Tomorrow the 18th European Team Championship starts in Halkidiki, Greece. Again it's an incredibly strong team event: the twenty highest rated individual participants are Aronian, Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Topalov, Karjakin, Morozevich, Gashimov, Svidler, Grischuk, Adams, Mamedyarov, Nepomniachtchi, Caruana, Navara, Ponomariov, Leko, Moiseenko, Bacrot, Giri and Naiditsch.

System

Each national federation affiliated to the European Chess Union (ECU) has the right to enter one team of four players and one reserve in the open competition and one team of four female players and one reserve in the women’s competition.

The European Team Championship will be a 9-round Swiss, with one open section and one section for the women’s teams, considered as separate competitions. The time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds increment starting from the first move.

Teams

You can find all details about the players and teams at the Chess Results website. Here are the top 10 in the open section and the top 5 in the women's section:

Open section

1. Russia (Svidler, Karjakin, Grischuk, Morozevich, Nepomniachtchi)
2. Ukraine (Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Eljanov, Efimenko, Moiseenko)
3. Azerbaijan (Radjabov, Gashimov, Mamedyarov, Guseinov, Safarli)
4. Armenia (Aronian, Movsesian, Akopian, Sargissian, Hovhannisyan)
5. Hungary (Leko, Almasi, Berkes, Balogh, Gyimesi)
6. France (Vachier-Lagrave, Bacrot, Fressinet, Istratescu, Bauer)
7. Bulgaria (Topalov, Cheparinov, Delchev, Georgiev, Radulski)
8. England (Adams, Short, Howell, Jones, Pert)
9. Netherlands (Giri, Van Wely, Sokolov, Smeets, Stellwagen)
10. Germany (Naiditsch, Fridman, Meier, Gustafsson, Buhmann)

Women's section

1. Russia (N.Kosintseva, T.Kosintseva, Gunina, Pogonina, Kosteniuk)
2. Ukraine (Lahno, Gaponenko, M.Muzychuk, Zhukova, Ushenina)
3. Georgia (Dzagnidze, Jakashvili, Khurtsidze, Paikidze, Melia)
4. Armenia (Danielian, Mkrtchian, Galojan, Kursova, Aginian)
5. Poland (Socko, Toma, Zawadzka, Majdan-Gajewski, Szczepkowska-Horowska)

Venue

The games of the European Team Chess Championships 2011 will take place in the Olympic Hall Congress Center (1500 sq. m.), within the 5-star Porto Carras Grand Resort. This resort is located in Halkidiki, Greece.

Schedule

2 November: Arrival of Delegations
2 November: Captain’s Meeting – 22:00
3 November: Opening Ceremony – 14:30
3 November: Round 1 – 15:00
4 November: Round 2 – 15:00
5 November: Round 3 – 15:00
6 November: Round 4 – 15:00
7 November: Round 5 – 15:00
8 November: Round 6 – 15:00
9 November: Round 7 – 15:00
10 November: Round 8 – 15:00
11 November: Round 9 – 13:00
11 November: Closing Ceremony – 21:00
12 November: Departure of delegations

Past winners (open)

1957: USSR
1961: USSR
1965: USSR
1970: USSR
1973: USSR
1977: USSR
1980: USSR
1983: USSR
1989: USSR
1992: Russia
1997: England
1999: Armenia
2001: Netherlands
2003: Russia
2005: Netherlands
2007: Russia
2009: Azerbaijan

Past winners (women)

1992: Ukraine
1997: Georgia
1999: Slovakia
2001: France
2003: Armenia
2005: Poland
2007: Russia
2009: Russia