France will host 12th European Individual Men Chess Championship on March 22. Georgia will have 6 representatives (4 men, 2 women).
Baadur Jobava, No.1 chess player of Georgia and silver medal winner of European Championship 2010, Davit Zarkua, current champion of Georgia, vice-champion Levan Pantsulaia and bronze medal winner Luka Paichadze will compete in the name of Georgia. Lela Javakhishvili and Salome Melia, members of Georgian women chess team, will compete in the mentioned tournament. It is not excluded that their number will increase.
Quite strong chess players will participate in the championship. 10 grand masters are among them. They are: Peter Svilder (Russia, 2730 points), Ian Nepomniashny (Russia), David Navara (Czech, 2722), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia, 2720), Zoltan Almash (Hungary, 2719),Dmitry Iakovenko (Russia, 2718), Fabiano Karuana (Italy, 2716), Ratoslav Voitatsek (Poland, 2711), Baadur Jobava (2707) and Fransisco Valejo (Spain, 2707).
Women chess players heading with Iudit Polgar (Hungary) will compete in the tournament. These chess players are: Polgar, Javakhishvili, Melia, Katerina Lakhno (Ukraine), Ana Muzichuk (Slovenia), Viktoria Chmilite (Lithuania), Iolanta Zavadska (Poland) and others.
1-25 placed chess players will gain prize money. Champion will win – 20 000 EUR, vice-champion – 15 000 EUR and bronze medal winner – 11 000 EUR.
11 rounds will be held at the tournament. March 29 is a day off.
More than 410 sportsmen have desire to participate in Individual Men Chess Championship 2011.
408 chess players competed in the same tournament in 2010.
Roland Labuchidze
