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The 2023 European Team Chess Championship kicks off this Saturday in Budva, Montenegro. The event will be played from 11th to 20th November in the Conference Hall of the *****Hotel Splendid.

The Championship is played in 9 rounds, swiss system, with Open and Womens sections separately. The time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds increment for every move played starting from move one.

70 teams from 39 European federations will participate in the event, with 38 teams in the Open section, and 32 teams in the Womens event. Azerbaijan (Rtg average 2701) headlines the Open tournament, followed by Romania and Germany (Rtg average of 2676 each). England (Rtg average 2671) will be the fourth seed and Armenia (Rtg average 2667) is ranked fifth on the starting list.

Top European players will represent their federations at the championship including the World No1 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR, 2829), GM Richard Rapport (ROU, 2748), GM Teimour Radjabov (AZE, 2745), GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 2734), GM Vincent Keymer (GER, 2721), GM Nikita Vitiugov (ENG, 2712), GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2708), GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2700), GM Jorden Van Foreest (NED, 2700), and GM David Navara (CZE, 2695).

The team of Georgia (Rtg average 2471) top seeds the Womens tournament. Azerbaijan (Rtg average 2392) is second on the starting list, followed by Germany (Rtg average 2385), Ukraine (Rtg average 2365) and Bulgaria (Rtg average 2362).

The best rated players in the Womens event are GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2526), GM Bella Khotenashvili (GEO, 2488), GM Nino Batsiashvili (GEO, 2487), GM Elisabeth Paehtz (GER, 2473), WGM Dinara Wagner (GER, 2467), IM Meri Arabidze (GEO, 2458), IM Efroimski Marsel (ISR, 2448), IM Gunay Mammadzada (AZE, 2441), and GM Pia Cramling (SWE, 2440).

Starting rank lists of both events can be found here.

The Opening ceremony of the event will be held tomorrow evening at the playing venue of the tournament. The start of the Opening ceremony is scheduled for 19:00 CET, and the Captain meeting will take place at 21:00 CEST.

Live broadcast of the games with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and Dragana Nikolovska will be available exclusively on the ECU YouTube Channel.

The ECU General Assembly 2023 and the ECU Congress 2023 will be held from 17-20 November in Budva, during the European Team Chess Championship 2023. Detailed information about the ECU Congress 2023 can be found here.

Official website of the event

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European Team Chess Championship 2023 starts in Budva ... - European Chess Union