Despite a second win for Levon Aronian, the Armenian team yesterday suffered a surprising loss against the first team of Serbia in Novi Sad. Azerbaijan beat Germany and Bulgaria, with Topalov, lost to England. In this match Stuart Conquest won a game without making a move because Aleksander Delchev's mobile went off just after he had played 1.d4.

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 3

Sloppiness by Aleksander Delchev (and his team captain) proved fatal for the Bulgarian grandmaster and his team yesterday. Apparently Delchev started the Bulgaria-England match with his mobile phone switched on, and right after he had made his first move, the damn thing went off. Without making a single move, Stuart Conquest was awarded the full point. Topalov defeated Adams but due to Cheparinov's second loss, in only 20 moves against McShane (a game that must be inspiring for theory haters!), England won the match 2.5-1.5.

Azerbaijan continued well with a third victory, this time against Germany. The match saw three draws, and so Gashimov's win against Meier was decisive. Armenia suffered a surprising loss against the first team of Serbia (traditionally the host is allowed to enter two teams; Serbia 2 happens to have four GMs as well). Aronian won a very nice game against Ivanisevic, full of deep tactical and positional ideas, but in a game that should have ended in a draw, Sargissian blundered heavily with 34...Qf4?? allowing a simple knight fork. Markus outplayed Pashikian in a King's Indian with Black to decide matters.

Just like in the previous round, the Israeli team drew in three games and had Boris Avrukh on board 4 deciding the match. He beat Lopez Martinez from Spain. Russia beat Italy 3-1 and in the Dutch team GM Sipke Ernst was the man of the match against Poland. Norway scored an excellent 2-2 against Ukraine, with Jon Ludvig Hammer beating Pavel Eljanov on board one. Georgia beat Hungary and with Serbia, Azerbaijan and Israel they lead with three team victories.

At the moment Georgia is the clear favourite in the women section after they crushed Germany 0.5-3.5 yesterday. Today they play (and should beat) Armenia, the only other team on six match points. Russia beat Finland with only 3.5-0.5; Sari Rautanen (1993) apparently managed to draw against reigning European Individual Champion Tatiana Kosintseva (2536)!

All results round 3

Selection of games round 3

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Bulgaria-England with board three already empty, and the black king placed in the centre

Sipke Ernst decided the match Netherlands-Poland by beating Grzegorz Gajewski

The top boards of round 3 in the women section: Germany-Georgia 0.5-3.5

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