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The first chess youth championship in Europe was the yearly European Junior Championship for under age 20. It was played from 1971-2002. FIDE officially introduced the European Junior Championship in 1970 at their Annual Congress and so the 1971/72 edition was the first official European Junior Championship. Effectively, they adopted the 'Niemeyer Tournament', held every year in Groningen since 1962, and re-packaged it. For completeness also the winners of this Niemeyer tournament are listed. The first competition for girls was held in 1977/1978.
| Year | Location | Boys winner | Location | Girls winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niemeyer Tournament | ||||
| 1962/1963 | Groningen, Netherlands | Coenraad Zuidema | ||
| 1963/1964 | Groningen, Netherlands | Robert Gijsbertus Hartoch Jørn Sloth |
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| 1964/1965 | Groningen, Netherlands | Hans Ree Robert Hübner |
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| 1965/1966 | Groningen, Netherlands | Andrew John Whiteley Hans Ree |
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| 1966/1967 | Groningen, Netherlands | Mikhail Steinberg | ||
| 1967/1968 | Groningen, Netherlands | Anatoly Karpov | ||
| 1968/1969 | Groningen, Netherlands | Karl-Heinz Siegfried Maeder Zoltán Ribli Rafael Vaganian |
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| 1969/1970 | Groningen, Netherlands | András Adorján | ||
| 1970/1971 | Groningen, Netherlands | Zoltán Ribli | ||
| European Junior Championship | ||||
| 1971/1972 | Groningen, Netherlands | Gyula Sax | ||
| 1972/1973 | Groningen, Netherlands | Oleg Romanishin | ||
| 1973/1974 | Groningen, Netherlands | Sergei Makarichev | ||
| 1974/1975 | Groningen, Netherlands | John Nunn | ||
| 1975/1976 | Groningen, Netherlands | Alexander Kochyev | ||
| 1976/1977 | Groningen, Netherlands | Ľubomír Ftáčnik | ||
| 1977/1978 | Groningen, Netherlands | Shaun Taulbut | Novi Sad, Yugoslavia | Bożena Sikora Rita Kas |
| 1978/1979 | Groningen, Netherlands | John van der Wiel | Kikinda, Yugoslavia | Nana Ioseliani |
| 1979/1980 | Groningen, Netherlands | Alexander Chernin | Kula, Turkey | Nana Ioseliani |
| 1980/1981 | Groningen, Netherlands | Ralf Åkesson | Senta, Yugoslavia | Agnieszka Brustman |
| 1981/1982 | Groningen, Netherlands | Curt Hansen | Panonia, Yugoslavia | Elena Stupina |
| 1982/1983 | Groningen, Netherlands | Jaan Ehlvest | ||
| 1983/1984 | Groningen, Netherlands | Valery Salov | ||
| 1984/1985 | Groningen, Netherlands | Ferdinand Hellers | Katowice, Poland | Ildikó Mádl |
| 1985/1986 | Groningen, Netherlands | Alexander Khalifman | ||
| 1986/1987 | Groningen, Netherlands | Vassily Ivanchuk | Băile Herculane, Romania | Ildikó Mádl |
| 1987/1988 | Arnhem, Netherlands | Boris Gelfand | ||
| 1988/1989 | Arnhem, Netherlands | Alexey Dreev Boris Gelfand |
not played | |
| 1989/1990 | Arnhem, Netherlands | Grigory Serper | Dębica, Poland | Svetlana Matveeva |
| 1990/1991 | Arnhem, Netherlands | Rune Djurhuus | ||
| 1991/1992 | Aalborg, Netherlands | Aleksander Delchev | ||
| 1992 | Sas van Gent, Netherlands | Aleksej Aleksandrov | Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia | Nino Khurtsidze |
| 1993 | Vejen, Denmark | Vladislav Borovikov | Svitavy, Czech Republic | Ilaha Kadimova |
| 1994 | not played | Svitavy, Czech Republic | Silvia Aleksieva | |
| 1995 | Holon, Israel | Yury Shulman | Zanka, Hungary | Marija Velcheva |
| 1996 | Siofok, Hungary | Andrey Shariyazdanov | Tapolca, Hungary | Maia Lomineishvili |
| 1997 | Tallinn, Estonia | Dimitri Tyomkin | Tallinn, Estonia | Sofiko Tkeshelashvili |
| 1998 | Yerevan, Armenia | Levon Aronian | Yerevan, Armenia | Sofiko Tkeshelashvili |
| 1999 | Niforeika, Greece | Dennis de Vreught | Niforeika, Greece | Regina Pokorna |
| 2000 | Avilés, Spain | Adam Horvath | Avilés, Spain | Jovanka Houska |
| 2001 | Rion, Greece | Zviad Izoria | Rion, Greece | Iweta Radziewicz |
| 2002 | Baku, Azerbaijan | Zviad Izoria | Baku, Azerbaijan | Zeinab Mamedyarova |
1962/63 - Groningen, Netherlands - (January 1963) - One of the earliest junior international tournaments held at Groningen under the sponsorship of tobacco firm T. Niemeyer. The event was later informally recognised as the European Junior Championship and later still, adopted by FIDE as the official contest. In this edition, there was a strong showing from the Benelux countries, but England's Keith Richardson (7 points), a student at Durham University, managed to take a good second place, after the Netherlands' Coenraad Zuidema (7½). There followed three players on 5½; E. C. Scholl, E. W. R. Abbing (both Netherlands) and P. Ostermeyer (West Germany).
1976/77 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1976 - January 5, 1977) - The event was shared with the contest to determine the World Junior Champion, that particular title going to the top placed player overall, namely Mark Diesen (see World Junior Chess Championship). Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished top European player and therefore took the title European Junior Champion. Tied for 4th-8th places were Daniel Campora from Argentina, Leslie Leow from Singapore, Marcel Sisniega from Mexico and Evgeny Vladimirov from the USSR. Also in the chasing pack - Ian Rogers (AUS), Krum Georgiev (BUL), Attila Groszpeter (HUN), Jonathan Mestel (ENG), Petar Popović (YUG), Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Murray Chandler (NZL) and Margeir Petursson (ISL). Jonathan Speelman (ENG) played one game and was then disqualified, following protests from other countries that England had more than one representative. Of course, his entry had been previously ratified by FIDE.
1977/78 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 20, 1977 - January 5, 1978) - Taulbut of England won the event on tie-break and the result was also good enough to earn him the IM title. In close contention for a place in the first three were, 4th O. Foisor (ROM) and sharing 5th-8th places, A. Groszpeter (HUN), D. Goodman (ENG), K. Mokry (CZE) and T. Upton (SCO).
1978/79 - Kikinda, Yugoslavia - (January 21 - February 1, 1978) - Among the competitors were last year's champion Bozena Sikora of Poland, the promising 15-year-old Soviet Nana Ioseliani, and the Yugoslav Junior Champion, Dusica Cejic. 14-year-old Swede Pia Cramling beat the second placed Klimova, but was too erratic to join the leading group.
1978/79 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1978 - January 5, 1979) - Sponsored by the Gasunie Company for the fourth successive year. The players found the organisation and playing conditions to their liking. World Junior Champion, Sergey Dolmatov was tipped to win, but was edged into second by home favourite John van der Wiel, a 19-year-old law student. Third placed James Plaskett (ENG) looked like he might catch the leading pair, but lost to Margeir Petursson (ISL) in round 11.
1986/87 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 1986 - January 1987) - The winner Ivanchuk began with 5 straight wins, and gave early notice of his natural talent. In the last round, he drew with Blatny (CZE) and this allowed home nation representative Piket (NED) to leapfrog into second place by beating Ninov (BUL). Ivan Sokolov (BIH) took a share of 3rd-5th places. There was a lower than normal entry of 30.