Twelve teams from eleven nations took part in the fourth Girls' European U18 Chess Championship. Top rated players were WFM Motoc of Romania (2387) and WIM Zdebskaya of Ukraine (2350). Top seeded teams: Romania - 2319, Ukraine - 2267 and Poland - 2265. The newcomers were Poland, France and Belgium. Unlike in 2002, the final order was decided by match points, followed by game points.

The event was one of tightest tournaments ever seen in the history of international competitions. Ukraine were in the lead for a few days but slumped after round five debacle vs Romania. The latter took over shared lead with Poland. The leading duo met on penultimate day to see Poland emerge as the winners. Standings with last round to go: Poland - 9, Serbia & Montenegro, Czech Republic and Ukraine - 8, Romania and Hungary - 7. The last round was dramatic; Zawadzka lost a dead-won position vs Tóth of Hungary to cause Poland lose to Hungary ½-1½ while the rest of aspiring teams drew each other, with exception of Romania who wiped out weak Belgian team 2-0 to grab the gold by virtue of better game point record (despite of two match losses out of seven!). As much as six teams finished level on 9 match points! Silver went to Serbia & Montenegro, the only team to avoid match loss while Ukraine won bronze beating Czech Republic on Berger count. Poor Poland went down to fifth.

Best individual results were achieved by the following players: Rudolf (HUN) 5/6, Motoc (ROM), Zdebskaya (UKR) and Vasić (YUG) 5½/7.