The European Championship gold medal winners were already known (Nepomniachtchi and Cramling), but for deciding the other medals and World Cup qualifiers, tiebreak matches were played on Thursday in Rijeka. We bring you the results and some statistics.

The 11th European Individual Men and Women's Chess Championship was held from 5th to 19th of March 2010 in Rijeka, in new Zamet Centre sports hall. The event was organized by chess club "Rijeka", in agreement with the Croatian Chess Federation under the auspices of the City of Rijeka and the European Chess Union. It 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 was also no limit of participants per federation.

The championship was an 11-round Swiss in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The rate of play was 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. As always, the European Championship was a qualification event for the next World Cup.

Tiebreaks

On Thursday tiebreaks were played to establish the silver and bronze medal in the open section, the bronze medal in the women's section and to establish the qualifiers for the World Cup. Jobava beat Timofeev in the first tiebreak game and then drew the second to claim silver.

Jobava (r.) beat Timofeev with Black in game 1 of the tiebreak

The results of the other tiebreaks:

2nd round

You can download all women's tiebreak's results in PDF here.

The following 23 players qualified for the next World Cup:

• Nepomiachtchi, Jobava, Timofeev (numbers 1-3)
• Efimenko, Lysyj, Almasi, Tomashevsky, Rodshtein, Salgado Lopez, Pashikian (numbers 4-10)
• Mamedov, Movsesian, Drozdovskij, Babula, Vorobiov, Akopian, Nisipeanu, Alekseev, Socko, Grachev, Halkias, Potkin (tiebreak winners)

From the women's section Cramling, Cmilyte, Socko, T. Kosintseva, Sebag, Zhukova, Dembo, Stefanova, A. Muzychuk, N. Kosinsteva, M. Muzycduk Kovalevskaya, Ziazulkina and Rajlich qualified.

We received some interesting statistics and quotes in a last press release from the organizers:

Rijeka's Championship in quotes and numbers

Yesterday, March 18th the 11th European Individual Men and Women's Chess Championship ended in Rijeka. As you already know, the gold was won by the 20-year old Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi and by Swedish GM Pia Cramling.

The Championship achieved various records, and here are some of the numbers. Total of 566 chess players from 41 European countries participated in Rijeka. 440 players with a chess title, 196 of them Grandmasters, as well as 158 players female chess players, 134 of them with a chess title.

Now, here are some of the details about matches played in Rijeka: total of 3.078 matches were played and 2.088 or 68% of them ended by win or loss situation. Only 32% of the matches resulted with a draw. A total of 41 norms for titles of man and women Grandmasters and International masters were won at both tournaments. A total of 8 male and 1 female player have won a norm for the title of a Grandmaster. 23 male chess players qualified for the World Cup and 14 female players qualified for the World Championships.

This Championship will be remembered by the large number of visitors who watched 75 broadcasted matches every day. Up to now, our web site was visited more than two million times. March 11th, was a record day, when there was more than 200.000 visitors. Some 1.500 visitors passed through the sport's hall of the Centre Zamet.

Here are some of the quotes about this Championship:

Anatoly Karpov, ex World Champion: “I was at Croatia 30 years ago, and the organization of this Championship in Rijeka delighted me. The organizers provided ideal conditions for a large number of players and so I congratulate them for the excellent organization“.

Georgios Makropoulos, FIDE Deputy President: “This is the best organized European Individual Chess Championship, because excellent accomodation and playing conditions are provided for all players.

Boris Kutin, ECU President: "No championship has ever received as many compliments as this one in Rijeka. This is surely the best one."

Zoltan Almasi, GM: "This is the strongest European Championship ever and as well the best organized championship for sure. Opatija is a very nice place and I fell excellent here."

Ian Nepomniachtchi, GM: "I love this country and I must admit that I was warmly welcomed in Croatia. This is a country full of friendly individuals. Conditions for the game are also great."

Pia Cramling, GM: "This is my first time in Croatia and I am really enjoying. Everything is nice here and it is my great pleasure to play in Rijeka. It is very important for men and women to play together so that's why this sports hall is ideal for this tournament."

Victoria Cmilyte, WGM : "I think this is the best competition ever. Opatija is a beautiful place, and the hall is ideal for playing chess. All this has made this championship very special and unique."

All tiebreak games

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Silver, gold, bronze: Baadur Jobava, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Artyom Timofeev

Silver, gold, bronze: Viktorija Cmilyte, Pia Cramling, Monica Socko

Photo courtesy of the official website, more here

Links

• Official website
• All details and statistics
• Games in PGN: Men | Women via TWIC