Germany wins the European Championship

3rd – 11th November in Halkidiki, Greece

The ETCC was a nine-round Swiss, with one open section and one section for the women’s teams. The time control was 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) had 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 were 38 teams in the former and 28 in the latter. The games were 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 nine report

The tenth seed team from Germany (above left) clinched the title with a 2.5-1.5 win over Armenia, with Georg Meier providing the decisive point by beating Sergei Movsesian. Azerbaijan beat Romania to take second place, while Hungary helped make this the most amazing team championship in a long time by trouncing Bulgaria 4-0.

It’s almost as though the Germans had it all planned. Three of four games in the Germany-Armenia match – between Fridman-Akopian, Sargissian-Gustafsson and Naiditsch-Aronian – ended in draws. The winning German blow was delivered by GM Georg Meier on board two. Meier left Movsesian no chance after the latter went for an inferior variation from the white side of the French Defence. Movsesian attempted to consolidate his position but Black smashed right through, winning a pawn on move 26 and thereafter the game. Certainly a major shock for the higher rated Armenians.

The match between Azerbaijan and Romania threw up two decisive results. Mamedyarov had Vajda in a mating net in 28 moves of a Czech Benoni after Black made unwise overtures with the pawns shielding his own king. The other point was brought by Gashimov, who beat Parligras from black in a Modern Benoni where white started out well but let go all the opportunities available to him. The Benoni family of openings seems to have been lucky for the Azeris yesterday.

But the most astonishing string of wins came from the Hungarian team who inflicted a 4-0 defeat on Bulgaria. Almasi pounced on Cheparinov from black after the Bulgarian threw away a certain draw to pursue winning chances. White was left clutching a lone queen for Black’s two rooks and bishop. Csaba Balogh, playing white, got an advantage without much difficulty against Delchev in a Philidor Defence and converted it successfully. Zoltan Gymesi pulled off a terrific save against Kiril Georgiev, who launched a forceful attack culminating in a Greek style sac on h7. But his plans were derailed by a careless move that sent him from being a convincing exchange up to having an exchange for an active bishop and a passed pawn. Black lost no time in exploiting his opponent’s light square weaknesses and securing the point.

The most high profile victory was that of Peter Leko over Veselin Topalov, who got himself a pretty comfortable position in the Gruenfeld but overstretched – perhaps because of what was happening on the other boards. Leko wrapped up the game in 41 moves. You can replay all the above mentioned games here:

Top results (Open)

• Full results here

Final top standings after nine rounds (open)

This big win over Bulgaria moved the Hungarians into third place, which they took from the fancied Armenians by the smallest of margins: half a board point. Top seed Russia finished fifth, which must have been a big disappointment for the players and their fans.

• Full standings here

Video report on round nine

Women's section

There was a tiny possibility that Poland could catch the Russians, who had been leading from the start. But all hopes were smothered when the first seed team dismantled Austria 3-1. Poland drew Armenia, and tied in the final table with Georgia, which defeated Romania.

The dominant Russian team at work in the final round

Top results (Women)

• Full results here

Final top standings after nine rounds (women)

In the end the Russian ladies had won all but one match (which they drew against against Poland in round six) and chalked up three match points more than their nearest rivals. Poland and Georgia had 14 match points each, but Poland had half a board point more and thus took Silver.

• Full standings here

Links Official tournament site All available games in zipped PGN: Open – Women The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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