Both Georgian teams lead in Novi Sad
26 October 2009, 10.51 CET | Last modified: 17:07 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Azerbaijan and Georgia are leading the European Team Championship in Novi Sad after four rounds; the two teams won all their matches so far. Also in the women section Georgia tops the standings. In round 4 the Dutch team held Russia 2-2; on board one Smeets beat Morozevich with Black.
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 4
After four rounds it’s clear that Georgia is the most successful country so far in Novi Sad, with both teams having won all its matches. Yesterday the men were too strong for Serbia’s first team: 1-3. As predicted, in the women section Georgia defeated Armenia; the score was 2½-1½.
There weren’t any real surprises this round, but the 2-2 draw against Russia was of course an excellent result for the Dutch team. Jan Smeets managed to beat Alexander Morozevich with Black in a very complicated game, and Stellwagen and l’Ami drew with Jakovenko and Alekseev respectively. Ernst was slowly but surely outplayed by Tomashevsky, but the question remains whether 35.Nxg7 Rf8+ 36.Kg2 Bf6 37.Nh5 Bc3 38.Rc1 was possible.
Azerbaijan won its fourth match, against Israel. Radjabov, Gashimov and Mamedyarov are doing well but Guseinov is a weak spot so far. Greece held Germany thanks to a win by Papaioannou with Black against Naiditsch, who sacrificed his c2-pawn in a Scandinavian to avoid move repetition, but never saw it again. The centuries old rivalry between France and England was decided in favour of the country of wine and champagne; McShane lost his first game, to Fressinet, and Feller beat Williams.
The fifth round will see Georgia-Azerbaijan, Israel-Russia, France-Armenia, Spain-Serbia 1 and Netherlands-Czech Republic. Other top pairings: Jobava-Radjabov, Sutovsky-Svidler, Bacrot-Aronian, Shirov-Solak and Smeets-Navara.
The best players who played all four rounds are Conquest, Feller, Mamedyarov, Markus and Nyback, who all scored 3.5 points. In the women section Georgia is the only team with a 100% score. Azerbaijan and Ukraine follow with one match point less. Nadezhda Kosintseva won all four games there.
All results round 4
Selection of games round 4
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Jan Smeets, board one of The Netherlands, beating...
...Alexander Morozevich, whose pokerface didn't help
The Georgian team with Baadur Jobava and Mikheil Mchedlishvili on boards 1 & 2
England vs Franc with Adams-Bacrot ½-½
The top match in round 4: Israel-Azerbaijan
The top match in round 4 of the women section: Georgia-Armenia
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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Two mistakes and one question:
1) McShane lost against Fressinet (not Pelletier who is on the Swiss team).
2) Topalov played two games so far – a win against Adams and a draw against Vladimir Georgiev from FYR Macedonia. Many first board players skipped round 1 (also Aronian, Eljanov, Sutovsky, Bacrot, Naiditsch and Adams), so that was nothing special – even though many would have liked to see Topalov-Caruana. He wasn’t really needed in round 2 against Wales, maybe the idea was also to give the 5th Bulgarian board at least some games?
3) Didn’t Naiditsch sacrifice his c-pawn “anyway”, not just to avoid a repetition? To me it seems black could have taken already on moves 12-14 – true, in that case white would have had more compensation.
Corrected. Caught a cold in Hoogeveen and it’s not having a positive effect on the accuracy of my writing, I notice. About the question: partly true, yes. On move twelve it’s bad to take on c2 because of 13.b5 followed by 14.Bb4 threatening to trap the queen but a move later it seems possible.
13…Bxc2 was possible but probably would have resulted in a draw after 14.b5 Nxd4 (that’s the difference of having the knight on g5, compared to the line given by Peter: 12…Bxc2 13.b5 followed by 14.Bb4) 15.Qd2 Rfd8 16.Bxd4 Rxd4 17.Qxc2 Qc5 18.Nxe6! Rxc4 (18…Qxc4 19.Nxd4+-) 19.Nxc5 Rxc2 20.Nxb7 Rb8 21.Rfd1
13…Bf5 14.Nf3 Be4 however only threatened with a draw, and provoked the higher-rated player to play the inferior 15.Nd2
Thanks misja, this looks convincing. Two questions remain:
1) Should Naiditsch be praised or blamed for avoiding a quick draw? He was higher-rated (though 60 points isn’t that much) but his opponent apparently surprised him in the opening. Games like this one may shed a different light on situations where one player is “chickening out”.
BTW, at the Olympiad life was easier for Naiditsch – hardly anyone blamed _him_ for a quick draw with white against Kramnik!?
2) What has Naiditsch missed? I think the idea of 16.-a6 and 17.-Qa7 when the black queen is safe while still keeping an eye on d4. I don’t think it was simply underestimating his opponent – “I will still outplay him even one or two pawns down”. 60 points isn’t that much …. .
“In round 4 the Dutch team held Russia 2-2; on board one Smeets beat Mororezich with Black.”
Who’s Mororezich?
@Thomas: Of course I do not know what Naiditsch was thinking, and what he should be blamed for (if a patzer with a computer like me has the right to blame a GM at all). But it would be strange to praise him for avoiding the draw because the alternative is clearly worse. With his 11th and 12th moves white created some traps but after black avoided the traps these moves turned out to have left white with a slightly inferior position where he should have gone for the draw.
And Naiditsch did not only miss 16…a6 because there are several alternative 16th moves for black which keep the advantage. For example
16…Ba4 17.Nc4 Qa6 18.Na5
16…Ne7 17.Nc4 Qc6
PS: meant to write 18…Bb5 after 16…Ba4 17.Nc4 Qa6 18.Na5
France team is playing well at the moment even though Vachier-Lagrave is not there , nice to see that the young R.Edouard and S.Feller , both born after 1990 are doing ok . Also heard that Bacrot beat Aronian today which is a surprise .
It’s good to see cause it’s not easy in such a tournament with great teams like Russia ,Armenia , Azerbaidjan ; Ukraine , Bulgaria , etc .. with the world’s best players .
Couldn’t Anish Giri as the current Dutch champion claim his place in the Dutch team? And even if he simply preferred to play in Hoogeveen, he could have started the ETCh a few rounds later. Think the Dutch team would have been a bit stronger with Giri on the 4th board.
Arjo,
Only in 2010 Anish Giri is allowed by the internationall chessfederation to play for Holland! Originally, he is not born in the Netherlands.
It has nothing to do with “playing in Hoogeveen” he just cannot play foor the Nethelands in 2009