Ernesto Inarkiev is the 2016 European Champion

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Photos from the official site

The accolades and the hype throughout the coverage were well-deserved as Ernesto Inarkiev was in stellar form. He had already shown this with a huge 2901 performance in the Russian Team Championship just a week before, but showed no sign of slowing down as he continued to do Godzilla imitations stomping down on his rivals. Sound like more hyperbole? Consider this then: this month alone he has accumulated a 43 Elo gain based on 17 games, with 10 wins and 4.5/6 against 2700+ opposition.

In the final two rounds, with a domineering  score of 8.0/9, a full point ahead of the field, he secured his gold medal with two draws. However, even the draw in the final round held interest as it re-examined the Scotch Opening that Kasparov had employed against Nakamura in the blitz tournament held in St. Louis the month before.

The last and key round. Having only 7.0/10, Piorun could not even expect silver if he won,
since three players stood at 7.5/10. Inarkiev had already scored 2.5/3 against them.

Kacper Piorun - Ernesto Inarkiev

27-year-old Igor Kovalenko from Latvia had no less remarkable a tournament, showing a fire in his belly that could not be snuffed out. After facing Inarkiev in round nine and being thoroughly outplayed, one might have expected him to catch his breath, and regroup with a draw, but there was no time for this, and he showed exceptional strength of character by forging two wins in his final two rounds to capture sole second with 8.5/11 and a 2787 performance.

Kovalenko - Fressinet

White has complete control and it is now time to close the deal.
White to play and win.

The tournament saw this stamp issued especially in its honor. A very nice touch.

15-year-old FM Luca Moroni from Italy scored an IM norm in the tournament

In the last round, top-seed David Navara (2735) had an unusual finish to his game as his opponent found himself losing a bishop. Naturally, blunders happen to anyone, but it must be said the way it was dominated and captured was not your everyday sequence.

Navara - Pashikian

Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons also enjoyed an excellent tournament, defeating German talent
GM Alexander Donchenko in the last round to end on 8.0/11 in 5th place with a 2777 performance

Nisipeanu - Khismatullin

White is up material, but the opposite-colored bishops do promise chances
for Black to hope for a miracle. White ended them here. White to play.

You might be wondering what is special about this image, and why it was chosen here. We
do not know either. For reasons that baffle the author of this report, and the chess media
at large, the photographer of the organizers almost never displayed images of any of the
top boards, but instead posted endless photos of boards 100+ in all the rounds. In fact, the
picture above was the only chess photo from the round nine gallery. Kind organizers, if you
are going to hire a photographer, please choose one who knows what the heck he is doing.

Winner Ernesto Inarkiev being interviewed by the media

Results of round eleven

Click for complete round results

Final standings after eleven rounds

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Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.