The Championship will be played in 11 rounds, swiss system, with the time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes until the end of the game, with 30-second increment for each move, starting from move one. The European Women’s Chess Championship 2025 is a qualification event for the FIDE Women’s World Chess Cup. According to the decision of the ECU, at least 10 players will qualify.

The total prize fund of the event is 60.000 EUR, with 10.000 EUR reserved for the Winner. Live broadcast of the games together with commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and Dragana Nikolovska can be followed through the ECU TV platform, or the ECU YouTube channel.

European Women Chess Championship 2025 participants

Accommodation trouble: Read more: Monaco, Scotland and Germany break the news / Turkey reports problems / England on accommodation issues / GM Jankovic on the situation of Croatia / Anish Giri critical of the situation

Team Azerbaijan is 15th seeded in the open section. Board 1 is for Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and his teammates are Rauf Mamedov, Nijat Abasov, Aydin Suleymanli, Mahammad Muradli.

In the women section team Azerbaijan is ranked 6th and consists of Gunay Mammadzada, Govhar Beydullayeva, Khanim Balajayeva, Ulviyya Fataliyeva, Gulnar Mammadova.

The captains of the open and women team of Azerbaijan are Teimour Radjabov and Mihail Shereshevsky.

The women’s competition features the 2022 European Women’s Chess Champion medalists Gunay Mammadzada and Ulviyya Fataliyeva, Gulnar Mammadova, Khanim Balajayeva, Govhar Beydullayeva, Nana Dzagnidze, Marsel Efroimski, Jolanta Zawadzka, Nurgyul Salimova and Kubra Ozturk Orenli.

Shusha Chess 2022 (Women’s section) LIVE games

The events consist of Rapid and Blitz portions, with 10-player round-robin Rapid tournament with time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment. The Blitz portion will be played in 9 round-robin rounds, with each round consisting of two games mini matches. Time control for Blitz will be 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment.

For winning the game in the Rapid portion of the tournament, players will earn 2 points, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. Players will earn 1 point for a win, 1/2 for a draw and 0 points for a loss in Blitz mini matches. The winner of each category of “Shusha Chess 2022” is determined by the total points scored in the rapid and blitz tournaments.

The total prize fund of the event is 88.000$, with 15.000$ reserved for the Winner of the Open section and 10.000$ for the Winner of the Women’s section. See the table of prizes below

.

IM Gunay Mammadzada (AZE, 2466) needed a victory in the last round to join Monika Socko on the top. After more than 4 hours of play, Gunay Mammadzada drew against IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (POL, 2360) to score 8 points and be in the group of five players who tied for silver medal. Mammadzada had the best tiebreak criteria and clinched silver.

WGM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (AZE, 2413) won bronze with the same score of 8 points, and better tiebreaks than IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM, 2362) who came fourth, IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (POL, 2360) who finished fifth, and IM Irina Bulmaga (ROU, 2403) who came sixth. Scroll down for final standings

European Women’s Chess Championship 2022 – Replay all games here

The Closing ceremony of the event took place yesterday evening and it was broadcasted live. ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmapairashvili addressed the players and joined the awarding ceremony.

European Women’s Chess Championship 2022 – Final standings:

.

IM Gunay Mammadzada (AZE, 2466) holds the second place with 7 points, while seven players tie for the third place scoring 6.5 points, each: GM Elina Danielian (ARM, 2441), WGM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (AZE, 2413), IM Gulnar Mammadova (AZE, 2380), WGM Maria Gevorgyan (ARM, 2216), IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (POL, 2360), IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM, 2362), and IM Inna Gaponenko (UKR, 2339).

The 10th penultimate round starts today at 15:00 CEST and the top-board pairings are:

1. IM Gulnar Mammadova – GM Monika Socko
2. GM Elina Danielian – IM Gunay Mammadzada
3. IM Inna Gaponenko – WGM Ulviyya Fataliyeva
4. WGM Maria Gevorgyan – IM Lilit Mkrtchian
5. WGM Mai Narva – IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya

The games can be followed live together with live commentaries by GM Martin Petr and his guests.

The event will be played in 11 rounds, Swiss system, 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. The 2022 European Individual Women Chess Championship is a qualification event for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2023. According to the FIDE regulations and the ECU Board decision, 9 players will qualify. Total Prize fund of the event is 60,000 euros with 10,000 reserved for the Winner of the event.

Chief Arbiter of the event is IA Jirina Prokopova, deputy Chief Arbiters – IA Thomas Strobl, IA Jan Sikora, and the members of the Appeal Committee – Geert Bailleul, Petr Pisk, Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou.

European Women Chess 2022 participants list

Azerbaijan Team (Open section):

1. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2751)
2. GM Teimour Radjabov (2753)
3. GM Gadir Guseinov (2668)
4. GM Rauf Mamedov (2656)
5. GM Vasif Durarbayli (2638)

The team with an average FIDE rating of 2683 will be captained by GM Nijat Abasov with GM Eltaj Safarli as the coach of the squad. Interestingly, the 2021 Azerbijan Chess Champion Vasif Durarbayli made it to the Olympic National Team after 16 years.

Azerbaijan Team (Women’s section):

1. IM Gunay Mammadzada (2454)
2. IM Gulnar Mammadova (2380)
3. WIM Govhar Beydullayeva (2390)
4. WGM Khanim Balajayeva (2344)
5. WGM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (2341)

With an average rating of 2382, the Azerbaijan Women’s National Team will be led by captain GM Nidjat Mamedov and IM Fikret Sideifzade and Jahangir Agharahimov who will coach the Women’s team.
Read more: Govhar Beydullayeva wins Azerbaijan Women’s Chess Championship 2022

A number of countries already revealed the composition of their teams for Chennai, such as:  Norway, England, Germany, Spain, Serbia, USA 1, USA 2,  Netherlands, Montenegro, Monaco, Kenya, India, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Malawi, South Sudan, Mongolia, Argentina, Rwanda … 
The 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai will be the record-breaking Chess Olympiad as already 187 teams enrolled for the event. In the previous Chess Olympiad held in Baku in 2018, the participation record of team numbers was set with 176 countries, 184 teams in Open section, and 150 teams in the Women’s section. With more time left before the registrations are closed for Chennai, it is almost ensured that the new participants record will be broken. Read more about the new record here