Aronian and Radjabov set the example in Novi Sad
24 October 2009, 14.13 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Levon Aronian joined the national squad of Armenia in the second round of the European Team Championship. He beat GM Istratescu and led his team to a 2.5-1.5 victory against Romania. Azerbaijan beat England with the same score and in the women section Russia lost to Georgia.
The 17th European Team Championship is organized by the European Chess Union and Serbia Chess Federation. The Championship is held in Novi Sad, Serbia (80 km northwest of the capital Belgrade and 280 km south of Budapest).
The dates are October 21th (day of arrival) until October 31th 2009 (day of departure). It’s a nine round Swiss played from October 22nd to 30th, without a rest day. The time control is 90 min. for 40 moves + 30 min. & 30 sec. increment.
Round 2
Istratescu was actually very close to reaching a draw against Aronian but his 36…Rf2? allowed the tricky 37.Rg6! which won on the spot. With draws on boards 2-4, this game decided the match in Armenia’s favour.
Mamedyarov, who was playing on board 4, scored the first point for his team in the England-Azerbijan match with a crushing victory against Simon Williams. The England team has one surprising name: Luke McShane, who is not a professional, but is still capable of playing on a very high level. Yesterday he drew comfortably with Black against Gashimov. Radjabov decided the match by beating Adams with Black but Conquest saved his team’s honour with a nice win against Guseinov.
France has to do without Vachier-Lagrave, who is playing the World Youth in Argentina at the moment, and already in the second round this played a role. Bacrot drew with Jobava but his team lost 1.5-2.5 to Georgia. The Dutch team was held 2-2 by Italy, mainly because Jan Smeets lost and ending that was at least equal, e.g. after 31.Kc1. After 31.Kb3?! Qd3! Caruana suddely had an annoying initiative and after a few more inaccuracies White was suddenly lost.
In this second round, the women section already saw the important encounter between Georgia and Russia. Kosteniuk drew with Dzagnidze on board one and Nadezhda Kosintseva did her duty, but her sister Tatiana and Valentina Gunina both lost. The Dutch women were crushed 0.5-3.5 by Germany.
All results round 2
Selection of games round 2
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Radjabov beats Adams in the Azerbaijan-England match...
...and Aronian does the same against Istratescu, deciding the Armenia-Romania match
Navara-Shirov was an interesting draw on board one of Czech Republic-Spain, in which Laznicka (board 2) was forfeited for arriving too late at the board
Viktor Kortchnoi went down against Zoltan Almasi in a rook ending
Photos courtesy of the official website
Links
- Official website
- Open section at Chess-Results
- Women section at Chess-Results
- Games in PGN: Open section | Women section
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What’s going on today? Delchev-Conquest 1.d4 0-1 ?? If the result should be 1-0, it would be another forfeit – there weren’t that many even during the Olympiad, at least not on the top boards.
But Delchev making his first move and then losing immediately would require a different explanation, nothing I can come up with … .
My explanation is that he did arrive a little bit too late at the board, moved 1.d4 which the board registered, and then the arbiter informed him of his forfeit — somehing like that.
Yes this makes sense. Eventually #4 seed Bulgaria lost against #18 England: Topalov can win only one game, Cheparinov was crushed in 20 moves by McShane’s offbeat Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.d3 Nc6 3.f4).
Armenia seems to be struggling on boards 2-4 against Serbia (home advantage?). Altogether, nice to see that the tournament isn’t predictable, and ELO is not _that_ important … .
According to TWIC Delchev’s phone went off just after his first move.
Ah the Nokia gambit, forgot about this possibility …. not available at WCh matches because players have to pass a metal detector?
This would also explain why chess-results.com gives the result as 0-1 rather than – +. Technically, a “game” was played, will it be rated?
I think, the Czech captain was pretty angry because of the late arrival of Laznicka…
I predict a two-horse race between Armenia and Israel, although I think Armenia are the favourites because of having Aronian on board 1.
@Joe, aren’t you forgetting about the Azeri side?
Azerbaijan is much stronger than Israel, even more so when Gelfand is absent.
As far as (at least nominally) strong teams are concerned, we also shouldn’t forget about Russia. At least not yet, maybe their first round slip against Croatia was a timely wakeup call?
This sort of contradicts my earlier comment (”ELO isn’t _that_ important”). But I dare to predict that Serbia’s run on homeground will not last forever, and they will lose one or two matches in the forthcoming rounds.
The highest rated player in Serbia is 2614, so they won’t fight for a medal. When Russia play their top four the lowest rated player is 2725. Israel’s highest rated player is 2676, while Azerbaijan have three 2720+ participants. My guess is that Russia and Azerbaijan will finish in the top two, and then either Armenia or some surprise like Georgia in third.