ECC 2015 R5: Siberia and Nona lead

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European Club Cup R5: Siberia and Nona lead

The 31st European Club Cup and 20th European Club Cup for Women are being held from the 18th to 24th of October 2015 in Skopje, Macedonia. Fifty teams from different parts of Europe are participating in the open event, while the women section consists of twelve teams. Both the championships are seven round Swiss events with six boards per team in the open and four per team in the women’s. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. The first prize in the open section is €12,000, while for the women it is €7000.

In our previous report we had covered the tournament until the third round. At that point six teams were in the lead with a perfect score of 6.0/6. This is how the fourth round pairings looked:

A perfect pairing where all the top six seeds were playing against each other on the top three boards

Mamedyarov was able to provide the lead to SOCAR by beating Etienne Bacrot in fine style. On the top board it looked like Peter Leko would be able to press Veselin Topalov with the black pieces after he got a wonderful position out of the opening. But within a couple of moves the tide of the game completely changed. Almost through imperceptible errors Leko handed over the initiative to the Bulgarian, who finished off the game quite easily after that.

Peter Leko played a good opening but a bad middlegame (This and all other pictures by Maria Emelianova from chesspro website)

Thus SOCAR beat Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova with a score of 4.0-2.0, and with 8.0/8 match points were on course for defending their title. On the second table in the duel between the two Russian teams, Mednyi Vsadnik and Siberia, it was the latter spearheaded by Vladimir Kramnik that scored a convincing 4.5-1.5 victory. For Siberia it was the two Chinese players, Li Chao and Wang Yue, who came out all guns blazing against Maxim Matlakov and Maxim Rodstein respectively, to give the team a 2-0 lead. Kramnik, after a fine win against Nepomniachtchi in the third round, kept up the momentum and scored an endgame victory based on theme of knight domination against Peter Svidler.

Peter Svidler and Vladimir Kramnik: Haven’t these guys grown tired of playing each other? Including all the classical, rapid and blitz encounters they have played a total of 78 games between them! Any idea who is leading? 27-30-21 in the favour of the ex-World Champion.

In the match between Alkaloid, the team from Macedonia, and 2013 winners Aze Novy Bor things were very close until the very end. The first five boards ended in draws. It was all down to the last game between Zbynek Hracek (Novy Bor) and Yu Yangyi (Alkaloid). The position reached after 73 moves was a completely drawn queen endgame, but then the Czech player blundered!

Single handedly winning it for his team – Yu Yangyi of Alkaloid

After four rounds three teams were on a perfect score of 8.0/8: SOCAR, Siberia and Alkaloid. In the fifth round the top two seeds SOCAR and Siberia clashed against each other. The most awaited battle of the entire tournament, and on the top board, we had the two greatest rivals face off against each other.

No handshakes and brutally fighting chess is what these two players have been
indulging in for quite a few years now. This time it ended in Kramnik’s favour.

This could very well be the game of the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik played some fantastic chess to beat his arch rival Veslin Topalov. The opening was handled to perfection, the middlegame had some splendidly executed ideas, and the finish was swift and accurate. It is a game worth going over many times – in short, a classic.

The 3.0/3 score has earned Kramnik 16 Elo points, taken him to 2793 and fifth in the world rankings

Kramnik’s win gave Siberia the lead. Levon Aronian and Anish Giri split the point, and so did Wang Yue against Teimour Radjabov, and Anton Korobov against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Alexander Grischuk beat Fabiano Caruana from the white side of a Berlin Defence and increased Siberia’s lead to +2. Michael Adams pulled one back with a win against Li Chao, but it was not sufficient to salvage the match. Team Siberia won 3.5-2.5.

Not particularly happy with how the fifth round went: SOCAR’s coach Vladimir Tukmakov

Siberia were now on a perfect 10.0/10. Alkaloid had a chance to stay up there with them if they were to beat Obiettiva Risarcimento Padova. But it was not to be. Peter Leko versus Vassily Ivanchuk was the only decisive game of the match that helped the Italian team to win by a score of 3.5-2.5.

Peter Leko redeemed himself for his loss against Topalov in the fourth round by beating Ivanchuk in the fifth

The game was far from smooth for the Hungarian – he had a very uncomfortable position in an opposite coloured bishop middlegame where the Ukrainian was going for his opponent’s throat. Leko somehow managed to muddy the waters and escape, not just with a half, but an entire point!

Alkaloid, with this defeat, have not been able to maintain their perfect score. In the sixth round they will face the team-in-form, Siberia, on the top board. Ivanchuk against Kramnik will be a game to look forward to.

Top rankings after round six (which has now been completed)

• Full results and standings for all 50 teams

The two prospective candidates to fight for the World Championship title: Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri

With 2.5/4 World Cup winner Sergey Karjakin is doing quite decently for his team,
Obiettiva Risarcimento Padova

“When you play too much chess in a short period, bad things tend to happen.”
Hikaru Nakamura’s tweet and post on Facebook after his lackluster performance at this tournament.
From 2815 he has lost 20 Elo points in the last month and has a live rating of 2795.

The team from Novy Bor headed by Radoslaw Wojtaszek are currently in joint second position

Based on performance India’s Pentala Harikrishna is doing the best with a score of 4.5/5. But in the fifth round he had a very lucky escape from the claws of Leif Erlend Johanssen. Here’s a little test for you to see whether you could have finished off the number two Indian player:

Johanssen – Harikrishna, fifth round

Black’s last move was Rc8-c5. How should White execute the coup de grâce?

Women’s Cup

There is one team that is completely crushing the competition in the women’s event, and it is the top seeded Georgian team Nona. They have won all their five rounds and with 10.0/10 are two points ahead of their nearest rival Gambit Asseko See (Macedonia), whom they defeated in the third round.

The girls from Georgia are just unbeatable!

Nana Dzagnidze started from where she had left in the Monaco Women’s Grand Prix. There she ended the tournament with four points in the last four rounds. In Skopje she has scored 4.5/5, beating strong players like Monika Socko, Valentina Gunina, Anna Ushenina and Anne Haast. She has a rating performance of 2822! Look at the tactical alertness on show by the Georgian in her game against Anna Ushenina.

Bela Khotenashvili also has been quite solid on board two,
beating players like Pogonina and Goryachkina

Alexandra Goryachkina (right), the young Russian super-talent,
is playing for Gambit Asseko See. Her team is in the second place with 8.0/10

If there is one player who can match Dzagnidze’s performance, then it is surely Antanoeta Stefanova (above left), who has scored 4.5/5. She has beaten Anastasia Bodnaruk, Anne Haast and Alexandra Kosteniuk on her way to a 2801 performance.

Rankings after round six

About the photographer WFM Maria Emelianova is 27 years old, born in Ekaterinburg, Russia, Women FIDE Master, with a 2113 Elo rating. After finishing school Maria moved to Moscow to study at the university, so chess was forgotten for some time. She worked for about a year with Alexander Roshal in the chess magazine "64". Maria's carrier as a chess photographer started at the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk. "It was just a hobby, but somehow became an interesting job," says Maria, who works with a Canon 1DX. She is photographing for the web site ChessPro.

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN + 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.