34th European Chess Club Cup 2018

34th European Chess Club Cup and the 23rd European Women Chess Club Cup will be simultaneously held from 11th-19th October 2018 in Porto Carras, famous Greek seaside resort in Halkidiki.

The playing venue of the Championships will be the Congress Center of the Porto Carras Grand Resort and the official hotel of the event will be 5 stars hotel Sithonia.

World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the highest-rated player of the event and will make in Porto Carras his last competitive appearance before his World Championship Match vs Fabiano Caruana in London, in November.

Participation in 34th European Club Cup is open to:

Globus, Russia, the current cup holder in the open competition.
Three (3) clubs per federation in which a national team championship is organized or two (2) Clubs per federation in which no national team championship is organized.
A fourth club is allowed to that federation(s) in which a national team championship is organized, provided that at least 10 teams, 20 grandmasters and/or players with a FIDE rating over 2600 have participated in the most recent national team championship.
One additional club (only in the open competition) for the European federations, which are ranked in the first five places of the Federation ranking list. These federations are: Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Russia, Israel and Italy.
Any additional request for participation should be examined by the ECU Board.

Participation in 23rd European Club Cup for women is open to all Clubs whose federations are listed as ECU members.

The teams shall be composed of six (6) players and two (2) reserves in Men’s competition, while in the Women’s competition teams shall be composed of four (4) players and (1) reserve.

The Championships will be held in 7 rounds, played in the Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules with time control 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. Draw offers before the 30th move made by black are strictly forbidden and violating the draw offering rule will be punished.

The total prize fund of the event will be 40.000 EUR with 22.000 EUR reserved for the Men’s competition and 13.000 EUR reserved for the Women’s competition. The rest of 5.000 EUR will be distributed to the best individual players with the best board results. The first three teams of each category will receive cups and medals.

With 74 teams participating, 62 in the Open section and 12 in the Women’s section, and over 120 GMs, many of them travelling directly to Chalkidiki from the Batumi Olympiad, ECCC 2018 promises to be one of the most successful and exciting events ever held in Greece!