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The European and Blitz Rapid Chess Championships took place in Wroclaw, Poland. The Centennial Hall saw some of the best blitz and rapid players duke it out for the titles of European Champion. Although the elite was generally missing, there were some very big names participating, such as Vitiugov, Vallejo, Bologan, Korobov, Navara... and that is only to name a few!
The event kicked off with the blitz tournament, an eleven double round event (the players faced their opponents twice) with three minutes plus two second increment as time control. This marathon was somehow fit into only one day.
As usual, the blitz tournament was riddled with mistakes, exciting chess and more mistakes... but that only made it more fun! Even strong grandmasters overlook simple thinks in this treacherous time control:
[Event "European Blitz 2014"] [Site "Wroclaw POL"] [Date "2014.12.19"] [Round "11.1"] [White "Bologan, Viktor"] [Black "Mista, Aleksander"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C50"] [WhiteElo "2643"] [BlackElo "2614"] [PlyCount "21"] [EventDate "2014.12.19"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. h3 h6 7. c3 Re8 8. b4 Bf8 9. Qb3 Qe7 10. Nh4 Nd8 11. Nf5 1-0
The most exciting game perhaps goes to the duel between Jaracz and Korobov. In the first game between th em the Ukrainian crushed the Polish player easily with White, but with Black things were much more complex:
[Event "European Blitz 2014"] [Site "Wroclaw POL"] [Date "2014.12.19"] [Round "11.2"] [White "Jaracz, Pawel"] [Black "Korobov, Anton"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "A00"] [WhiteElo "2503"] [BlackElo "2693"] [PlyCount "72"] [EventDate "2014.12.19"] 1. b4 e5 2. Bb2 Bxb4 3. Bxe5 Nf6 4. e3 O-O 5. Nf3 d5 6. Bb2 c5 7. c4 d4 8. exd4 cxd4 9. Bxd4 Nc6 10. Be3 Ng4 11. a3 Ba5 12. Be2 Nxe3 13. fxe3 f5 14. g3 g5 15. Qc2 g4 16. Nh4 f4 17. Bd3 fxe3 $5 {Nerves of steel, though protecting with Rf7 was probably better.} 18. Bxh7+ Kg7 19. Qg6+ Kh8 20. Bg8 $6 (20. Qh5 $1 Bxd2+ 21. Kd1 Rf2 $1 $13) 20... Bxd2+ 21. Kd1 e2+ $1 {Key! The bishop now controls h6!} 22. Kc2 Rxg8 23. Qh5+ Kg7 24. Nxd2 Nd4+ $2 (24... Qe8 {challenging the queen would soon end White's attack and the endgame would be very unpleasant.} ) 25. Kc3 Be6 $2 26. Qe5+ {Now white is back on the initiative.} Qf6 27. Qxf6+ Kxf6 28. Kxd4 Rad8+ 29. Ke3 Rge8 30. Ne4+ Kg7 31. Rac1 (31. Rhc1 $1 Bd7 32. c5 Bc6 33. Nf5+ Kg6 34. Nfd6 $16) 31... Bd7 32. Kf4 $2 (32. c5 Rxe4+ 33. Kxe4 Bc6+ 34. Ke3 Bxh1 35. Rxh1 $2 (35. Kxe2 $14) 35... Rd1 $19) 32... Rf8+ 33. Kg5 $6 Rde8 34. Ng6 {The final blunder.} Rf5+ 35. Kxg4 Rxe4+ 36. Nf4 Rfxf4+ 0-1
Navara was the ultimate winner of the blitz portion, with a great 19.0/22. A big tie for second left local wonder-boy Duda in second place with Salgado also in the podium, though Savchenko, Alekseev, Anton Guijarro a nd Efimenko all tied with 17.0/22. Not to mention the truckload of people with 16.5!
Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska obtained second in the
female category in the blitz, just behind Anatasia Bodnaruk
Antonio Guijarro from Spain was off the podium only due to tiebreaks
The Blitz podium: Navara, Duda, Salgado
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
| Place | Title | Name | Fed. | FIDE (Blz) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | NAVARA, David | CZE | B 2705 | 19,0 | |
| 2 | GM | DUDA, Jan-Krzysztof | POL | B 2525 | 17,0 | |
| 3 | GM | SALGADO Lopez, Ivan | ESP | B 2522 | 17,0 | |
| 4 | GM | SAVCHENKO, Boris | RUS | B 2733 | 17,0 | |
| 5 | GM | ALEKSEEV, Evgeny | RUS | B 2624 | 17,0 | |
| 6 | GM | ANTON Guijarro, David | ESP | B 2664 | 17,0 | |
| 7 | GM | EFIMENKO, Zahar | UKR | B 2640 | 17,0 | |
| 8 | IM | BORTNYK, Olexandr | UKR | B 2679 | 16,5 | |
| 9 | GM | KOROBOV, Anton | UKR | B 2752 | 16,5 | |
| 10 | GM | KOVALENKO, Igor | LAT | B 2682 | 16,5 | |
| 11 | GM | VITIUGOV, Nikita | RUS | B 2695 | 16,5 | |
| 12 | GM | LYSYJ, Igor | RUS | B 2577 | 16,5 | |
| 13 | GM | BOLOGAN, Viktor | MDA | B 2601 | 16,5 | |
| 14 | GM | BARTEL, Mateusz | POL | B 2585 | 16,0 | |
| 15 | GM | MATLAKOV, Maxim | RUS | B 2683 | 16,0 | |
| 16 | IM | DOURERASSOU, Jonathan | FRA | B 2523 | 16,0 | |
| 17 | GM | KEMPINSKI, Robert | POL | B 2637 | 16,0 | |
| 18 | IM | GEORGIADIS, Nico | SUI | 2465 | 16,0 | |
| 19 | GM | GAJEWSKI, Grzegorz | POL | B 2560 | 16,0 | |
| 20 | GM | MITON, Kamil | POL | B 2621 | 15,5 |
The Rapid portion of the tournament was held over two days. The elevent round tournament had a relatively fast time control for a rapid; fifteen minutes with ten seconds increment. It was Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the current hope of Polish chess, that took the gold on t iebreaks. Tied with him on points were Volokitin, who took second, Gajewski, third and just off the podium by the magic of numbers was Kovalev.
Winner of the rapid: Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Monica Socko won best female player
One of the top seeds: Francisco "Paco" Vallejo Pons
Select games from the dropdown menu above the board
| Place | Title | Name | Fed. | ELO (Rpd) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GM | DUDA, Jan-Krzysztof | POL | R 2467 | 9,5 |
| 2 | GM | VOLOKITIN, Andrei | UKR | R 2643 | 9,5 |
| 3 | GM | GAJEWSKI, Grzegorz | POL | R 2633 | 9,5 |
| 4 | GM | KOVALEV, Vladislav | BLR | R 2618 | 9,5 |
| 5 | GM | WOJTASZEK, Radoslaw | POL | R 2684 | 9,0 |
| 6 | IM | WARAKOMSKI, Tomasz | POL | R 2491 | 9,0 |
| 7 | GM | KOROBOV, Anton | UKR | R 2673 | 9,0 |
| 8 | GM | LYSYJ, Igor | RUS | R 2613 | 9,0 |
| 9 | GM | NEIKSANS, Arturs | LAT | R 2581 | 9,0 |
| 10 | IM | BORTNYK, Olexandr | UKR | R 2559 | 8,5 |
| 11 | GM | KOVALENKO, Igor | LAT | R 2721 | 8,5 |
| 12 | GM | VALLEJO PONS, Francisco | ESP | R 2689 | 8,5 |
| 13 | GM | MOISEENKO, Alexander | UKR | R 2670 | 8,5 |
| 14 | FM | ALEKSEENKO, Kirill | RUS | R 2520 | 8,5 |
| 15 | GM | INARKIEV, Ernesto | RUS | R 2653 | 8,5 |
| 16 | GM | FEDORCHUK, Sergey A. | UKR | R 2664 | 8,5 |
| 17 | GM | NAVARA, David | CZE | R 2633 | 8,5 |
| 18 | GM | DEVIATKIN, Andrei | RUS | R 2587 | 8,5 |
| 19 | GM | MATLAKOV, Maxim | RUS | R 2684 | 8,5 |
| 20 | GM | BARTEL, Mateusz | POL | R 2674 | 8,5 |
Photos by Marta Wolska from the official website
LinksThe games will be 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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