FM, IO Aris Ozolins – is the President of Latvian Chess Federation and FIDE Baltic zone. Aris is the most experienced organizer in Latvia. International chess festival Liepajas Rokade stands out of the long list of the tournaments organized by Aris. In August 2017 the festival will take place for the 24th consecutive time. During all these years the organizing team is led by Aris. The festival is one of the best known, largest and strongest rapid chess festivals in Baltics. Many strong grandmasters visit Liepaja for 4 days in August, including FIDE World ex-champion Alexander Khalifman, Jaan Ehlvest, Igor Kovalenko, Alexei Shirov, Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Aris is the author of the idea that European Women and Youth Chess Championships should be organized in Riga. He has done the most part of the job for these big chess events to be held in Riga, Latvia.

Tournament director, FM IO Egons Lavendelis – is leading the organizing team of the International Chess Festival Riga Technical University Open. During the 7 years of the festival’s history the tournament has become by far the largest and strongest classical chess festivals in Baltic countries and one of the top tournaments in Northern Europe. It usually gathers more than 400 players, including around 25 GMs and more than 100 titled players. Egons has organized also many other events in Latvia, including all kinds of Latvian championships. Egons leads the local organizing team of the European Championship.

WIM Katrina Amerika (Skinke) – is also a key member of Riga Technical University Open organizers team. She has been a member of the organizing team during all years of RTU Open and significantly contributed to shape the festival as to be as good as it is nowadays. Katrina is also a member of Latvian Olympic chess team, so she has experienced the largest chess events of the world as a participant and is contributing this experience to the team of organizers.

The 1st European Individual Women Chess Championship was held in Batumi, Georgia in 2000 and was won by Ukrainian chess player Natalia Zhukova. Since then Ukrainian representatives have won 4 more times (in 2005 and 2008 by Kateryna Lahno, in 2015 Natalia Zhukova and in 2016 Anna Ushenina). The same amount of gold medals have travelled to Russia with Alexandra Kosteniuk in 2004, Tatiana Kosintseva in 2007 and 2009 and Valentina Gunina in 2012 and 2014. In 2013 the tournament was won by Hungarian representative Hoang Thanh Trang, in 2011 gold medal was taken to our neighbor country Lithuania by Viktorija Chmilyte and in 2010 the champion was Pia Cramling.

European Individual Women Chess Championship locations:

2000 – Batumi, Georgia

2001 – Warsaw, Poland

2002 – Varna, Bulgaria

2003 – Silivri, Turkey

2004 – Dresden, Germany

2005 – Chisinau, Moldova

2006 – Kusadasi, Turkey

2007 – Dresden, Germany

2008 – Plovdiv, Bulgaria

2009 – Saint Petersburg, Russia

2010 – Rijeka, Croatia

2011 – Tbilisi, Georgia

2012 – Gaziantep, Turkey

2013 – Belgrade, Serbia

2014 – Plovdiv, Bulgaria

2015 – Chakvi, Georgia

2016 – Mamaia, Romania

2017 – Riga, Latvia

Chess in Latvia has long lasting and strong traditions and many great grandmasters come from Latvia such as Hermanis Matisons, Mikhail Tal, Alexei Shirov and many others. Hermanis Matisons was the 1st Latvian chess master and the 1st winner of World Amateur Chess Championship, he significantly influenced chess popularity and traditions in the early 20th century. Mihail Tal was and is one of the most famous Latvian chess players. He was not only a great grandmaster and 8th World Chess Champion, but also a bright personality with a very distinct, tactical and aggressive chess playing style. One of the most famous Latvian chess players nowadays is grandmaster Alexei Shirov (vice champion of the world), who is also known for his creative and aggressive chess style and has won many significant tournaments in his career, he is often compared to Mikhail Tal.

Not only these influential grandmasters and fellow chess players of their time have maintained and developed chess traditions in Latvia, but also significant role has been played by Riga Chess School, Latvian Chess Federation and international tournament organizers.

Chess tournaments in Latvia

There are many international chess tournaments organized in Latvia, the most significant that are planned in the following years are: Riga Technical University open (one of the strongest classical chess tournaments in Europe, usually gathers more than 400 participants and it’s included in the ACP tour), International Chess Festival “Liepajas Rokade” (one of the best traditional tournaments of Latvian chess calendar, next year it will be the 24th time in a row), Vladimir Petrov Memorial (usually gathers top level grandmasters from the world, organized by legendary Alexei Shirov), European Youth Chess Championship (for the 1st time held in Latvia) and many others.

Latvian Chess Federation

Latvian Chess Federation is a member of European Chess Union (ECU) and World Chess Federation (FIDE). There are almost 600 FIDE rated Latvian chess players and two of them are in the FIDE top 100 players list (December 2016) – Igor Kovalenko and Alexei Shirov. Overall in the FIDE rating list Latvian men are in the 34th place and Latvian women chess players – 37th in the world. Latvian players participate in all the most significant international chess events – World Chess Olympiad, World Mind Games, World and European Team Championships, European and World Championships (also among senior and youth players) and many others.

The president of Latvian Chess Federation since 2015 is IO Aris Ozolins.

For more information about Latvian Chess Federation visit: https://www.sahafederacija.lv/

The 18th European individual chess championship for women is open to all players representing chess federations which comprise the European Chess Union. The championship is based on Swiss system in accordance with the ECU Tournament Rules and FIDE Rules of Chess. The playing time will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.

The 18th Individual European Chess Championship for women is qualification event for the next World Women Championship and according to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 14 players will qualify. Best 20 players will also be awarded with money prizes. The registration deadline is 1st of March 2017.

The playing venue and the official hotel of tournament will be 4* Radisson Blu Latvija Conference & Spa Hotel located in the city center (5 min walk from the Old Town), offering spacious and comfortable conference rooms and accommodation for all the participants of the championship.