ETCC R05: Magnus goes down to 2832!

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Daniel King: European Team Championship 2015 Reykjavik Round 5 Highlights

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ETCC R05: Magnus goes down to 2832!

Russia’s perfect score was spoilt after they drew the fifth round against Azerbaijan. All the four boards ended in draws. However, the top seeded team still has one point lead over the field with 9.0/10 match points.

Peter Svidler drew a wild game in the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Grischuk has played only two games till now and both of them ended in draws

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (right) with team member Arkadij Naiditsch, a German GM who has switched federations and now plays for Azerbaijan, which is currently in the fifth spot with a match score of 7.0/10

Judit Polgar's team had done pretty decently until the fourth round by drawing their
match against France and beating Poland. But in the fifth round they lost to Ukraine.

Pavel Eljanov once again proved to be the hero for the Ukrainian team as he featured
in the only decisive game of the match, beating Richard Rapport

The reason why the clash between Pavel Eljanov and Richard Rapport was especially interesting was because the Ukrainian is a solid player who believes in classical principles, while the Hungarian is a hyper-modernist who loves to break the rules. In the end Eljanov’s solid chess turned out to be too much for Rapport, as he blundered in an equal position, and lost the game.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with a rating performance of 2936, is making sure that France remains right on the heels of the leaders. He beat Vallejo Pons and Vladislav Tkachiev’s victory ensured a 3:1 victory for France over Spain

Usually when the king is on e8 and the opponent attacks the f7 point with his queen on f3 and the bishop on b3 it makes sense to defend that point. But there are players like Maxime who don’t really care about how risky a move looks: if you cannot refute it, it works!

Baadur Jobava has got his magic working in this event. He is on 4.0/5 and his victory
over Ivan Ivanisevic helped Georgia beat Serbia 3:1.

On the starting list Norway is seeded eleventh. Their opponents Switzerland are the 28th seeds. Norway beat Switzerland 2.5:1.5. As expected, right? Yet this was the match which provided the biggest sensation of the fifth round.

Yannick Pelletier was able to beat the World Champion Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces!

Pelletier, ranked 403 in the world, has caught two big fishes in a month’s time – Nakamura at the European Club Cup and now Magnus Carlsen over here.

The game started out as a normal Hedgehog. Carlsen had a typical slight edge in the position, and it seemed as if he would crush the life out of his opponent by slowly improving his position. But nothing of that sort happened. Magnus made a few inaccuracies and Pelletier was able to equalize the game. This must have made Magnus lose his balance. In an equal position he blundered a full piece. After that it was just a matter of counting the moves before the World Champion resigned.

Three games in this tournament have made Magnus drop as many as 17.8 Elo points – loss to Aronian (-6), draw with Hansen (-3.4) and loss to Pelletier (-8.4). From a rating of 2850 he is now down to 2832. Still a hefty 29 points separate him from Topalov (2803) on the rating charts. But if Carlsen played in this fashion, it is highly probable that he would lose even more Elo points. Norway now faces Hungary in the sixth round. If Carlsen decides to play, he would be up against the super solid Peter Leko.

Sabino Brunello scored a crucial victory of Sergei Movsesian,
which helped Italy draw their match against Armenia

Luke McShane’s loss to Daniel Fridman was the reason why England went down 1.5:2.5 to Germany

Standings after round five

Full board results of round five

Women section

The Russian team is unstoppable at the moment and leads the field by two points with a perfect score of 10.0/10. In the fifth round they chalked up a relatively easy victory over France with a 3:1 margin.

Alexandra Kosteniuk has been scoring heavily, 3.5/4, on the top board for Russia.
In their match against France she was able to defeat Marie Sebag.

Mariya Muzychuk’s Ukrainian team is currently on 8.0/10.
In the fifth round they were able to defeat the Romanian team.

The next round, the sixth, will be the most crucial one from the point of view of deciding the champion of this event. The Russian team will face the strong Ukrainians. If the latter can defeat Russia, then the tournament would be wide open and anyone could claim the top spot. But if Russia were to win or even the draw the match then it would be almost certain that they would go back with the Gold, considering that they have already played the Georgians.

It must be the hair! One of the main reasons why Germany is in the fifth place
currently is because of Elisabeth Paehtz’s fantastic 4.5/5

Nino Batsiashvili, Davit Jojua, Bela Khotenashvili and the entire Georgian team
would be hoping that the Ukrainians beat Russia in the sixth round

Russia’s Valentina Gunina (right) shares a light moment with the Ukrainians
Natalia Zhukova and Alexander Kovchan (centre)

Standings after round five

Full board results of round five

Pictures by Hrafn Jökulsson on the official facebook page of ETCC 2015

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