ECCC Eilat: Socar overtakes Saint-Petersburg, wins Gold

The 28th European Club Cup 2012 is taking place in Eilat, Israel, as a seven-round Swiss from October 11 to 18 (no free day). The rounds starts at 15:00 local time. The time controls are 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 zero tolerance rule (6.6a of the FIDE Laws of Chess) will be applied: any player who arrives at the chessboard after the start of the session loses the game.

Round seven report

SOCAR Azerbaijan with (l.-r.) Teimour Radjabov, Shakhriya Mamedyarov, Veselin
Topalov, Alexander Grischuk facing Alexander Areshchenko and Ernesto Inarkiev

After a dramatic final round we have a new winner of the ECC. At the beginning of the round, the rating favorite SOCAR Azerbaijan was trailing Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation significantly in Sonnenborn-Berger tiebreaks. Therefore Socar made every effort not only to beat Tomsk-400, but to achieve the highest possible margin. They got wins from Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Topalov and Sutovsky for an incredible final scoreline of 5:1.

It turned out that they needed every one of those wins, as St. Petersburg managed to defeat the surprising Israeli team of Ashdod. On the top three boards Ashdod's Ukrainian trio achieved good positions, but Svidler, Dominguez and Vitiugov defended well, and then Efimenko and Matlakov scored the decisive points on boards 5-6. However, it was not enough. Both SOCAR and Saint-Petersburg scored 12/14 match points, but the Azeri team's tiebreak was just a little better: 673.8 to 665.5, and they won the direct meeting with St. Petersburg so their victory seems justified.

The winners SOCAR Azerbaijan, with Alexander Grischuk, Eltaj Safarli, Gata Kamsky,
team captain Vladimir Tukmakov, Shakhriya Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov

SHSM-64 took advantage of the losses of Tomsk and Ashdod to capture Bronze after a 4.5:1.5 against the Spanish team Gros Xake Taldea. Economist, Ugra, Ashdod and Tomsk took places four to seven with ten match points each.

Silver for Saint-Petersburg, who lost Gold by just 665.5 to 673.8 tiebreak points

Bronze for SHSM-64, who scored 11/14 match points

In the last game to finish, Hikaru Nakamura drew after 127 moves with Israeli junior Danny Raznikov, rated 321 points lower than him. Another promising Israeli junior who also drew with the American earlier, Gil Popilski, won his final game, thus crossing the 2500 barrier and ensuring the GM title after having already all the norms. Another great personal achievement was the individual gold medal at the top board which went to French GM Romain Eduard, who played for the lowly team of Geneve.

Top pairing results from round seven

Final rankings

Selection of games

Women's section

The gold medal in the women's event had been decided at the end of round six, but the winners, Monte-Carlo, played the final round with their top lineup, beating the Russian team Ugra 3:1. As a result, Ugra dropped from second to third place, and the silver medal went to the Armenian team Mika.

Final rankings

The winning team of Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, with Anna Muyzchuk, Almira
Skripchenko (playing team captain), Hou Yifan, Pia Cramling and Humpy Koneru

Silver for Mika, with Lilit Mkrtchian, Lela Javakhishvili, Anna Hairapetian, Harika
Dronavalli, Elina Danielian with their team captain Anahit Vardapetyan

Bronze for Ugra, with Marina Romanko, Baira Kovanova, Olga Girya, Maria
Bezgodova, Tatiana Shadrina and team captain Pavel Lobach

All pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich

Selection of games

Watch the final round broadcast with commentary here:

Video coverage of all rounds can be found here

Links Official tournament site Selection of games in zipprd PGN: Open – Women The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess. 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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