| It starts!, 10.10.2003 The whirlpool of arrivals is over. Old friends met in the lobbies of "Novotel Plovdiv", "Trimontium" and "Maritsa". Gens una sumus" came to life.
The ancient amphitheater in the Old City could not accomodate the participants and myriads of chess lovers, who gathered for the official opening of The Event.
The first one to address the multitude was Dr. Ivan Chomakov, the Mayor of Plovdiv, followed by Boris Kutin, ECU President. Warmly applauded by the audience, Mr. Kamen Toshkov, Director of the European Team Championship and Vice-President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, declared the competition open.
Boris Kutin, President of the European Chess Union (ECU), delivers his opening speech
Fireworksrocketed into the night sky of the city. The amphitheatre became a scene of spectacular Bulgarian folk dances (called "khora" in Bulgarian) from the Thrace region and music shows as a greeting to the representatives of nearly 40 countries, who had come to Plovdiv for the Championship.
The Technical Meeting of the team captains and the arbiters was held wo hours later in "Novotel Plovdiv", "Paris" hall.
The lineups of the teams became known, as well as the start-up team ranking and the pairing list for the first round. |
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