Everybody's there – at the European Club Cup in Turkey
04.10.2007
– The 23rd European Club Cup for Men and the 12th European Club Cup for Women are taking place from October 2nd to 10th in Kemer, Antalya, Turkey. There are 56 teams participating in the men's section and 18 teams in the women's. You won't believe how many world class stars are participating. We bring you a first report with a video of the opening ceremony.
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Nigel Davies:
A busy person’s opening system
Players with interests and commitments away from the chess board often find it difficult to compete against those with more study time. Their opponents come to the board armed with the latest theory and can bash out moves well into the middle game. On this DVD Nigel Davies addresses this issue by demonstrating a simple and easy to learn opening system designed for the busy person.
More information...
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Amongst the players (some of whom are arriving late) we have spotted, in no
particular order, Anand, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin, Kamsky, Radjabov,
Shirov, Girschuk, Kasimdzhanov, Bologan, Short, Atalik, Adams, Ponomariov, Mamedyarov,
Morozevich, van Wely, Sasikiran; and in the women's section Humpy, Cramling,
Zhu Chen, Stefanova, Skripchenko, Chiburdanidze, Lahno, Hou Yifan; and many
others. It is really a giant event with a collection of stars you only otherwise
see at Olympiads.
The Opening Ceremony took place in Limra Hotel on October 2nd 2007. During
the ceremony FIDE Vice President and CEO of Global Chess BV Geoffrey Borg, TCF
President Ali Nihat Yazici, ECU Board Member Werner Stubenvoll and Deputy Governor
of Antalya Fazli Akgün delivered protocol speeches. There was also an impressive
openings ceremony stage presentation with song and dance.

Video
of opening ceremony – the video in WMV format is 25 MB in size and
takes a while to download. You can watch a shorter (3.3 MB) version here.
It is quite exhilarating to watch the joy and enthusiasm of the dancers in this
modern Muslim nation.
To get you started on this exciting event we provide you with the following
useful links:
Picture gallery
By Andreas Albers

The venue of the European Club Championship in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey

The living quarters of the participants

With temperatures at 30-35°C the pool is an important accessory in this
event

The dance performances at the opening ceremony

Drums play an important role in these stage performances

Lights and colours, grace and enthusiasm

The playing hall – actually a small part of one of the sites

Grischuk and Shirov playing on boards 2 and 3 of Ural Sverdlovskaya (Radjabov
is board one)

Vassily Ivanchuk, currently numer two in the world

Viktor Bologan playing for Tomsk-400

Who is this grandmaster playing for Linex Magic?

Yep, Brooklyn boy Gata Kamsky

Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Tomsk-400) with Teimour Radjabov (Ural Sverdlovskaya) in
the background

Kateryna Lahno, Yifan Hou and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya playing for Southern Ural
Cheliabinsk

Natalia Zhukova (wife of Alexander Grischuk) playing for T-Com Podgorica
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