Europeans Draughts Confederation – Promoting Draughts in Europe

The EDC or European Draughts Confederation is a member federation part of The World Draughts Federation or FMJD. Based in Szczecin, Poland, the EDC serves to unite all the other European checkers organizations all over the continent, and is heavily involved in the development and promotion of the game through the holding of various checkers tournaments and events on both the national and international level.

One of the most prestigious checkers related events that the European Draughts Confederation has been involved with is the European Youth Championship, of which the 10th will be held in August of 2008. The event will be hosted by the EDC along with the Polish Draughts Federation, the sporting club “Salos”, and the Szczecin City Hall.

The 10th European Youth Championship tournament is set to take place in Ku Sloncu Street 124, Szczecin, Poland from the 1st to the 7th of August 2008, with participants to the event scheduled to arrive on the 31st of July.

In this particular event, only players that are members of national checkers federations that are affiliated with the FMJD can join, although the European Draughts Confederation reserves the right to invite players from countries that are not currently members of the FMJD.

In the 10th European Youth Championship, 8 championship events are scheduled to be played, with separate events for boys and girls. These events are Junior for players born on January 1, 1989 or later; Cadets for players born on January 1, 1992 or later; Mini cadets for players born on January 1, 1995 or later; and European Hopes for players born on January 1, 1998 or later.

In each of the tournaments, which have a maximum of 24 players there are three slots for each member federation, with the Polish Draughts Federation having an additional sponsor slot for every group. In the event that there are an odd number of players at the opening ceremony, the Polish Draughts Federation may assign an extra player to ensure that there is an even number of players in every group.

Checkers federations that wish to join this event have to submit their intended list of players to the European Draughts Confederation before June 5 with the players’ full names, surnames, and date of birth. Any concerns with the signing up process can be addressed to the European Draughts Confederation directly.