River River

DRESDEN is the second-largest city - Hamburg is the largest - on the River Elbe, which flows for 680 miles from Czechia's Giant Mountains to the North Sea at Cuxhaven.

Early-morning view of the Elbe as it passes Dresden old town

The name Elbe comes from old German and Norse words meaning river, and is believed to have been first recorded in Latin as Albis.

It has a long history as a border and as a major trade route, being particularly important to the prosperity of the Hanseatic League.

Dresden is relatively modern as far as cities go, only really developing after it became the capital of the margravate of Meissen in 1270.

Today more than 550,000 people live in the city and over 1.3million in the greater metropolitan area.

Dresden seems to have a thriving chess scene with four teams entered in the 65+ section of the European team seniors and two in the 50+ section.

The tournaments, which are run by the European Chess Union, start today at 3pm.