The European Chess Championship in blitz was held on 16th December in a truly exquisite location – Spodek Arena – one of the largest indoor venues in Poland!
A whopping 830 players from 38 countries were fighting for the title of European Champion, making it one of the biggest chess events in the world!
Many guests and partners have attended the opening ceremony. Vice President of ECU, Gunnar Bjornsson, and ECU Secretary General, Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, were among them and welcomed all participants on behalf of the European Chess Union.
Secretary of the city Katowice, Maciej Stachura, was also present. Our tournament could never be organized on such a level without the support of the city Katowice.
All the chess-players were also greeted by Łukasz Turlej – FIDE Secretary General, who welcomed everyone once again in Katowice, a city with great chess traditions.
The field of players has also been impressive and on the starting list we could see players like Adams, Navara, Grandelius or great female champions like Kosteniuk or Stefanova.
After an amazing day full of brilliant games, amazing sacrifices and…some blunders we know the winners!
European Blitz Champion – David Navara from Czech.
European Blitz Championess – Aleksandra Kosteniuk (FIDE).
Congratulations to our champions!
Polish grandmaster Maciej Klekowski took a silver medal, for the second time in a row. And the third place was won by Shant Sargsyan. In the ladies section the silver medal was also won by a polish representative – Aleksandra Maltsevskaya. Antoaneta Stefanova took the bronze medal.
During the whole event viewers could follow the live broadcast organized by European Chess TV. The host was world-famous commentator Fiona Steil-Antoni who commentated alongside IM Piotr Nguyen, with live interviews by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and Magdalena Budkiewicz.
We want to thank all the participants of the European Championship in blitz. Tomorrow, on 17th December the European Championship in rapid is starting!
Dofinansowano ze środków budżetu państwa z części, której dysponentem jest Minister Sportu i Turystyki.
Śląski Związek Szachowy. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.
