The European Team Championship has long, almost 50 year old history and most of European top players, including chess legends like Botvinnik, Tal, Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov, took part. With lots of memorable moments and plenty of good chess the ETC certainly deserves its place in the history. Unfortunately nothing like that has ever been done before. This is why we decided to fill the gap. Since today the online history of men's and women's Championship is available along with all-time statistics. Watch all the games, see all the results, learn all the players.

Men's European Chess Team Championship history
Women's European Chess Team Championship history

(Please note: we were working in a hurry. Apart from 1957 and 1961 events, that have already been fully documented, the tournament reviews and game highlights are missing. Also two games from 1992 are not known so far.)

Selected must-see highlights:
Vienna 1957: Yugoslavia defeats the Soviet Union >> watch here
Hamburg 1965: Szabo and Bilek lead Hungary to a win over USSR >> watch here
Skara 1980: Sweden beat Hungary at home >> watch here
Haifa 1989: Finland take 4th spot to produce biggest upset ever >> watch here
Batumi 1999: Slovak girls win the Championship >> watch here
Gothenburg 2005: Russia beat negative all-time record lying in 14th >> watch here

Trivia:
- The women's event was introduced in 1992. First women to appear at men's ETC were the Polgar sisters in 1989.
- Until 1983 the round robin system was in use preceeded by preliminaries. At most 8 teams qualified to the championship final. The Swiss system was adopted in 1989. Since 2003 the match points are major tie-break.
- The Soviet Union won 9 trophies in 9 appearences. Then, Russia and Holland won 2 times. England and Armenia complete the winner list. In women's section none of the teams won more than once!
- None of the teams from men's section took part in all of 15 editions. Serbia and Montenegro, formerly known as Yugoslavia were absent only once, in 1997. In 1992 they arrived and played round 1 match but were soon expelled.
- Viktor Kortschnoj appeared 11 times at the ETC making it absolute all-time record. Jonathan Speelman comes next with 9 appearances followed by Beliavsky, Gligoric, Petrosjan and Portisch. Only three ladies appeared in each of six women's events held so far: Anna-Maria Botsari, Mara Jelica and Marina Makropoulou.
- Petrosian was the only man to win 8 team gold medals.