Etienne Bacrot and Antoaneta Stefanova currently top players in Rijeka
European Individual Chess Championship
Report by Chessdom.com
We are just a month away from the 11th European Individual Men and Women’s Chess Championship which will be held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in the new sports hall “Center Zamet”. Even though the registration process is ongoing, it is important to mention that the current number of over 350 competitors is a very good indicator and we can already tell that this Championship will be the strongest ever.
By now, 245 male chess players from 38 federations and 109 female chess players from 29 federations are registered, while amongst the male chess players there is a large number of players with ratings over 2650 points on the official FIDE rankings.
The organizers are expecting more than 200 Grandmasters which will make this Championship historical. Surely, at this time the top stars in Rijeka are Etienne Bacrot from France and ex-world champion Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria.
It is important to mention that from 109 competitors in the women section, 19 of them are in the world’s top 40. This is mostly the result of the highest prize fund ever and the best accommodation conditions which the organizers, Chess club Rijeka and Croatian Chess Federation, prepared for the participants. Just to remind, the total prize fund for men is 120.000,00 EUR and for women 60.000,00 EUR.
Full article on the ECU website
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