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 six report
France vs the leading Bulgaria (picture above) was a 2-2 tie, with Ivan Cheparinov
bringing in a point in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Kiril Georgiev
dropping one to Andrei Istratescu on board four.
Russia vs Azerbaijan in round six – but where is Peter Svidler, playing
on board one?
There he is, checking out the Grischuk game on the next board
Russia was defeated 1½-2½ by Azerbaijan after a board one loss
by Peter Svidler to Teimour Radjabov, Armenia beat Spain by a similar margin,
while Germany trounced Italy 3-1 with wins by Georg Meier and Rainer Buhmann.
Germany vs Italy, with Georg Meier playing Fabiano Caruana in the foreground
Greece vs Romania, a match the latter won to go into the overall lead
Quite importantly Romania defeated Greece 2½-1½ to join Azerbaijan
and Bulgaria in the lead on match and board points.
All results of round six – Open section
WGMs Jolanta Zawadzka and Joanna Majdan Gajewska playing for Poland
In the Women's section Russia was held to a 2-2 tie by Poland, while Ukraine
defeated Georgia 2½-1½ and moved within one match point of the
leaders.
The star of this leadership chase is GM Kateryna Lahno (above), who has scored
4.5/6 on board one with a 2671 performance. Of course Katya can only look with
wonder at GM Anna Muzychuk, who has scored 6.5/7 for Slovenia and showed a performance
of no less than 2741 points.
Women's section
Video impressions of round six by Vijay Kumar
Round seven report
Round seven of the ETCC under way, with Georgia vs Croatia in the foreground
In good spirits: the Bulgarian team (Topalov, Cheparinov,
Delchev and Radulski) before the start of round seven
Winning ways: the Azeris, with Radjabov, Gashimov, Mamedyarov and Safarli
The big news is the 3½-½ drubbing given to Bulgaria by Azerbaijan
– in fact it could have almost ended 4-0, since Teimour Radjabov was pressing
with black against Veselin Topalov, who in the end managed to survive. Vugar
Gashimov, who appears to have completely recovered from his health episode in
round five, severely punished Ivan Cheparinov after the Bulgarian went for a
flashy continuation on move 19. Here are the four games from this round:
Romania lost its match against Germany (above with Buhmann, Fridman, Meier
and Naiditsch) and with it the lead in the tables.
Armenia (above right) defeated France when Maxime Vachier Lagrave (second from
left), the young French GM's second loss in a row. Maxime he really needs to
be rested, after playing six games, netting with a 2.0 points with a 2550 performance.
Finally you should take a look at Switzerland vs Ukraine (picture above). What
do you think the result was? Well, 3-1 for the Alpine country, with Oliver Kurmann
and Richard Forster scoring against Pavel Eljanov and Zahar Efimenko. And finally,
Spain was duly crushed by Russia, moving the favourites up to place nine (from
place 13!) in the table.
All results of round seven – Open section
Video impressions of round seven by Vijay Kumar
In the Women's section Russia (above right, Nadezhda Kosintseva on board one)
defeated Armenia with Natalija Pogonina scoring the vital point against Maria
Kursova (both players are WGMs). Ukraine lost to Poland with a first loss in
this tournament (after playing 4½ out of five) to GM Monika Socko. But
even after this loss Kateryna has the third highest performance, 2671, amongst
the ladies, with just Anna Muzychuk (2741) and Nino Khurtsidze (2723) ahead
of her.
Women's section
Top standings after seven rounds (open)
Rk. |
SNo |
Team |
Gms |
+ |
= |
– |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
TB4 |
TB5 |
1 |
3 |
Azerbaijan |
7 |
5 |
2 |
0 |
12 |
18.5 |
110.5 |
293.5 |
78.5 |
2 |
4 |
Armenia |
7 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
18.0 |
101.0 |
250.3 |
70.0 |
3 |
10 |
Germany |
7 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
17.5 |
107.0 |
265.8 |
76.5 |
4 |
5 |
Hungary |
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
17.0 |
99.0 |
235.3 |
69.0 |
5 |
17 |
Romania |
7 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
17.0 |
90.5 |
200.8 |
68.0 |
6 |
7 |
Bulgaria |
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
15.5 |
114.5 |
251.3 |
82.5 |
7 |
9 |
Netherlands |
7 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
10 |
15.5 |
111.0 |
246.0 |
80.0 |
8 |
6 |
France |
7 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
9 |
16.0 |
109.0 |
242.3 |
78.5 |
9 |
1 |
Russia |
7 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
16.0 |
108.0 |
242.0 |
76.0 |
10 |
22 |
Italy |
7 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
15.5 |
99.5 |
202.3 |
76.0 |
11 |
18 |
Serbia |
7 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
18.0 |
86.0 |
205.0 |
63.5 |
12 |
14 |
Poland |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
17.0 |
96.0 |
229.0 |
68.5 |
13 |
26 |
Switzerland |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
16.0 |
81.5 |
172.3 |
61.0 |
14 |
19 |
Greece |
7 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
8 |
15.5 |
100.0 |
196.5 |
77.0 |
15 |
12 |
Czech
Rep. |
7 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
8 |
14.5 |
103.0 |
205.5 |
75.0 |
16 |
21 |
Slovenia |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
13.5 |
111.0 |
215.3 |
80.0 |
Top standings after seven rounds (women)
Rk. |
SNo |
Team |
Gms |
+ |
= |
– |
TB1 |
TB2 |
TB3 |
TB4 |
TB5 |
1 |
1 |
Russia |
7 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
13 |
19.5 |
107.5 |
291.5 |
77.0 |
2 |
5 |
Poland |
7 |
5 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
18.5 |
109.5 |
279.8 |
80.0 |
3 |
2 |
Ukraine |
7 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
17.5 |
109.0 |
261.3 |
77.5 |
4 |
3 |
Georgia |
7 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
17.0 |
116.5 |
277.0 |
82.5 |
5 |
12 |
France |
7 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
10 |
17.0 |
97.5 |
231.3 |
68.5 |
6 |
8 |
Bulgaria |
7 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
9 |
15.5 |
106.0 |
224.5 |
74.5 |
7 |
18 |
Czech
Rep. |
7 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
9 |
15.5 |
104.0 |
228.8 |
74.0 |
8 |
14 |
Serbia |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
16.5 |
85.5 |
172.0 |
66.0 |
9 |
11 |
Slovenia |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
15.5 |
84.5 |
161.5 |
65.0 |
10 |
4 |
Armenia |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
14.5 |
110.0 |
221.3 |
77.5 |
11 |
6 |
Hungary |
7 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
8 |
14.0 |
105.0 |
202.8 |
72.5 |
12 |
7 |
Germany |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
16.0 |
97.5 |
218.0 |
70.0 |
13 |
17 |
Azerbaijan |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
14.5 |
94.5 |
185.5 |
67.0 |
14 |
15 |
Israel |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
14.0 |
100.5 |
192.8 |
70.5 |
15 |
21 |
Austria |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
13.5 |
80.0 |
130.5 |
61.5 |
16 |
19 |
Croatia |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
13.0 |
101.5 |
182.5 |
69.5 |
17 |
9 |
Romania |
7 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
7 |
12.0 |
114.0 |
184.5 |
81.0 |
Pictures on the official
ETCC website are provided by
Anastasiya Karlovich, Tzveta Karavelova and Goran Urosevic.
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