By Anastasiya Karlovich
The European School Championship 2011 is under way in Kemer (Antalya), Turkey from October 12, 2011 till October 19, 2011.
School Championship follows another international event – World Amateur Chess Championship – which was organized by the TCF and recently ended.
It’s not by chance that the European School Championship takes place in Turkey, in the country which adopted the chess in schools program and has been successfully running it for a few years already.
After the start of the program “Chess in schools”, thousands of young chess players appeared in the country. The President of the Turkish Chess Federation, FIDE Vice-President Ali Nihat Yazici is also a Chairman of the Chess in Schools (CIS) FIDE Commission.
In 2010 Turkey already hosted the 6th World School Championship in Kayseri, which was staged under the aegis of the Turkish First Lady, Hayrünnisa Gül. This year 204 players from 5 countries (Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia and Turkey) convened in Antalya to participate in that event. There are 11 different age categories: U-7, U-7 girls, U-9, U-9 girls, U-11, U-11 girls, U-13, U-13 girls, U-15, U-17, U-17 girls.
The games of the top-players from each category are broadcasting to the Internet.
During the opening ceremony all players and guests rise up for Turkish national anthem and ECU anthem
Chess family from Russia waits for the start of the tournament
Checking what's going on in the game
Arbiter tries to find out what happened in the match between players from U-7 category
Playing Black Emirhan Tarlabasi won the game without making any move against Russian chess player Daniil Golikov. His opponent didn't come in time and lost due to zero tolerance rule. That game between the two leaders was played in the first board.
