Valentina Gunina (RUS, 2507) convincingly won the European Women Individual Chess Championships 2018, which took place from 7th-20th April, in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia.



Valentina Gunina reached an impressive result of 9 points out of 11 games, without a lost game, to be the whole point ahead of the first runner-ups and to achieve the title of European Women Chess Champion for the third time in her career (2012, 2014, 2018).



Seven players tied for the second place, each with 8 points. According to the tie-break criteria, silver medal went to Dzagnidze Nana (GEO, 2507), the Winner of the Championship in 2017, while Ushenina Anna (UKR, 2422) took the bronze medal and the third place.

Final ranking list



The Closing Ceremony of the Championship took place yesterday evening, on 19th of April, and was attended by the President of the Slovak Chess Federation Ing. Frantisek Jablonicky, Chief Arbiter Dr. Ivan Syrovy, Tournament Director Mrs. Eva Repkova and other distinguished chess figures. The European Chess Union was represented by Mr. Martin Huba, ECU Treasurer.



19 players achieved the international FIDE title norms and the list of the players is available here, while 14 players qualified for the next cycle of the World Women’s Chess Championship and the list is available bellow (graphic @EuropeEchecs).



The event participated 143 players from 30 different European federations. among whom 13 Grandmasters, 29 International masters, 35 Women Grandmasters, 22 Women International masters and in total 128 titled players, which made the event very strong.

The Championship was played in 11 rounds, Swiss system, in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess 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 the move one.

The total prize fund of the event was 70.000 EUR.

Official Website of the Championship

Photographs by: Oleksandr Martynkov