Women's chess club "Samaia" celebrated first victory at European Club Cup which is underway in the city of Bulgaria, Plovdiv. In the first round Georgian women chess players beat Bulgarian "Lokomotiv 2000" 2.5:1.5.
On the first board Lela Javakhishvili (2351) lost with black pieces against Adriana Nikolova (2295). Nino Khurtsidze (2435) played draw with Darena Sirkova (2094). Salome Melia (2439) and Bela Khotenashvili (2464) improved the situation. They beat Iva Videnova (2283) and Mariya Janeva (2042).
Besides the mentioned 4 Georgian women, 5-time World champion Maia Chiburdanidze (2500) is playing for No. 4 seed "Samaia" at the tournament. Gia Giorgadze, president of Georgian Chess Federation, is captain of the team and Khvicha Supatashvili is coach.
In the second round, No.1 seed Monte Carlo team will be opponent of "Samaia". Indian Humpy Koneru (2593), Chinese Yifan Hou (2578), Slovenian Anna Muzychuk (2535), Swedish Pia Cramling (2509) and French Almira Skripchenko (2464) are playing for Monte Carlo team. In the first round, they beat German "Halle" 4:0.
European Championship is held by Swedish system. Seven rounds will be held. 14 clubs are participating in women's tournament. "Samaia" was formed by initiative of Georgian National Olympic Committee a year ago. Last year they took the 3rd place in Macedonia.