Upsets in 1st round European Team Ch
In the first round of the European Team Championship Russia immediately dropped a match point, against Croatia. More upsets: Bulgaria lost to Italy and Switzerland beat Ukraine. Results, games and photos from Novi Sad.
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 1
Many top players have joined, or will later join their teams for this year's European Team Championship. On the players list we see cracks like Topalov, Aronian, Radjabov, Morozevich, Jakovenko, Svidler, Gashimov, Shirov...
But some big names other missing as well. Magnus Carlsen cancelled his participation only a week ago; the Norwegian super-star preferred to take some rest before the Tal Memorial, following the advise of his trainer Garry Kasparov. Sport-Express has reported that Grischuk was excluded from the team from Russia because he refused to appear at the team's training session. Ivanchuk, who also plays the Tal Memorial, won't go to Novi Sad, and neither are e.g. Gelfand, Leko and Short.
Despite the standard Swiss first-round pairing, with the top half playing the bottom half, there were a few upsets already. Croatia held Russia to a 2-2 draw (Morozevich beat Kozul but Jakovenko lost to Saric) and Ukraine lost to Switzerland (Kortchnoi drew with Volokitin on board one; Gallagher's win over Kryvoruchko was decisive).
Bulgaria, that started without their star Topalov, lost to Italy. Caruana beat Cheparinov on board one, IM Rombaldoni lost to GM Iotov but IM Shytaj decided matters by beating GM Bojkov. It's clear that Norway will be missing Carlsen; they lost 0.5-3.5 against France. The young Dutch team, without e.g. Timman, Sokolov, Van Wely, Nijboer or Tiviakov but with Smeets, Stellwagen, l'Ami, Werle and Ernst instead, started with a 4-0 sweep against Wales.
In the women section favourites Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Serbia all won convincingly, although Georgia's board one GM Dzagnidze lost to Czech IM Jackova. A tough match was Azerbaijan-France, ending in a 2-2 draw with both sisters of Mamedyarov, Zeinab and Turkan, winning.
All results round 1
Selection of games round 1
Game viewer by ChessTempo
The Big Hall of Sports Business Centre 'Vojvodina', where the 1990 Chess Olympiad was also held
The Azerbaijan team in full strength, with Radjabov, Gashimov and Mamedyarov
Armenia started without Aronian - we see Akopian on board 1
Bugaria-Italy with Cheparinov-Caruana on board 1
Germany vs Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia with Khenkin vs Pancevski on board 4
Spain-Lithuania: board 1 has Shirov-Sulskis
Slovenia-Luxembourg with GM Beliavsky - IM Berend
Living legend Viktor Kortchnoi (Switzerland's board 1) drew with Ukraine's Andrei Volokitin
The ladies section of the championship
Russia-Spain with World Champion Aleksandra Kosteniuk against WGM Monica Calzetta Ruiz
England-Bulgaria with IM Jovanka Houska vs GM Antoaneta Stefanova
Photos courtesy of the official website
Links
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.
Comments
Thomas
2 years 3 months ago
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Unlike Carlsen, Ivanchuk doesn't rest or prepare for the Tal Memorial, but currently plays in Hoogeveen ..... . Of course you know, but in the given context the corresponding sentence might be "incomplete" or misleading!?
Ukraine is also missing Karjakin (for good, but he isn't yet eligible for the Russian team) and Ponomariov (for a long time due to problems between him and the federation); and Eljanov is on the team but wasn't playing in round 1. Still they had an, apparently "irrelevant" rating advantage of 100-150 points on all four boards against Switzerland.
Holla
2 years 3 months ago
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Can anybody tell me who is the girl with the blue shirt on the second last picture?
Thomas
2 years 3 months ago
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Round 2: Vallejo Pons - Laznicka 1.e4 1-0
Was the Czech player late at the board? According to the regulations, "zero tolerance" rules apply.
Castro
2 years 3 months ago
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I again sugest that --- specialy in these many players tournaments --- the Elo ratings be put after the names, in the "selected games" window, instead of the irrelevant (because obvious) name of the tournament. And that all that --- names and Elos --- be fully legible, not half-hidden.
Is that feasible?
Arne Moll
2 years 3 months ago
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Nice game by Shirov, keeping all his pawns until move 28!
Jonas
2 years 3 months ago
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Hehe Spain-Lithuania
Shirov playing on board first and Viktorija Cmilyte playing on board three funny is that they were married and have two childrens, although they are now divorced.
ceann
2 years 3 months ago
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What a great game Korchnoi played.....even near 80 he has more talent than the new journeymen GM's and their inflated ratings....
Thomas
2 years 3 months ago
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In one of the French language Europe Echecs videos ("Special Francophonie") Pelletier was asked what it's like to play next to Korchnoi. His answer [my translation]: "I am used to it, and he doesn't put pressure on me. He makes some noise, he has his habits, he throws his pen - but I faced opponents who were much worse than this teammate."
In the meantime, Korchnoi's score is 0.5/3 against Volokitin, Almasi and Bacrot - all respectable GMs but not absolute world top. So while I agree with vooruitgang ("Korchnoi is fantastic!") I do not see evidence for ceann's claim that he is more talented than the current generation of GMs. Even against Volokitin, to me it seems that Korchnoi was slightly struggling to reach a draw once his opponent recovered from the opening surprise - but I might be wrong in this case.
Vooruitgang
2 years 3 months ago
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Yes Kortchnoi is fantastic! What creative play and energy. An inspiration to us all.
Jan
2 years 3 months ago
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The girl with the blue shirt is a very Lekker Ding
Thomas
2 years 3 months ago
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Confirmation from the Europe Echecs videos that Vallejo Pons - Laznicka was a forfeit victory. Even if this new FIDE rule is controversial, blame should primarily go to Laznicka as his teammates managed to arrive on time. Vallejo Pons himself wasn't that happy with "winning" a non-rated game with white, but "of course the result was good for the team".
BTW @Castro: If you want to see full names and ratings, check the pgn viewer on the tournament webpage:
http://www.eurons2009.com/viewer/viewer02m.htm
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