Nodirbek Abdusattorov (picture) and Jorden Van Foreest are in the final of the Winner's Bracket of the ChessKid Cup. In the semi-finals Abdusattorov beat Fabiano Caruana and Van Foreest won against Dmitrij Kollars, who missed a number of good chances. Co-favourite Hikaru Nakamura, on the other hand, was eliminated from the tournament, losing to Alireza Firouzja in the Losers' Bracket. | Photo: Nodirbek Abdusattorov at the Tata Steel Tournament 2023 | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Day 1 of the ChessKid Cup, a double elimination rapid (15+3) tournament, brought two big surprises: Alireza Firouzja lost his match against Dmitrij Kollars and Hikaru Nakamura lost against Jorden Van Foreest. Things went more smoothly for Fabiano Caruana and Nodirbek Abdusattorov: Caruana won 2.5-0.5 against Aleksandr Shimanov, as did Abdusattorov against Jules Moussard. | Graphics: Chess.com
Three players are sharing the lead at the European Championship in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaijan is joined by the Ukrainian duo of Anton Korobov and Ruslan Ponomariov (pictured) as the three participants who have scored four victories in as many games. A total of 23 players stand a half point back Gabriel Sargissian, Boris Gelfand and Alexey Sarana are the highest-rated players in the chasing pack. | Photos: European Chess Union
The very competitive European Chess Championships will take place in March, with the open event set to start on March 3 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. We take a brief look at the 23 years of history of the championships, which are traditionally taken very seriously by ambitious players, whose main objective often is to get a ticket to the FIDE World Cup. | Pictured: 2022 European champion Matthias Bluebaum