The European Team Championships started on Monday in Batumi, Georgia, with 36 teams competing in two sections. In the Open section, the Ukraine appears to have the strongest team on paper, but Armenia, Bulgaria, England, Germany, Hungary and Israel look like they might be able to give Ivanchuk & Company a run for their money.

With Adams and Sadler missing, the English crew, consisting of grandmasters Nigel Short, Jonathan Speelman, John Emms, Stuart Conquest and Murray Chandler, is not as strong as the team that won this event a few years back, but a lot of the other teams are missing some of their best players as well.

The biggest surprise in this respect is Russia, who seem to have sent the guys who polish the shoes for the guys who make sandwiches for the guys on the real team! With only one 2600+ player onboard, I think we can safely write Russia off this time around, folks.

FIDE is supposed to be covering this event at: http://www.worldfide.com/fide/html/news/batumi.html but so far they've been unable to post anything more than the schedule and team line-ups.

Some round 1 results from the Open section: Yugoslavia-Ukraine 2-2 (!), Israel-Slovenia 2-2 (!), Belgium-Armenia 0-4, England-Macedonia 3-1, France-Hungary 1-3, Germany-Slovakia 2.5-1.5, Azerbaijan-Russia 1-3.

Complete list of results at Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html

Norkom Invitational Masters

Bogdan Lalic and Julian Hodgson shared the honours ahead of superstars Michael Adams and Jan Timman in Ireland's premier chess event.

Although internet coverage collapsed during the tournament, we do have a couple of annotated games for you here:

Tournament of the Future

Dutch grandmaster Friso Nijboer stunned the competition by winning his first seven games in Hertogenbosch. Despite a somewhat shaky finish, Nijboer cashed in first prize with an impressive performance.

Annotated games and further details here:

Results and games at: http://www.kw1c.nl/chess/

Argentinian Championships

GM Pablo Ricardi is looking good in this year's edition of the Argentinian Championship, which runs in Buenos Aires from November 19 to December 12. With five rounds to go, Ricardi leads the strong field by 1.5 points.

Results and games at: http://roldan-casafus.com/

FIDE on the Ropes?

Read American FIDE delegate Don Schultz's report from the world chess federation's 75th Anniversary Celebration held on November 20 in Paris: http://www.chessdon.com/new_page_2.htm

Secret Games from Top GM's

ChessWise's World Games section now features over 200 "secret" speed games played by some of the strongest players in the world at the Internet Chess Club (ICC).

Play through the games online or download the pgn-file at: http://www.chesswise.com/world_games.htm

- Einar Gausel