players will qualify. The total prize fund of the event is €100,000, with €20,000 reserved for the Winner of the event. Besides the prizes for the best-ranked 23 players, the organizers provided special prizes for best-ranked Juniors (U18), Seniors (S50+) and doubled the prize fund for the best-ranked female players.
During the opening ceremony on March 2, the city of Vrnjacka Banja was officially declared the Serbian capital of chess.
The Mayor of the Vrnjacka Banja Municipality Boban Djurovic, the President of European Chess Union Zurab Azmaiparashvili and the President of the Serbian Chess Federation Dragan Lazic, unveiled the Chess Queen statue dedicated to all chess events that were and will be held in Vrnjacka Banja.
Text: europechess.org/
Photo: European Individual Chess Championship 2023 Facebook
Official website: eicc2023.com/
