Ural and Monte Carlo are the defending champions at the European Club Cup which started yesterday in Ohrid, Macedonia. Many big stars can be found at the top boards, including Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov. Info, games, photos and all round 1 results.

The 25th European Club Cup and the 14th European Club Cup for Women are organized by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Chess Federation under the auspices of the European Chess Union. The events take place October 3-11 in Ohrid, Macedonia, about 190 km south of the capital Skopje.

Which teams are allowed to play?

• URAL Sverdlovskaya (Russia), the current cup holder in the men's competition.
• Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo (Monaco), the current cup holder in the women's competition.
• Two clubs per federation in which a national team championship is organised.
• One club per federation in which no national team championship is organised.
• Third club is allowed to that federation(s) in which a national team championship is organised provided that at least 20 grandmasters and/or players with a FIDE-rating over 2600 have participated in this national team championship.
• One additional club (only in man competition) for the federations which are ranked in the first five places of the federation ranking list. For the competition 2009 the federations are Russia, Czech Republic, Armenia , Bosnia & Herzegovina, Germany.

Schedule

The open section has 57 teams, the women section only 14 - less than last year, when 63 open teams and 18 women teams played. The time control is 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 winning open team receives € 11,000; the best women team € 3,750. The best individual player gets € 700; the best female player € 250.

The organizers have decided to use the new regulation 6.6a of the FIDE Laws of Chess, and so any player who arrives at the chessboard after the start of the session shall lose the game. At the Olympiad in Dresden this led to several losses by default - hopefully we won't see new incidents in Ohrid...

Many big names are present in Macedonia, such as Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Peter Svidler, Vugar Gashimov, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Alexei Shirov, Humpy Koneru, Tatiana Kosintseva, Pia Cramling, Anna Muzychuk, Antoaneta Stefanova and Aleksandra Kosteniuk.

Upsets of the first round include Evgeny Alekseev (2725) losing to Sarunas Sulskis (2568) and Dutch IM Jan-Willem de Jong (2462) drawing against Vassily Ivanchuk (2756). In the same match Ashdod-LSG, FM Rudy van Wessel (2340) beat GM Vitaly Golod (2602). In general the Dutch amateurs had a good start, since FM Eric de Haan (2363) defeated Armenian rising star Arman Pashikian (2663), IM Xander Wemmers (2378) drew with Vladimir Akopian (2698) and Henk Vedder (2364) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (2678). In the women section the defending champs from Monte Carlo immediately dropped a match point against CS Cotnari-Politehnica Iasi.

All results round 1

Selection of games round 1

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Living chess during the opening ceremony...

...where ECU President Boris Kutin welcomed the players...

...a total of 431, here during the first round...

...which means a lot of badges

The strong Ural team with Grischuk, Shirov, Malakhov, Rublevsky, Dreev and Bareev

Another favourite: Baden-Baden with in round 1 Movsesian, Bacrot, Naiditsch, Adams, Nisipeanu and Schlosser

But hey, aren't these the two-times Olympic champions? Yes, Mika (Yerevan) with Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, Pashikian, Andriasian and Petrosian

Aronian wishes Andriasian and Petrosian good luck

Alexei Shirov, withMalakhov and Rublevsky

Sergey Karjakin, a Russian citizen now, and playing board 1 for ShSM-64 Moscow

Vassily Ivanchuk started with a draw against Jan-Willem de Jong

Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua, board 2 and 3 of the Russian team Economist-SGSEU-1 Saratov

Top players Humpy Koneru and Pia Cramling together in the Monte Carlo team

Photos courtesy of the official website

Links

• Official website
• Open section at Chess-Results
• Women section at Chess-Results
• Games in PGN: Open section | Women section