Reports | October 12, 2012 11:56

Bumpy start for European Club Cup and its top favourite

This year's European Club Cup takes place at the popular beach resort Eilat

SOCAR is the top favourite at the European Club Cup in Eilat, Israel but the Azerbaijani team started with a loss in the very first round. Gata Kamsky scored a win for SOCAR against Evgeny Romanov, but Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Veselin Topalov went down against Andrei Volokitin and Pavel Eljanov respectively. Other victims in the first round include Hikaru Nakamura (against Dmitry Andreikin) and Krishnan Sasikiran (against Robin Swinkels). The tournament itself had a bumpy start as well.

This year's European Club Cup takes place at the popular beach resort Eilat in Israel | All photos © Vladimír Jagr

Event 28th European Club Cup for Men & 17th European Club Cup for Women | Chess-Results
Dates October 11th-17th, 2012
Location Eilat, Israel
System 6-player round robin
Players Top players include Radjabov, Nakamura, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Kamsky, Grischuk, Topalov, Mamedyarov, Wang Hao, Svidler, Gelfand, Ponomariov, Dominguez, Leko, Wojtaszek, Jakovenko, Giri, Volokitin, Navara, Adams
Rate of play

90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
Extra Players are not allowed to offer a draw before move 40. The zero tolerance rule for arriving at the board is in effect

The 28th European Club Cup for Men and the 17th European Club Cup for Women took off yesterday in the popular Israeli beach resort Eilat. As so often with big chess events, it didn't start without problems. A number of chess clocks in the women's section didn't work, probably as a result of uncharged batteries. More importantly, the live transmission of the games was a big disappointment, with most of the matches showing incomplete names and moves. On Friday morning the links to the PGN files on the live page still give a "404 page not found"... Hopefully things will be better for round 2, and the round 1 games will be entered manually by the organizers, using the score sheets.

The top match SOCAR vs Ashdod looked like this all day

The good news is that the Chess.TV team is present in Eilat and are providing live video broadcast. Here's what they produced on the first day:

As a result of accelarated pairings (teams from the top half of the draw meeting each other already in the first round) there were some interesting clashes on the first day in Eilat. If we look at team results there was actually only one upset, but it happened on the top boards. SOCAR, the top favourite at this year's European Club Cup, immediately suffered a loss, against Ashdod:

Bo. 1 SOCAR Azerbaijan Rtg - 9 Ashdod Rtg 2½:3½
1/1 GM Radjabov, Teimour 2792 - GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2771 ½ - ½
1/2 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2748 - GM Volokitin, Andrei 2724 0 - 1
1/3 GM Topalov, Veselin 2751 - GM Eljanov, Pavel 2681 0 - 1
1/4 GM Grischuk, Alexander 2752 - GM Smirin, Ilia 2638 ½ - ½
1/5 GM Kamsky, Gata 2755 - GM Romanov, Evgeny 2611 1 - 0
1/6 GM Sutovsky, Emil 2685 - GM Avrukh, Boris 2585 ½ - ½

Only one game in this match was transmitted correctly online, but thankfully it was this one! Volokitin beat Mamedyarov with a wonderful attack in a Sicilian Najdorf:

PGN string

(Some notes to the game were given by Volokitin to Chess-News.) 

In the match Eynatten vs Novy Bor the was an individual upset, and this game was transmitted correctly, or so it seems. We assume that Sasikiran couldn't remember the lines exactly and mixed up some moves...

PGN string

The European Club Cup is a 7-round Swiss with one round per day and no rest days. The Women's section is a round robin with 8 teams. There's a 40,000 Euro prize fund to fight for in the Open section and a 9,000 Euro prize fund in the Women's section. The rounds start at 15:00 CET, live here.

Czech photographer Vladimír Jagr travelled to Israel together with the Novy Bor team. We thank him for sharing his photos with us:

Dawn over an almost empthy highway

Eilat's Royal Beach Hotel is the venue this year

Almost all hotels in Eilat have swimming pools like this one

A cloudless sky and 34 degrees Celsius equals postcard material!

A telephoto view of the Jordanian port city of Aqaba, only 5 km from Eilat

The port of Eilat, full of luxurious yachts

The playing hall during the opening ceremony, half an hour before the first round

A speech by the Secretary General of the European Chess Union, Sava Stoisavljevic

The match SOCAR-Ashdod, with Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk drawing on board one

Eynatten's IM Benjamin Bok held Novy Bor's David Navara to a draw...

and Novy Bor's Krishnan Sasikiran even lost, to Robin Swinkels

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov missed some tactics against Andrei Volokitin

Hikaru Nakamura was among the first round victims as well - playing for the Italian team Obiettive Risarcimento, he lost to Economist-SGSEU Saratov's Dmitry Andreikin

World Champion Hou Yifan (Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo) also started with a loss, against former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (SHSM-Nashe Nasledie)

Viktorija Cmilyte and Natalija Pogonina, boards 2 and 3 for AVS

 

European Club Cup 2012 | Open | Results round 1

Bo. 1 SOCAR Azerbaijan Rtg - 9 Ashdod Rtg 2½:3½
1/1 GM Radjabov, Teimour 2792 - GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2771 ½ - ½
1/2 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2748 - GM Volokitin, Andrei 2724 0 - 1
1/3 GM Topalov, Veselin 2751 - GM Eljanov, Pavel 2681 0 - 1
1/4 GM Grischuk, Alexander 2752 - GM Smirin, Ilia 2638 ½ - ½
1/5 GM Kamsky, Gata 2755 - GM Romanov, Evgeny 2611 1 - 0
1/6 GM Sutovsky, Emil 2685 - GM Avrukh, Boris 2585 ½ - ½
Bo. 10 Beer Sheba Rtg - 2 SHSM-64 Rtg 1½:4½
2/1 GM Roiz, Michael 2618 - GM Leko, Peter 2734 ½ - ½
2/2 GM Rodshtein, Maxim 2616 - GM Giri, Anish 2730 0 - 1
2/3 GM Huzman, Alexander 2591 - GM Riazantsev, Alexander 2712 ½ - ½
2/4 GM Nabaty, Tamir 2586 - GM Grachev, Boris 2672 0 - 1
2/5 GM Postny, Evgeny 2647 - GM Najer, Evgeniy 2664 ½ - ½
2/6 GM Greenfeld, Alon 2559 - GM Potkin, Vladimir 2663 0 - 1
Bo. 3 Economist-SGSEU Saratov Rtg - 11 Obiettive Risarcimento Rtg 5 : 1
3/1 GM Andreikin, Dmitry 2718 - GM Nakamura, Hikaru 2786 1 - 0
3/2 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2704 - GM Georgiev, Kiril 2668 ½ - ½
3/3 GM Alekseev, Evgeny 2683 - GM Godena, Michele 2526 1 - 0
3/4 GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny 2720 - IM Bellini, Fabio 2492 1 - 0
3/5 GM Moiseenko, Alexander 2700 - IM Collutiis, Duilio 2501 1 - 0
3/6 GM Lysyj, Igor 2628 - IM Valsecchi, Alessio 2415 ½ - ½
Bo. 12 Gros Xake Taldea Rtg - 4 Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation Rtg 1 : 5
4/1 GM Van Wely, Loek 2688 - GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2734 ½ - ½
4/2 GM Bauer, Christian 2664 - GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2691 0 - 1
4/3 GM Landa, Konstantin 2641 - GM Movsesian, Sergei 2699 ½ - ½
4/4 IM Franco Alonso, Alejandro 2479 - GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim 2678 0 - 1
4/5 IM Gonzalez De La Torre, Santiago 2442 - GM Matlakov, Maxim 2665 0 - 1
4/6 IM Argandona Riveiro, Inigo 2402 - GM Khairullin, Ildar 2639 0 - 1
Bo. 5 Ugra Rtg - 13 Rishon Le-Zion Rtg 5½: ½
5/1 GM Jakovenko, Dmitry 2732 - IM Popilski, Gil 2475 1 - 0
5/2 GM Shirov, Alexei 2718 - GM Kosashvili, Yona 2529 1 - 0
5/3 GM Korobov, Anton 2705 - GM Baron, Tal 2454 1 - 0
5/4 GM Dreev, Aleksey 2677 - GM Liss, Eran 2464 ½ - ½
5/5 GM Pridorozhni, Aleksei 2539 - IM Caspi, Israel 2451 1 - 0
5/6 GM Kabanov, Nikolai 2482 - IM Klenburg, Mikhail 2366 1 - 0
Bo. 14 Siroki Brijeg Rtg - 6 OSG Baden-Baden e.V. Rtg 1 : 5
6/1 GM Palac, Mladen 2600 - GM Adams, Michael 2720 ½ - ½
6/2 GM Brkic, Ante 2575 - GM Bacrot, Etienne 2705 0 - 1
6/3 GM Kurajica, Bojan 2558 - GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 2704 ½ - ½
6/4 GM Dizdarevic, Emir 2491 - GM Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2690 0 - 1
6/5 IM Bogut, Zeljko 2441 - GM Nielsen, Peter Heine 2662 0 - 1
6/6 WFM Dimitrijevic, Aleksandra 2270 - GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter 2661 0 - 1
Bo. 7 Tomsk-400 Rtg - 15 Schachgesellschaft Zürich Rtg 5 : 1
7/1 GM Areshchenko, Alexander 2710 - GM Timofeev, Artyom 2631 ½ - ½
7/2 GM Bologan, Viktor 2695 - GM Pelletier, Yannick 2601 1 - 0
7/3 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto 2683 - GM Brunner, Lucas 2448 1 - 0
7/4 GM Kurnosov, Igor 2660 - GM Vogt, Lothar 2397 1 - 0
7/5 GM Motylev, Alexander 2655 - FM Goldstern, Filip 2334 1 - 0
7/6 GM Khismatullin, Denis 2638 - FM Friedrich, Norbert 2302 ½ - ½
Bo. 16 Eynatten Rtg - 8 G-Team Novy Bor Rtg 2 : 4
8/1 IM Bok, Benjamin 2530 - GM Navara, David 2722 ½ - ½
8/2 IM Dambacher, Martijn 2471 - GM Laznicka, Viktor 2678 ½ - ½
8/3 GM Swinkels, Robin 2494 - GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2680 1 - 0
8/4 IM Koch, Thomas 2431 - GM Bartel, Mateusz 2635 0 - 1
8/5 IM Coenen, Norbert 2327 - GM Markos, Jan 2581 0 - 1
8/6 FM Kaufeld, Juergen 2326 - GM Cvek, Robert 2540 0 - 1
Bo. 17 Vesnianka Gran Rtg - 18 Team Viking Rtg 4½:1½
9/1 GM Zhigalko, Andrey 2582 - GM Agrest, Evgenij 2614 1 - 0
9/2 GM Teterev, Vitaly 2529 - GM Volodin, Aleksandr 2509 ½ - ½
9/3 IM Kovalev, Vladislav 2473 - FM Lindberg 1984, Bo 2403 1 - 0
9/4 IM Gorovets, Andrey 2459 - IM Cramling, Dan 2360 1 - 0
9/5 IM Mochalov, Evgeny V 2403 - FM Sagit, Rauan 2356 1 - 0
9/6   Oblamski, Vladimir 2114 -   Pettersson, Anders 1991 2274 0 - 1
Bo. 27 Ladia Minsk Rtg - 19 Hapoel Kfar Saba Rtg 2 : 4
10/1 FM Meribanov, Vitaly 2407 - IM Raznikov, Danny 2465 0 - 1
10/2 FM Bulanov, Dmitri 2376 - IM Boruchovsky, Avital 2435 0 - 1
10/3   Kocheev, Aleksandr 2324 - FM Givon, Asaf 2405 ½ - ½
10/4   Harshkou, Mikita 2233 -   Galburd, Yan 2331 1 - 0
10/5   Terzi, Alexei 2115 -   Ben Artzi, Ido 2286 0 - 1
10/6   Sheremet, Anton 2095 -   Mindlin, Alon 2237 ½ - ½
Bo. 20 Petach Tikva Rtg - 28 Jutes of Kent Rtg 4 : 2
11/1 GM Gofshtein, Leonid 2480 - GM Williams, Simon K 2496 1 - 0
11/2 IM Nakar, Eylon 2397 - GM Galego, Luis 2485 0 - 1
11/3   Steinberg, Nitzan 2370 -   Stebbings, Anthony J 2256 ½ - ½
11/4 IM Botvinnik, Ilia 2372 -   Harakis, Alexis M 2229 ½ - ½
11/5 IM Bar, Roman 2468 -   Naylor, John 2144 1 - 0
11/6   Botvinnik, Mikhail 2340 -   Rice, Chris B 2040 1 - 0
Bo. 29 White Rose Rtg - 21 Gambit Aseko-See Rtg 2½:3½
12/1 IM Palliser, Richard J D 2458 - IM Arnaudov, G. Petar 2471 ½ - ½
12/2 FM Van De Griendt, Jan Willem 2318 - IM Mitkov, Marjan 2331 1 - 0
12/3   Townsend, M Paul 2240 - IM Dancevski, Orce 2389 0 - 1
12/4   Barrett, Stephen J 2225 - FM Stojcevski, Zoran 2325 ½ - ½
12/5   Gayson, Peter M 2207 - FM Andonovski, Ljubisa 2274 ½ - ½
12/6   O'driscoll, Kieran 2113 - FM Dinev, Dejan 2348 0 - 1
Bo. 22 Club d'Echecs Genève Rtg - 30 Perfect Rtg 4½:1½
13/1 GM Edouard, Romain 2664 - GM Svetushkin, Dmitry 2597 1 - 0
13/2 IM Vuilleumier, Alexandre 2326 - IM Korsunsky, Yuri 2419 1 - 0
13/3 IM Gerber, Richard 2421 -   Kurochkin, Victor 2423 1 - 0
13/4   Duport, Nicolas 2199 -   Slavin, Gennadie 2300 1 - 0
13/5 FM Preissmann, Emmanuel 2222 - IM Alekseev, Andrey 2340 0 - 1
13/6   Kovacevic, Vladimir 2210 -   Pleshkov, Mikhail 0 ½ - ½
Bo. 31 Soss Rtg - 23 De Stukkenjagers Rtg 2 : 4
14/1 IM Leer-Salvesen, Bjarte 2370 - IM Sprenger, Jan Michael Dr. 2491 0 - 1
14/2 FM Byklum, Bjornar 2298 -   Haast, Mark 2287 ½ - ½
14/3   Harestad, Hans Krogh 2265 -   Nabuurs, Mart 2250 1 - 0
14/4   Stenersen, Gudmund 2226 - WGM Muhren, Bianca 2307 0 - 1
14/5   Andreassen, Pal 2133 - FM Beukema, Stefan 2271 0 - 1
14/6   Sodtholt, Dag 1954 - WIM Haast, Anne 2232 ½ - ½
Bo. 24 Oslo Schakselskap Rtg - 32 C.E. de Monte Carlo Rtg 5 : 1
15/1 GM Johannessen, Leif Erlend 2520 -   Villegas, Pierre 2202 1 - 0
15/2 IM Moen, Andreas 2377 -   Nelis, Jean-Francois 2212 1 - 0
15/3 FM Stubberud, Ornulf 2309 -   Ribbegren, Karl Johan 2101 1 - 0
15/4 WGM Dolzhikova, Olga 2286 -   Farleigh, Richard 2184 0 - 1
15/5   Persson, Mats 2234 -   Iclicki, Willy 2044 1 - 0
15/6   Hauge, Lars Oskar 2174 -   Rapaire, Jean-Michel 1899 1 - 0
Bo. 33 Chess Club Expik Rtg - 25 Tammer-Shakki Rtg 1½:4½
16/1 FM Fejzullah, Afrim 2318 - IM Karttunen, Mika 2445 0 - 1
16/2   Budima, Armend 2206 - IM Maki, Veijo 2383 ½ - ½
16/3   Ajvazi, Ramadan 2164 -   Koykka, Pekka 2242 0 - 1
16/4   Zymberi, Astrit 2161 - FM Penttinen, Jarkko 2258 0 - 1
16/5   Hamiti, Gani 2144 -   Lehtioksa, Jorma 2179 0 - 1
16/6   Haskaj, Fatmir 0 -   Kaatiala, Pekka 1946 1 - 0
Bo. 26 Amay Rtg - 34 Shakkivelhot Rtg 5 : 1
17/1 IM Burg, Twan 2502 - IM Sammalvuo, Tapani 2466 1 - 0
17/2 IM Tan, Matthew 2425 - IM Nyysti, Sampsa 2343 ½ - ½
17/3 FM Broekmeulen, Jasper 2410 -   Kosmo, Santul 2212 1 - 0
17/4   Memeti, Kastriot 2189 -   Verkasalo, Tommi 2185 1 - 0
17/5   Noiroux, Kevin 2176 -   Papula, Niko 0 1 - 0
17/6   Block, Wolfgang 2101 -   Toikka, Tommi 0 ½ - ½

European Club Cup 2012 | Women | Results round 1

Bo. 1 Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo Rtg - 8 SHSM-Nashe Nasledie Rtg 2½:1½
1.1 GM Hou, Yifan 2605 - GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2490 0 - 1
1.2 GM Koneru, Humpy 2607 - IM Gunina, Valentina 2514 1 - 0
1.3 GM Muzychuk, Anna 2587 - IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 2405 ½ - ½
1.4 GM Cramling, Pia 2514 - WGM Kashlinskaya, Alina 2368 1 - 0
Bo. 2 AVS Rtg - 7 Ugra Rtg 1½:2½
2.1 GM Lahno, Kateryna 2551 - WGM Kovanova, Baira 2408 1 - 0
2.2 GM Cmilyte, Viktorija 2528 - WGM Girya, Olga 2454 0 - 1
2.3 WGM Pogonina, Natalija 2476 - IM Romanko, Marina 2365 ½ - ½
2.4 IM Muzychuk, Mariya 2474 - WGM Shadrina, Tatiana 2361 0 - 1
Bo. 3 Mika Rtg - 6 Rishon Le-Zion Rtg 3 : 1
3.1 GM Danielian, Elina 2476 - WIM Efroimski, Marsel 2162 ½ - ½
3.2 GM Harika, Dronavalli 2512 -   Reprun, Nadejda 2143 ½ - ½
3.3 IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 2456 -   Vardi, Shlomit 2010 1 - 0
3.4 IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2444 -   Lahav, Michal 1732 1 - 0
Bo. 4 Ashdod Rtg - 5 Chigorin Club Rtg 2½:1½
4.1 IM Klinova, Masha 2324 - IM Bodnaruk, Anastasia 2425 ½ - ½
4.2 IM Borsuk, Angela 2260 - WIM Bronnikova, Elizaveta 2244 ½ - ½
4.3 WIM Vasiliev, Olga 2240 - WIM Ivkina, Olga 2266 1 - 0
4.4 WIM Tsifanskaya, Ludmila A 2087 -   Ivanova-Skripova, Tatiana 2173 ½ - ½

Source: Chess-Results

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Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers

Founder and editor-in-chief of ChessVibes.com, Peter is responsible for most of the chess news and tournament reports. Often visiting top events, he also provides photos and videos for the site. He's a 1.e4 player himself, likes Thai food and the Stones.

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Comments

Niima's picture

Niima

7 months 1 week ago

What a game by Volokitin! The romantic era is still with us.

strana's picture

strana

7 months 1 week ago

Andreikin is the deserved reigning russian champion and totally underrated. It was easy to preview that he was favourite against Nakamura. I can not understand why people say that Naks's defeat was a surprise.

Anonymous's picture

Anonymous

7 months 1 week ago

Congratulations to Gata Kamsky on reaching the Top 10 and becoming the #1 rated player in the USA!

nathan's picture

nathan

7 months 1 week ago

Also with Adams losing, McShane is the highest rated English player!

nathan's picture

nathan

7 months 1 week ago

Also with Adams losing, McShane is the highest rated English player!

Thomas's picture

Thomas

7 months 1 week ago

Such statements on Nakamura/Kamsky and Adams/McShane - or at least the exclamation marks at the end - should be taken with a few grains of salt, it's just too close to call: McShane is now 1.7 points ahead of Adams. The situation from #9-15 is close enough that a single game can change the standings "a lot": Mamedyarov 2759.3, Kamsky 2759.1, Nakamura 2759.0, Topalov 2758.6, Grischuk 2758.0, Morozevich 2756.9, Gelfand 2755.9.

Today's games are, among others:
IM Moen (2377) - Mamedyarov
Persson (2234) - Kamsky
Nakamura - IM Popilski (2475)
All are clear favorites, but Nakamura has the toughest opponent and may again be live #9 after the end of today's round.

I like running analogies: it's like a few seconds difference at the end of a marathon - or rather (as only official lists are official) some time during the race.

NN's picture

NN

7 months 1 week ago

I couldn't believe it when I saw 21.Bd8. I just couldn't believe it.

Anonymous's picture

Anonymous

7 months 1 week ago

ROFL. Black's trapped like a rat.

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