16 Indians set to take part at European Chess Club Cup 2025 starting today
Novy Bor Chess Club and Tajfun SK Ljubljana are the defending champions of European Chess Club Cup Open and Women respectively. Total 16 Indians are taking part this year - 14 in Open and two in Women. World no.4, Arjun Erigaisi is the highest rated player of the event, for the second consecutive year. He will play for Alkaloid. Aravindh Chithambaram and Abhimanyu Puranik are two Indians among his teammates. The reigning World Champion, D Gukesh will play for Superchess. Vidit Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna will be set to defend the crown for Novy Bor Chess Club. Nihal Sarin will represent the highest rated team in the Open, Bayegan Pendik chess sports. Among the Women, the current Women's World Cup winner, GM Divya Deshmukh will play for Cercle d'échecs de Monte-Carlo. IM Vantika Agrawal will be making her event debut for the reigning and defending champion, Tajfun SK Ljubljana. Round 1 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: European Chess Club Cup
Abhimanyu Puranik and Vantika Agrawal to make their debuts
Total nine top Indians will take part in this edition, four less than last year. One could speculate, the upcoming World Cup could possibly be the primary reason behind a lot of names deciding to skip this event. Although this is relatively shorter event with only seven rounds and a player may not have to play all of them as it is a team event. It will be interesting to see how players gather momentum before the upcoming FIDE World Cup 2025 as this could be the last stop for many players before the monumental month-long grueling event starting next month.
The Opening ceremony of the event took place at the truly magnificent and historical venue of the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes – a place that has witnessed centuries of strategy, courage and vision – qualities that perfectly reflect the spirit of chess.
The ceremony was attended by the ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, ECU Secretary General Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, the President of the Greek Chess Federation Mr. Stathis Efstathopoulos, Vice Mayor of the city of Rhodes Mr. Patas Georgios, Vice Governor of the South Aegean region Mr. Christos Michalakis, who addressed the distinguished guests, captains and players.
After the speeches, the ECU Secretary General Mr. Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou invited the Chief Arbiter of the event Mr. Ashot Vardapetyan to perform the Drawing of Colours ceremony together with the representatives of the top seeded teams Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports and Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo.
The two Knights of the Rhodes Palace kept pieces in their helmets, and the representatives of the teams picked them up – determining that Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo will have White pieces on the top board, while Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports opens the competition with Black pieces on their first board.
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Prizes
The total prize fund is €40000, €26000 in Open and €14000 in Women. The top three prizes in Open are - €8000, €6000 and €4000. For Women, they are - €5500, €3500 and €2000. Individual board prizes on each board €500.
Schedule
Every day round starts at 3 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST from 19th to 24th October 2025. The final round on 25th October starts 2 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. The seven-round Swiss system tournament has a time control of 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. The tournament will be held in Rhodes, Greece.
Round 1 Open pairings
| No. | SNo | Team | MP | Res. | : | Res. | MP | Team | SNo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 52 | HWP Haarlem | 0 | : | 0 | BayeganPendik chess sports | 1 | ||||
| 2 | 2 | Alkaloid | 0 | : | 0 | Dardania | 53 | ||||
| 3 | 54 | Baerum Schakselskap | 0 | : | 0 | Novy Bor | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 4 | SuperChess | 0 | : | 0 | SK 1911 | 55 | ||||
| 5 | 56 | Tammer-Shakki | 0 | : | 0 | Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub | 5 | ||||
| 6 | 6 | Vugar Gashimov | 0 | : | 0 | Blackthorne | 57 | ||||
| 7 | 58 | Akureyri | 0 | : | 0 | Rishon Le Zion #1 | 7 | ||||
| 8 | 8 | Kfar Saba | 0 | : | 0 | SK Doppelbauer Kiel | 59 | ||||
| 9 | 60 | Kingston Kings | 0 | : | 0 | Turkish Airlines sports club | 9 | ||||
| 10 | 10 | Beer Sheva | 0 | : | 0 | Goztepe Spor Kulubu | 61 |
Round 1 Women pairings
| No. | SNo | Team | MP | Res. | : | Res. | MP | Team | SNo | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Cercle d'échecs de Monte-Carlo | 0 | : | 0 | SK Zmaj | 11 | ||||
| 2 | 12 | She plays to win Lionesses #1 | 0 | : | 0 | Turkish Airlines sports club | 2 | ||||
| 3 | 3 | Tajfun SK Ljubljana | 0 | : | 0 | De Stukkenjagers | 13 | ||||
| 4 | 14 | Gostivar club | 0 | : | 0 | SuperChess | 4 | ||||
| 5 | 5 | Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica | 0 | : | 0 | ISL Federation | 15 | ||||
| 6 | 16 | Aris | 0 | : | 0 | CE Gambit Bonnevoie | 6 | ||||
| 7 | 7 | C'Chartres échecs | 0 | : | 0 | Streatham & Brixton | 17 | ||||
| 8 | 18 | She plays to win Lionesses #2 | 0 | : | 0 | Crvena Zvezda | 8 | ||||
| 9 | 9 | MSK Centar ASEE | 0 | : | 0 | Ippotis Rhodes chess club | 19 | ||||
| 10 | 20 | Ippotis Radnicki | 0 | : | 0 | Wasa SK | 10 |
Links
|
European Club Cup 2025 R2: Favorites prevail
@ 21/10/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |
|
European Club Cup 2025 R1: Aravindh, Abhimanyu, Vidit, Harikrishna and Vantika make a winning start
@ 20/10/2025 by Shahid Ahmed (en) |