European Club Cup

Over the last decade the European chess scene has kicked on pretty strongly, with the European Chess Union creating a number of very popular events. One such event is the European Club Cup, a kind of Champions League of European team competitions. While the big names form the Bundesliga or the Russian teams championships are at the top of the field, 'minnows' from the Welsh and Irish leagues are also represented.

There are a number of big (and familiar) names taking part, including Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Aronian etc Showing how strong it is, Alexi Shirov is on Board 4(!) for the top seeds SOCAR Azerbaijan.

The official site http://ecc2010.chessdom.com/ is carrying live coverage of the tournament, though not all games it seems. However the selection clearly favours the 2600+ GM clashes with Michael Adams v Dejan Bojkov one of this evenings games.

I'm keeping an eye on the event, not so much for the top end, but because I support (yes you can support chess teams) White Rose, who sit somewhat further down the tree. But teams chess can throw up some upset results and I'm hoping this will be the case this year.