European Hybrid Qualification Chess Tournament 2021 – information and participants

The European Hybrid Qualification Tournament 2021 for the FIDE World Cup will take place from 22nd-30th May through Tornelo online platform. The total prize fund for the event is 32 000 eur.

The provisional list of participants for the European Hybrid Qualification Tournament has been published. 262 players (160 GMs) from 34 European federations are registered with the most players coming from Russia (39), Czechia (17), Germany (13), and Armenia (13). Among the top 10 players by rating we find seven Russians – GM Artemiev, GM Tomashevsky, GM Esipenko, GM Alekseenko, GM Predke, GM Matlakov, and GM Fedoseev. The other three players are GM Navara (Czechia), GM Gelfand (Israel), and GM David Anton (Spain).

The final number of players will not exceed 288, so the preliminary round scheduled for 22-23 May will be omitted. The tournament starts on Monday, May 24, and the pairing tree for all rounds will be announced by May 17, after confirming that venues meet all conditions.

Tournament director is Petr Pisk and chief arbiter is Panagiotis Nikolopoulos.

European Hybrid Qualification Chess Tournament 2021 participants

European Hybrid Qualification Chess Tournament 2021 regulations

Time control of the standard games will be 120 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. Tiebreak matches will consist of 2 games with reverse colour, with a time control of 10 minutes + 3 seconds of an increment per move. If the score is still level after tiebreaks, the winner of the match will be decided in an Armageddon game.

All the players compete from the approved tournament halls per country. Tournament halls shall be selected and monitored by federations and they can co-operate with local organisers. Each National federation may select up to 2 venues that will be approved by European Chess Union. In exceptional cases, ECU may decide on more venues in one country.

Players may compete from another country venue after consultation between the Nationals’ federations and ECU. In each playing venue, the necessary number of panoramic cameras shall be installed to ensure ample supervision. Additionally, each player shall be supervised by a camera (pc camera or panoramic).

In each playing venue, Zoom calls with screen sharing are mandatory. The event’s Chief Arbiter shall be provided with all Zoom recordings.

European National Chess Federation have the right to nominate players:

A. European Players rated 2550 and over (according to FIDE Standard rating list from 1st of April 2021)
B. 8 additional players if a national qualification event will take place
C. 5 additional players if a national qualification event will not take place

Each National Federation shall appoint one captain/representative for the technical meeting and communication during the event.

By signing in the tournament, the National federation and participants confirm to have read and accepted these regulations the terms and conditions of this championship.

Registrations are made by the National Federation of they players filling the special registration form and sending it to eocc@europechess.org. The players are registered and ranked by their FIDE standard rating. The tournament will not be calculated for the FIDE rating.

Official website of the European Chess Union