The European Open and Women Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2022 will commence on Friday in Katowice, Poland. The events will be played from 16th-19th December in “Spodek” Sport and Entertainment Centre.
The first tournament on the schedule is the European Open and Women Blitz Chess Championship 2022 which will be played on December 16th. The event will be played in 11 double rounds, swiss system, with the time control: 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment.
European Open and Women Rapid Chess Championship will be played from 17th-18th December, in 11 rounds, The time control will be 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment.
The Winner of each tournament will become European Open Blitz/Rapid Chess Champions for 2022, and the best-ranked female players will become European Women Blitz/Rapid Chess Champions. The total prize fund of the event is 44.000 EUR.
More than 1000 players from 38 European federations registered for the European Rapid Championship 2022 and 930 players will compete in the Blitz event. The top-seeded players are GM Alexander Zubov (UKR), GM David Navara (CZE), GM Nils Gradelius (SWE), GM Micheal Adams (ENG), GM Rasmus Svane (GER), GM Maxime Lagarde (FRA), GM Alexander Beliavsky (SLO), and GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU). Starting rank list of players can be found here.
Katowice will simultaneously host the ECU Board and Commissions working meeting on Saturday 17th of December.