The first round of the European Team Championship saw few surprises. Russia beat Moldova in a match that could have ended quite differently. The biggest upset was Turkey beating Georgia 2.5-1.5.

The start of the match Russia vs Moldova, top board of the 2011 European Team Championship's first round

All photos © ChessDom

The strongest team competition of 2011 started on Thursday in a country that made headlines for different reasons. During arguably the biggest crisis in its long history, Greece is hosting the 18th European Team Championship with 38 teams in the open group and 28 teams in the women's group. Venue is the Olympic Hall Congress Center, within the 5-star Porto Carras Grand Resort in the Chalkidiki peninsula in northern Greece.

It's quite a tough tournament since there is no rest day. However, the teams were allowed to bring one reserve player so basically everyone can have multiple rest days.

Venue is the Olympic Hall Congress Center

Some officials had travelled to Greece to attend the opening ceremony and start of the event: during the brief ceremony, George Mastrokoukos welcomed the players and guests on behalf of the Organizing Committee; FIDE Vice President Ali Nihat Yazici greeted the participants and ECU President Silvio Danailov declared the Championships open and made the honorary first move in the match Russia-Moldova.

Danailov making the first move

There were few surprises in the first round. Sweden held France to 2-2: IM Semcesen lost to GM Bauer but Sweden's GM Carlsson beat the higher rated GM Istratescu, who recently changed federations.

PGN string

The Netherlands couldn't beat their first round opponent Finland either: GM Sokolov beat IM Sammalvuo but GM Stellwagen, who has been quite inactive for more than a year, might have been a bit rusty and lost to IM Karttunen.

PGN string

England, with Adams and Short on top boards, beat Latvia 2.5-1.5

The biggest upset was Turkey beating Georgia 2.5-1.5. On top board GM Pantsulaia's win against IM Yilmaz was 'normal' but Turkey's GM Can and CM Sanal beat their higher rated opponents, Mchedlishvili and Zarkua respectively.

Top seed Russia's win over Moldova wasn't very impressive. On top board, World Cup winner Svidler escaped with a draw against Bologan:

PGN string

Iordachescu and Grischuk drew on two, and Nepomniachtchi couldn't beat IM Vedmediuc with the black pieces. Board 3 should have ended in a draw too:

PGN string

(We got confirmation from Peter Svidler that this last move wasn't a mistake in the transmission...)

Experienced GMs: Alexander Beliavsky held Vassily Ivanchuk to a draw in Ukraine-Slovenia, 3.5-0.5

Azerbaijan beat Italy also with 2.5-1.5 'only', but board 3 was a real walk-over:

PGN string

An interesting match was Bulgaria vs Switzerland. It was another 2.5-1.5, with Topalov (yes, he's playing!) drawing Pelletier and Cheparinov splitting the point with (yes, he's playing too!) Korchnoi. After move 40 crazy things happened:

PGN string

Another draw between openings book author Delchev and former openings books author Gallagher meant that Georgiev's win over IM Kurmann decided the match.

Topalov and Cheparinov top the Bulgarian team

In the women's section, Czech Republic held Armenia to 2-2 and Switzerland beat higher rated Slovenia.

Games top boards round 1 (Open)

PGN file

Games top boards round 1 (Women)

PGN file

Results Open section, round 1

Round 1 results women's section can be found here