European Team Championship

The opening rounds of the 17th European Team Championship in Novi Sad, Serbia, threw up some early upsets. In round one, defending champions Russia dropped what could well be a vital match point by being held to a 2-2 draw with Croatia.

Other upset opening round results also saw Bulgaria losing to Italy and Switzerland (led by the venerable Viktor Korchnoi) beating Ukraine - who are playing minus their top GMs, due to the fact that the team's participation wasn't confirmed until early October.

That snippet from the daily magazine Chess Today, who also reported on other notable absentees apart from Magnus Carlsen. According to reports, Alexander Grischuk was also excluded from the Russian team at the last minute after he refused to appear at the team's training session before leaving for Novi Sad.

Eight teams - in tiebreak order: Hungary, Spain, Serbia 1, Germany, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Israel and Georgia - lead on a maximum score of 4-points at the end of round two.

ICC will have live game relay of the European Team Championship throughout, running 22nd-30th October, ICC start time 09:00am (07:00am final round). Just sign-up today for ICC and you can sit back and watch all the action from the European Team Championship - and be ready for our extended Chess.FM live commentary coverage In November of the Tal Memorial in Moscow, followed in December by the London Chess Classic, and in January Corus Wijk aan Zee.

USCL Readies for Playoffs

The United States Chess League, hosted exclusively here Mondays and Wednesdays on ICC, continues to countdown to the title-deciding playoffs as the regular season draws to a close after the conclusion of Week 8 of 10.

In the Eastern Division, the top two already guaranteed of a playoff berth, Boston Blitz (with GM Larry Christiansen) and New Jersey Knockouts (with GM Joel Benjamin) came face to face with New Jersey scoring an emphatic, bragging rights score of 4-0 against their perennial playoff opponents and also put themselves in poll position for a first Eastern title win.

Meanwhile the Seattle Sluggers (led by fan favorite and current league MVP leader GM Hikaru Nakamura) are on the verge of capturing their first Western Division title after beating Tennessee Tempo. Next week, Seattle, with an incredible 7-1 record, take on nearest rivals Arizona Scorpions in a key match-up that could see them clinching the title.

Watch all the Week 9 action live by being a member on ICC and check U.S. Chess League for blog links, games and more. Chess.FM will also have exclusive live commentary of the USCL finals in December.