10th European Women Chess Championship
St. Petersburg, March 7-21
By Chessdom.com

The Russian Chess Federation, the European Chess Union, the St. Petersburg Chess Federation and the City of St. Petersburg organize the 10th European Women Chess Championship. It will take place March 7 – March 21 and will be an 11 rounds Swiss tournament. 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 European Championship is open to all players representing the Chess Federations which comprise the European Chess Union (FIDE zones 1.1 to 1.9) regardless of their title or rating. There is also no limit of participants per federation.

Ranks of players who 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) to the extent required: a) Median-Buchholz 1, the highest number wins; b) Buchholz, the highest number wins; c) Number of wins, the highest number wins; d) Progressive Score, the highest number wins.

In the European Individual Chess Championship and European Individual Women’s Chess Championship tie-breaks are organized only in the following cases: a) to establish the Champion; b) to establish the medal winners; c) to establish qualifiers for the World Chess Championship.

Official site http://wiecc2009.com

Participants

The high interest in the tournament is defined by the fact that the Individual European Women’s Championship 2009 is a qualification event for the next World Championship for Women. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 14 players will qualify. Besides, the top 20 players will divide a prize fund of 70 000 eur.

Some of the players from the preliminary list, published back in February, are missing. The reason is that GM Pia Cramling, IM Elina Danielian and WGM Zeinab Mamedjarova were later invited to play in the inaguatory tournament of the new-formed Women Grand Prix. GM Antoaneta Stefanova also expressed concerns over the unusual calendar clash.

Mr.Boris Kutin, President of the European Chess Union, issued a formal written protest to the FIDE President Kirsan Ilymzhinov because Women Grand Prix tournaments are overlapping with the European Women Chess Championship and, later this year, the European Club Cup.

Here is the full list of players.

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