European Chess Club Cups 2024 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia

The European Club Championship is organized every year. I suspect that the recent edition was a record with 26 Belgians playing for 9 different clubs (5 Belgian, 1 German, 1 French, 1 Luxembourg and 1 Dutch). This is not a coincidence because it is perhaps the most beautiful tournament you can tick off the chess calendar as an (adult) amateur chess player. It is therefore high time to introduce this chess gem to the general public.

First of all, such championship is the place to score a standard or title. There are few kids participating. There are few if any under-qualified Asian players from whom you always lose rating. Finally, fide applies exception rules for a continental championship like European team championships. Thus 4 Belgians (Nils Vantorre, Dennis Van Vliet, Michiel Jacobs and Mark Dechamps) thanks to a score of 3.5/7 in this tournament are now allowed to apply for the CM title (irrespective thus of the opposition but against payment of 50 euros). FM Frederic Decoster scored a third IM norm (the title cannot yet be applied for).

A second important asset of this tournament compared to regular open tournaments is the team aspect. I often feel lonely at tournaments abroad. Personally, I attach great importance to social contacts and with my Dutch team the Stukkenjagers I was certainly in the right place. Eating together, hiking, analyzing, blitzing … In short, a lot of fun but also an enormous enrichment because it is on such trips that you can create depth in conversations.

My daughter thinks it is a gangster pose but it mainly shows how relaxed and pleasant the atmosphere was in the team. In front you can see the 2 Belgians Helmut and Jasper. In the back are lnr Bertalan, Bob, Erwin, Luuk and Sam.

Moreover, with 1 game per day starting at 3 pm, there was a lot of free time. I spent it mostly on preparations but for many (weaker) players the tournament was a big party. During the day it was a walk, sauna or a splash in the many heated pools. In the evening into the early hours there was drinking and singing in neighboring cafes. The young (handsome) female arbiters happily joined in this revelry. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas so I won’t give details. I do know that I often sat alone at breakfast during the tournament and some wives may be surprised of their good chess players.

Now of course many chess players were there primarily to play chess. About 15 teams consisted of pure professionals on whom sponsors had spent many thousands of euros. You will rarely see them party but it is in itself an experience to play alongside top players such as Gukesh, Erigaisi, Abusattarov, Wei, … play. Moreover, many of them are also perfectly approachable and willingly stand for pictures. I have seen several photos of players with legend and crowd favorite Ivanchuk but who also has a photo with perhaps the new world champion soon?

Luuk, Gukesh, Erwin or Sam. Who will soon have the best chance of winning the world title?

However next level is of course playing a game against a world top player myself. I got to try in vain against Nils Grandelius in the first round. Nils has 2650 elo, won the Swedish championship and was second to Magnus Carlsen in the 2018 wk. After all, next next level is not just playing a game like this but winning against a world top player. Belgian international master Francois Godart got it done against Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. The match went around the world.

In other words, I can only say that a European team championship is about the best and most beautiful thing you can experience as an amateur chess player. The only thing I want to talk about in this article is the accommodation and food. In countries like Serbia these things can be disappointing, but not this time. We happened to stay in the most expensive (price is not too bad, see below) and best hotel on offer and we were very happy with it. Normally I always lose weight after a tournament but not in Serbia. The food was fantastic.

That was a standard breakfast every morning at our lodging and I haven’t photographed everything yet. Lunch and dinner was same class but enough pictures of food because otherwise this will be more like a food blog instead of a chess blog.

The total cost (registration fee, 8 overnight stays, full board, flights Eindhoven-Belgrade , bus rides Belgrade – Vrnjacka Banja, parking in Eindhoven, car rides home- Eindhoven) came to 1576 euros for me personally. I consider that a competitive price for everything I got. In addition, I was fortunate to be sponsored for 429 euros so it ended up costing me only 1147 euros.

So it does not surprise me that more and more chess players play this tournament often as the only foreign tournament every year. In the database I saw that the Luxembourger Pierre Gengler has already played at least 12 editions. Next edition will normally take place in sun-drenched Greek Rhodes. I am already on the waiting list but I fear after this article that the waiting list might explode very soon.

Helmut Froeyman

PS

Much more about my European adventure will be published on my blog https://schaken-brabo.blogspot.com/ in the next few weeks/months. Readers who don’t want to wait that long can already read Belgian FM Frederic Decoster’s report at https://gambiet.wordpress.com/2024/10/29/the-secret-sauce/. It covers how to seduce ladies, the diarrhea drug enterol, Indian music, rabies, sulfur baths, winter hour so everything I hope for in a good chess report. Oh well there are Frederics games too but you can skip those. 😁