The 'St. Petersburg Chess Federation' team (Svidler, Vitiugov, Movsesian, Efimenko, Zvjaginsev, Khairullin and Matlakov) won the 2011 European Club Cup on Saturday in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia. In the last round World Cup winner Peter Svidler lost his first game since August 15th, but his team defeated Mika (Yerevan) 2.5-3.5. St. Petersburg finished on 13 match points out of 7 rounds, one more than SOCAR (Azerbaijan) who beat OSG Baden Baden 2-4. In the women's section AVS finished first.

For more info see also our announcement here.

Rounds 5-7

To refresh your memory a bit: SHSM-64, Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation, Tomsk-400 (all Russia) and OSG Baden Baden (Germany) were the four teams that started with four wins in Rogaska Slatina. We'll take it from there and start with round 5, when these four teams met.

On 'board 1' the German champions beat the Moscovites: Baden Baden-SHSM-64 3.5-2.5. For Moscow only Fabiano Caruana won; the Italian defeated Etienne Bacrot in an ending. Baden Baden's Michael Adams easily held Boris Gelfand to a draw in the 5.Bf4 that was tested heavily in May in Kazan.

The post-mortem between Gelfand and Adams, with Rustam Kasimdzhanov watching.

Alexei Shirov and Arkadij Naiditsch scored full points, against Wang Hao and Anish Giri respectively. Especially the young Dutch GM was treated harshly:

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Shirov defeated Wang Hao in this match

St. Petersburg did even better with a 4.5-1.5 win against their compatriots from Tomsk. Ponomariov (Tomsk-400) and Svidler (St. Petersburg, obviously) drew quickly in a Grünfeld and Vitiugov, Movsesian and Khairullin defeated Motylev, Inarkiev and Kurnosov respectively. This was a nice combination on board 6:

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After this round seven teams were in shared third place with 8/10: SOCAR, Ekonomist SGSEU Saratov, Ugra, Mika, SHSM-64, A DAN DZO & PGMB and Tomsk-400.

The sixth round saw the big clash between Baden Baden and St. Petersburg. All games ended in draws. (...)

Six draws between St. Petersburg and Baden Baden

On boards 1-5 the players all seemed very cautious, and without much excitement the games headed to the draws. Board six also ended peacefully, right after White had sacrificed on f7:

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This way the two teams kept the lead, with 11/6. St. Petersburg topped the rankings with one board point more. SOCAR, Ekonomist, SHSM-64 and Mika followed in shared third place, one match point behind the leaders. In that sixth round Radjabov won a nice ending against Ponomariov:

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In the last round Baden Baden lost their first match, to SOCAR of Azerbaijan. Radjabov beat Adams with Black using an opening he popularized: the Jänisch/Schliemann. Grischuk beat Shirov with powerful play in an Archangelsk Ruy Lopez.

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Sutovsky won against Naiditsch in a Berlin Wall and Kasimdzhanov beat Nisipeanu in a 9.Nd2 King's Indian. Baden Baden's Bacrot and Nielsen saved the German's honour, winning against Mamedyarov and Volokitin respectively.

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This meant that a win for St. Petersburg would yield them the cup. They managed, despite a loss for Svidler on top board against Sargissian. It was Svidler's first loss since he was beaten by Alexander Morozevich on August 15th - that was at the Russian Championship, also in the last round.

Sargissian beats Svidler, but St Petersburg wins the match | Photo Vladimir Barsky for the RCF, more here

Three games ended in a draw, and so the two wins by St. Petersburg's Vitiugov (against Petrosian) and Zvjaginsev (against Andriasian) made their team the winning team.

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Silver went to SOCAR, who recovered well from their surprising loss to Bosna Sarajevo in round 3. The bronze medals were surprisingly won by Novy Bor. They had suddenly popped up among the top teams thanks to a 5.5-0.5 victory against the relatively weak Haladás VSE in the last round - such things can happen in a Swiss with 62 teams that only play 7 rounds!

ECC 2011 | Final standings (top 30)

In the women's section the cup went to AVS. The team with GM Antoaneta Stefanova, GM Kateryna Lahno, GM Viktorija Cmilyte, IM Mariya Muzychuk and WGM Natalia Pogonina won six matches and lost one. In the last round they defeated Giprorechtrans, with three draws and the following attractive win by Kateryna Lahno:

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Kateryna Lahno scored an important victory for AVS

ECC (Women) 2011 | Final standings

Teimour Radjabov played the best on board 1. For SOCAR he scored 4.5/5 and a 3019 performance rating.

Top boards for Zurich: Viktor Korchnoi and Yannick Pelletier, who both played all seven rounds and both scored 4.5 points

Alexei Shirov also scored 4.5/7

Loek van Wely was top board for Gros Xake Taldea and scored 4.5/6

Former World Champion Aleksandra Kosteniuk scored 2.5/5...

...and some more credits, performing as Almira Skripchenko's styliste!

The men had a good time too in Rogaska Slatina

The ladies' winning team: AVS - Antoaneta Stefanova is holding the cup

Bronze in the men's went to Novy Bor...

...silver to SOCAR - another second place for Grischuk...

...and the gold medals to St Petersburg - another first place for Svidler, who is holding the European Club Cup:

Most photos © Vladimir Jagr for www.nss.cz & official website