3rd – 11th November in Halkidiki, Greece
The ETCC is a nine-round Swiss, with one open section and one section for the
women’s teams. The time control is 90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the
rest of the game + 30 sec increment for every move played starting from the
first move. The member countries of the European Chess Union (ECU) have the
right to enter one team of four players plus one reserve in the open competition,
and one team of four female players and one reserve in the women’s competition.
There are 38 teams in the former and 28 in the latter. The games are being played
in the Olympic Hall Congress Center (1500 sq.m.), within the five-star Porto
Carras Grand Resort, which is located in an enchantingly verdant landscape in
Halkidiki, Greece.
Round five report
The Bulgarian team posted another convincing victory, this time over Germany.
Topalov, playing black in an English against Naiditsch, opened up the position
early on and gave a pawn in return for his opponent’s weak e3 pawn and
oddly placed rook on e4. White defended the threats of the black queen and bishop
accurately and probably should have drawn by repetition on move 34; instead
he played a bad gamble with 36. g4? and got into a losing endgame.
Ivan Cheparinov and Veselin Topalov in round five
The second Bulgarian win was recorded by Cheparinov against an unfortunate
Meier who was at the receiving end of a ruthless kingside attack. White’s
bishops invaded his position and a pretty sacrifice on move 30 sealed the deal.
The games Fridman-Delchev and Georgiev-Gustafsson were drawn.
Meanwhile all the games of the top board match between Azerbaijan and France
were drawn in less than 20 moves. This was a decision made by the team captains
after one of the players, GM Vugar Gashimov on board two (above left), fell
ill. We know that Vugar has had cardiological and other medical problems in
the past, and it was reported that he had an epilectic crisis (crise d'épilepsie
in Europe
Echecs), but this was dismissed by his brother (and manager) Sarkhan, and
we were told that his systolic blood pressure had climbed to 220, and that he
was complaining of headache. In a column in Soviet
Sport columnist GM Evgeny Bareev describes the incident in greater
detail:
"France last played exceptionally well on the odd boards with white
and equalised on the even boards with black. One of the best players in the
world, Vugar Gashimov, suddenly looked bewildered and seemed unable to find
a satisfactory move. We are told that like Luzhin, the hero Nabokov's novel
"Luzhin Defence", he fell from his chair and lost consciousness.
The ambulance arrived quickly. After a short conference, the French players
decided to offer a draw on all boards, and Azerbaijan humbly accepted. Some
called the decision the French noble, others stupidy and a violation of every
conceivable law of sports. What is clear is that this episode will be subjected
to closer scrutiny."
The French team captain, GM Pavel Tregubov (above), was at a captain's meeting
when the incident occurred and returned to the playing hall to find all tables
empty. In the Russian Chess Federation's round
five report he says:
"The players told me that there had been an unfortunate incident. I
do not know the details, but Gashimov became ill, he lost consciousness and
fell off his chair. His teammates rushed to his aid, and all the Azeri players
set out to find a doctor. I began to discuss the situation with my players,
and at that point the arbiter point stopped the clocks on all boards. I believe
that was an error in judgement – he should not have interferee in the
games. At the most he could have stopped the clock in the game Vachier Lagrave-Gashimov,
if Maxime had requested this, but I'm not even sure of that. We need to ask
the experts. But to stop the clocks of all the games of the match is, in my
opinion, completely senseless. Why was it necessary? After all the match was
still going on! I understand the argument that Mamedyarov ran to help Gashimov,
but there were also other people who could have helped, and Shakhriyar could
have returned after five minutes to continue his game. However, I do not think
that any actions taken by the arbiters would affect the final outcome of the
match. My players were very upset by what had happened, and so all agreed
that we should offer a draw on all boards, even though they were aware that
the match was going well for us."
Tregubov was also critical of the behaviour of Azerbaijan team captain GM Vladimir
Tukmakov (above): "He was the same captain's meeting as me, and when he
returned, he first began to study the positions on the boards, which under the
circumstances was irrelevant. Frankly, I was unpleasantly surprised. He did
that before the draw offer was made." The pictures of Tregubov and Tukmakov
are from Vladimir Barsky’ report on the RCF site russiachess.org.
The faceoff between bruised teams Russia and Ukraine turned up three draws
and one win for the favourites, thanks to the efforts and solid endgame technique
of Alexander Morozevich.
The Russians, with Svidler, Grischuk, Morozevich and Nepomniachtchi
The surprise winners of the day were Romania and Italy against higher rated
Netherlands and Israel. Dutch GM Anish Giri was held by Constantin Lupulescu
on board one while his compatriot Sokolov went down to Vajda. Italy’s
success was spearheaded by Fabiano Caruana’s systematic destruction of
Maxim Rodshtein on board one.
GMs Fabiano Caruana and Michele Godena playing on boards 1 and 2 for Italy
Romania vs Netherlands ended 2½-1½ after a board three loss
by Ivan Sokolov
The women’s section saw no change in rankings with Russia winning its
fifth match in a row. But their opponents Georgia had something to cheer about
with their top seed GM Nana Dzagnidze winning against Nadezhda Kosintseva.
Georgia vs Russia, with GMs Nana Dzagnidze and Nadezhda Kosintseva on board
one
All results of round five
Open section
Women's section
Top standings after five rounds (open)
Rk. |
SNo |
Team |
Gms |
+ |
= |
– |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
1 |
7 |
Bulgaria |
5 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
13.0 |
57.5 |
2 |
17 |
Romania |
5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
13.0 |
39.0 |
3 |
3 |
Azerbaijan |
5 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
8 |
12.5 |
61.5 |
4 |
6 |
France |
5 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
8 |
12.5 |
52.0 |
5 |
19 |
Greece |
5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
8 |
12.5 |
51.5 |
6 |
4 |
Armenia |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
13.0 |
51.0 |
7 |
10 |
Germany |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
12.0 |
55.0 |
8 |
22 |
Italy |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
12.0 |
44.5 |
9 |
13 |
Spain |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
11.5 |
59.5 |
10 |
1 |
Russia |
5 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
7 |
11.5 |
56.0 |
11 |
15 |
Georgia |
5 |
3 |
0 |
2 |
6 |
13.5 |
37.5 |
12 |
14 |
Poland |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
12.5 |
48.0 |
13 |
5 |
Hungary |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
11.5 |
51.0 |
14 |
9 |
Netherlands |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
10.5 |
54.0 |
Top standings after five rounds (women)
Pictures on the official ETCC website
are provided by Anastasiya Karlovich
(above with Arbiter Vasilis Parginos), Tzveta Karavelova and Goran Urosevic.
Copyright
ChessBase
