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European Club Cup 2026: Bayegan Pendik and Monte-Carlo win on tiebreak in Budva

Published · By TG, the site operator

The 41st European Chess Club Cup and the 30th European Chess Club Cup for Women finished on 23 October in Budva, Montenegro. According to the European Chess Union, a record 130 clubs took part, 108 in the open section and 22 in the women's section. Both events were seven-round Swiss tournaments for teams, and both titles were settled on tiebreak. In the open section the top seed, Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club from Turkey, and Novy Bor Chess Club from the Czech Republic each finished with six match wins and one draw, and Pendik took first place. In the women's section Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo from Monaco, the defending champions, finished level with CE Gambit Bonnevoie from Luxembourg and kept the trophy.

A decisive top table

Three clubs shared the lead on 11 match points before the last round: Pendik, Novy Bor and SuperChess Romania. Pendik and SuperChess met on the top table, and Pendik won 3½–2½. Anish Giri beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov on board one and Amin Tabatabaei won on board three. Jorden Van Foreest won for SuperChess against Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, and the other three games were drawn. Novy Bor kept pace by beating Elektroprivreda 4½–1½, with wins from Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna and David Navara. The two co-winners never played each other. Rishon LeZion A from Israel finished third and SuperChess fourth. Under the event invitation, the top four clubs qualify for the new European Chess Super League, scheduled for 2–10 February 2027. Richard Rapport, on board four for Pendik, scored 6/7 without a loss.

Monte-Carlo ahead despite losing the direct match

The women's race had a twist. Bonnevoie beat Monte-Carlo 2½–1½ in round four, yet the final table puts Monte-Carlo first. On the last day Monte-Carlo, with Aleksandra Goryachkina, Humpy Koneru, Stavroula Tsolakidou and Elisabeth Paehtz, won 4–0 against Davit Jojua's chess club, while Bonnevoie beat Crvena Zvezda 2½–1½. Both clubs ended on 12 match points. After match points, the published tiebreak order uses a Sonneborn-Berger count, not the direct encounter, and that count rewards points scored against teams that themselves did well. Monte-Carlo also scored more game points, 21 to 19. Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica took third place.

There was also a record on board one of the English team She Plays To Win Lionesses A. Chess.com reports that 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan completed the requirements for the International Master title in Budva, breaking Judit Polgar's age record for a female IM, which had stood since 1988. She scored 5½/7 and won her last game.

Match points, game points and your own score

Team chess counts twice. Each game is worth 1 point for a win and ½ for a draw, as in any tournament, and those game points decide the match. The team with more of them gets 2 match points, and a drawn match gives each team 1. That is why three draws on the top table in Budva were not wasted: they held the score while Giri and Tabatabaei did the winning.

You can keep score the same way here. When you play the computer, the You vs AI card counts your wins, the computer's wins and the draws, and stores them in this browser. Add your wins to half your draws and you have your score in tournament points. A useful exercise is to play six games on Hard as if you were a six-board team, and see how many of your draws you could have turned into wins. Our strategy page and endgame basics are good places to look for the missing half points.

Sources

Written by the operator of this site from the sources listed above. Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected] and it will be corrected.

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