The European Individual Chess Championship 2012 takes place in Plovdiv (Bulgaria), March 19 – April 1, 2012. It is part of the World Chess Championship cycle as the top 23 players qualify for the World Cup.

For that reason we see a total of 300 titled players, 175 of which GMs and 70 IMs. Top seeded is GM Fabiano Caruana, who was also one of the main participants at the same venue during the 2008 edition of the competition (photo here). Scroll down for the full list of participants.

Expect live games daily with analysis by Houdini and special photo reports, as well as the most interesting news from the championship on the pages of Chessdom.com.

Note: See photo galleries of EICC 2008 in Plovdiv here and the ECC 2010 here, while detailed view of the venue is at this gallery.

The championship will be organized in 11-round Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Laws of Chess. The rate of play 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.

A kind of Sofia rules have been implemented as communication between players (the offer of draw) is forbidden until the 40th move has been played.

The prize fund is comparable to the EIWCC women prizes in Turkey, and amounts to 100 000 eur.

Tiebreak

The order of players that finish with the same number of points shall be determined by application of the following tie-breaking procedures in sequence, proceeding from (a) to (b) to (c) to (d) the extent required:
(a) Performance Rating, the highest number wins;
(b) Buchholz cut-1, the highest number wins;
(c) Buchholz, the highest number wins;
(d) Number of wins, the highest number wins.
In the case of unplayed games for the calculation of (a), (b) and (c) the current FIDE Tournament Rules shall be applied.

In the case there are less than 75% rated players, the following criteria will be applied:
(a) Buchholz cut-1, the highest number wins;
(b) Buchholz, the highest number wins;
(c) Number of wins, the highest number wins.

Participants

1 GM Caruana Fabiano ITA 2767
2 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2752
3 GM Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 2729
4 GM Giri Anish NED 2717
5 GM Riazantsev Alexander RUS 2710
6 GM Vitiugov Nikita RUS 2709
7 GM Bacrot Etienne FRA 2706
8 GM Jobava Baadur GEO 2706
9 GM Grachev Boris RUS 2705
10 GM Malakhov Vladimir RUS 2705
11 GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 2702
12 GM Movsesian Sergei ARM 2702
13 GM Naiditsch Arkadij GER 2702
14 GM Navara David CZE 2700
15 GM Sutovsky Emil ISR 2700
16 GM Dreev Aleksey RUS 2698
17 GM Efimenko Zahar UKR 2695
18 GM Inarkiev Ernesto RUS 2695
19 GM Volokitin Andrei UKR 2695
20 GM Fressinet Laurent FRA 2693
21 GM Vallejo Pons Francisco ESP 2693
22 GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS 2689
23 GM Areshchenko Alexander UKR 2688
24 GM Bologan Viktor MDA 2687
25 GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 2684
26 GM Berkes Ferenc HUN 2682
27 GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA 2682
28 GM Korobov Anton UKR 2679
29 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 2674
30 GM Georgiev Kiril BUL 2671
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Susan Polgar March 19, 2012 Daily News, General News, Major Tournaments 2 Comments
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