The same happened a round earlier in the women section: eight draws on the two top boards of round 6 (Azerbaijan-Russia and Ukraine-Georgia) didn't change the top of the standings of the European Team Championship in Novi Sad. The Russian ladies took over the lead from 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 6

Perhaps it's the tough schedule of nine rounds without a rest day, perhaps other forces play a role. Fact is that in three games of the top match Azerbaijan-Russia a quick draw was agreed, just about when Tomashevsky-Mamedyarov looked very drawish too. However, soon that game turned into a very interesting pawn ending which needs to be analyzed by endgame experts; in the end it was a draw as well. But especially Radjabov-Svidler and Jakovenko-Gashimov were games we would have liked to see played out.

Four more draws in Ukraine-Georgia kept the top of the standings intact; Pantsulaia-Volokitin was hyper-sharp and luckily in many other matches lots of exciting games were played as well. What about Aronian-Shirov, where Black got three (soon two) passed pawns in return for a white bishop (23...Nh5 24.Be2 Ng3 25.Bf3 looks good for White). At some point one side just had to give a perpetual somewhere, but what a great fight. On the lower boards Armenia decided the match against Spain in their favour: 3-1.

Netherlands-France and Serbia 1-Hungary were 2-2 draws; Smeets and Bacrot made the ultimate claim that the Marshall is a theoretical draw. Topalov drew his third game in a row, against Navara, who is now on a 2790 performance. Cheparinov lost to Laznicka; Bulgaria's number two is back on 50% with no draws yet. It meant that the two match points went to Czech Republic: 2½-1½.

Even without Magnus Carlsen, Norway's board one currently has the highest rating performance in the tournament: Jon Ludvig Hammer (2585) scored 5/6 which is good for a 2873 level of play. Today's pairings include the clashes Azerbaijan-Armenia, Russia-Georgia and Czech Republic-Ukraine.

In the women section Georgia was held 2-2 by Azerbaijan mainly thanks to Shakhriyar's oldest sister Zeinab Mamedjarova, who beat Nana Dzagnidze on board one. Russia beat Ukraine and now leads the standings on board points. Azerbaijan and Russia meet today; Georgia plays Israel.

All results round 6

Selection of games round 6

Game viewer by ChessTempo

No decisive games in Azerbaijan and Russia

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