Reports | December 21, 2009 18:59

Gold for Malakhov at European Rapid Ch

Malakhov wins European Rapid ChampionshipAfter a very successful World Cup tournament, Vladimir Malakhov managed to keep his top form this weekend. The 29-year-old physicist from Russia won the European Rapid Championship with 11.5/13, beating big favourites such as Gashimov, Ivanchuk and Shirov. Update: games added.

The 9th European Rapid Championship took place December 19 & 20 in Warsaw, Poland. It was open to all players representing one of the ECU federations (FIDE Zones 1.1 to 1.9).

It was sponsored by Amplico Life S.A. and organized by the Polish Chess Federation, the Torwar Sports Centre and the Polonia Warsaw Chess Club under the patronage of the City Office of Warsaw, the Marshal Office of the Mazovian Voivodeship and the Central District of Warsaw.

Venue was the Torwar Show Hall, which is primarily used for music concerts, ice hockey and other indoor sports. It is the home of the hockey team UHKS Mazowsze. Some of the biggest popstars including Placebo, Pearl Jam, Iron Maiden, Depeche Mode, R.E.M., Simply Red, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, KoRn, The Cure, Rihanna, Mark Knopfler and Alicia Keys have performed here as well.

European Rapid Championship

The venue also hosted the 2007 European Figure Skating Championships | Photo Beax, Wikipedia

The tournament was a 13-round Swiss. The rate of play was 15 minutes plus 10 seconds increment per move. Eight rounds were played on Saturday; five on Sunday. The first prize of € 4,000 went to Vladimir Malakhov who scored an amazing 11.5 out of 13. He won all of his games on Saturday which included important victories with Black against Ivanchuk in round 7 and with White against Gashimov in round 8. On Sunday Malakhov drew with Dreev, Bartel, Movsesian and he defeated Krasenkow and Shirov (in the last round, with Black) to become the deserved winner in Warsaw.

The silver medal went to Vassily Ivanchuk, who only lost to Malakhov. Radoslaw Wojtaszek took bronze after tiebreaks, finishing on 10.5/13 together with Alexei Dreev, Daniel Fridman and Sergei Movsesian. Update: Below you'll find all games of the winner; the complete game file (PGN) can be downloaded below.

All 13 games of Malakhov

Game viewer by ChessTempo


European Rapid Ch 2009 | Final Standings (top 30)

European Rapid Ch 2009 Final Standings


European Rapid Championship

The playing hall of the European Rapid Championship...

European Rapid Championship

...and another one but now with a fisheye lens

uropean Rapid Championship

A tournament for young & old

Malakhov wins European Rapid Championship

L-R Anna Muzychuk - best woman; Vladimir Malakhov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Radoslaw Wojtaszek - medal winners; Lukasz Kalinowski - president of Amplico Life (main sponsor)

Malakhov wins European Rapid Championship

Vladimir Malakhov clinches gold in Warsaw

Photos by Piotr Gilarski

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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

nick burrows's picture

nick burrows

3 years 5 months ago

@Peter - he is a Physicist not a Physician (doctor) ;O)

genie_in_a_bottle's picture

genie_in_a_bottle

3 years 5 months ago

"Malakhov is a not professional chess player; he works as a physicist" (Wikipedia)

Björn Verstraate's picture

Björn Verstraate

3 years 5 months ago

Pretty easy to say now, but when I read the list of entrants to the European Rapid Ch, I said to myself: 'I wouldn't be surprised if that Malakhov guy does great again'. He played so solid in the World Cup...

Felix's picture

Felix

3 years 5 months ago

There's some place holder as link:

Official website
Games in PGN

I guess you forgot to replace it :)

Peter Doggers's picture

Peter Doggers

3 years 5 months ago

OK all corrected.

Arne Moll's picture

Arne Moll

3 years 5 months ago

Great performance by Malakhov and a deserved first prize, although in the picture he looks more like his stocks went down 70% instead of just having cashed 4000 euros!

Hortensius's picture

Hortensius

3 years 5 months ago

Gashimov convinced me that he will be number 1 soon... **Ahumm**

ceann's picture

ceann

3 years 5 months ago

Can you imagine how much that jumper smells by now!...he's been wearing it for over a month. He would need an operation to remove it by now.....

val's picture

val

3 years 5 months ago

No need to be rude. It´s just his talisman.

aun1's picture

aun1

3 years 5 months ago

i called malakhov's victory a couple of days ago based on his strong performance at the world cup. he had a lot of momentum going into this event, and there was no reason to believe he was going to be telling up anytime soon.

Muadhib's picture

Muadhib

3 years 5 months ago

Malakhov is an excellent rapid player, but sometimes nerves get him. In 2009 European Championship medal playoffs in the decisive final game he was on his way to the gold, but then instead of mating Tomashevsky he blundered his queen (or was it a rook?) for nothing and had to content himself with silver. In recent World Cup semi-final he outplayed Ponomariov in 1st rapd game, then had winning position in 2nd, but managed not only to spoil the win but he ended up losing that game. After that he was down and Ponomariov went to the final. Here started with 8/8, but then started to play a little shaky so others almost cought him on the first place.

If he will manage to hold his nerves, then I'm sure he is one of the best rapid players on the world. If not the best.

chess's picture

chess

3 years 5 months ago

malakov feel well in poland:)

what about a world championship for amateur chess players?

Frits Fritschy's picture

Frits Fritschy

3 years 5 months ago

What happened in Krasenkow-Malakhov, mobile phone?

theun's picture

theun

3 years 5 months ago

Smile, you are as a deserved winner of this tournament on a picture.
Why look so grumpy?

aun1's picture

aun1

3 years 5 months ago

shirov appeared to have blown a drawn rook endgame. i don't know why he went to the kingside when he had to stay on the queenside.

Andrius's picture

Andrius

3 years 4 months ago

Where can I find more photos of this tournament?

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