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:
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:
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. |
|
