European Club Cup starts

2014 European Club Cup This mega swiss tournament brings together the top teams from the top leagues in Europe to compete for the European Club Champion title. Most teams have reinforcementes specifically for this event, while others send their local players that have served them throughout the seasons. Many 2700+ players are participating in the event. The tournament is a seven round swiss system that coincides with the Bilbao Grand Slam Finals, for which we will have separate reports. Tha matches in the Open section will be six-on-six, while on the Women's section will be four-on-four.

Open Section

Harikrishna is one of the strongest third boards of the event

The European Club Cup has started and the line-ups are as usually tremendously impressive. Here are the top 10 teams in the Open Section:

N	Team	Fed		Rtg	Captain
1	SOCAR Azerbaijan	AZE		2750	Yevgeniya Javadova
2	Obiettivo Risarcimento	ITA		2736	Gaetano Quaranta
3	Malakhite	RUS		2731	Borid Frakin
4	SPB	RUS		2705	Vladimir Bykov
5	G-Team Novy Bor	CZE		2696	Petr Boleslav
6	SHSM	RUS		2675	Alexander Zlochevskii
7	Odlar Yourdu	AZE		2612	Yevgeniya Javadova
8	Beer Sheva	ISR		2586	Alon Greenfeld
9	SG Solingen	GER		2562	Markus Schaefer
10	Sestao Naturgas Energia	ESP		2560	Sergio Trigo
11	Ladya	RUS		2539	Ildar Ibramigov

Last year's somewhat surprising winner, G-Team Novy Bor, returns with a strong line-up, but they will have an even tougher time. SOCAR comes reinforced with Topalov on board two, coming from an impressive Olympiad and a very good result in the Sinquefield Cup. Wang Hao has not had a good month of chess, but if he plays well it is a good chance for SOCAR to regain the title.

1	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	AZE		2756
2	Topalov, Veselin	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	BUL		2784
3	Adams, Michael	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	ENG		2752
4	Giri, Anish	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	NED		2758
5	Radjabov, Teimour	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	AZE		2717
6	Wang, Hao	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	CHN		2730
7	Korobov, Anton	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	UKR		2673
8	Safarli, Eltaj	SOCAR Azerbaijan	GM	AZE		2655

Thew new tough team is from Italy, Obiettivo Risarcimento comes with a young and powerful team:

1	Caruana, Fabiano	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	ITA		2801
2	Nakamura, Hikaru	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	USA		2782
3	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	FRA		2768
4	Bacrot, Etienne	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	FRA		2729
5	Fressinet, Laurent	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	FRA		2712
6	Georgiev, Kiril	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	BUL		2626
7	Vocaturo, Daniele	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	ITA		2585
8	Dvirnyy, Danyyil	Obiettivo Risarcimento	GM	ITA		2522

The Italian team suffers in the last boards, and they will be relying on their top three heavy hitters to take most of the points. However since the matches are six on six, the fact that they have two 2500s on the squad might not matter in the matches against the other top teams.

1	Karjakin, Sergey	Malakhite	GM	RUS		2777
2	Grischuk, Alexander	Malakhite	GM	RUS		2789
3	Leko, Peter	Malakhite	GM	HUN		2734
4	Shirov, Alexei	Malakhite	GM	LAT		2701
5	Malakhov, Vladimir	Malakhite	GM	RUS		2696
6	Motylev, Alexander	Malakhite	GM	RUS		2686
7	Lysyj, Igor	Malakhite	GM	RUS		2684
8	Bologan, Viktor	Malakhite	GM	MDA		2648

Malakhite is a consistent top-team in this event. The Russian team fields a strong team that is reinforced by Leko on board three and Shirov on board four. Bologan and Lysyj make for very, very solid alternates.

1	Svidler, Peter	SPB	GM	RUS		2732
2	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	SPB	GM	CUB		2755
3	Vitiugov, Nikita	SPB	GM	RUS		2742
4	Movsesian, Sergei	SPB	GM	ARM		2663
5	Matlakov, Maxim	SPB	GM	RUS		2694
6	Efimenko, Zahar	SPB	GM	UKR		2641
7	Khairullin, Ildar	SPB	GM	RUS		2638

SPB fields their strongest player, Dominguez, on board two. They are certainly hoping that Svidler will hold his own on board one while Dominguez and Vitiugov collect points on two and three. Movsesian comes from a shaky Olympiad, but if he can pull himself together SPB is a real danger.

1	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	POL		2736
2	Navara, David	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	CZE		2722
3	Harikrishna, P.	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	IND		2725
4	Laznicka, Viktor	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	CZE		2675
5	Sasikiran, Krishnan	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	IND		2680
6	Bartel, Mateusz	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	POL		2636
7	Hracek, Zbynek	G-Team Novy Bor	GM	CZE		2638

The defending champions have three solid 2700s on board 1-3, while the drop-off on four and five is not significant. Sasikirian on board five is an incredible asset while Bartel and Hracek can surprise on board six at any point.

1	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	SHSM	GM	RUS		2710
2	Morozevich, Alexander	SHSM	GM	RUS		2731
3	Dreev, Aleksey	SHSM	GM	RUS		2662
4	Grachev, Boris	SHSM	GM	RUS		2673
5	Najer, Evgeniy	SHSM	GM	RUS		2646
6	Dubov, Daniil	SHSM	GM	RUS		2614
7	Popov, Ivan	SHSM	GM	RUS		2627
8	Potkin, Vladimir	SHSM	GM	RUS		2610

SHSM as an entirely Russian team, and a strong one at that. Much will depend on how well they do on boards five and six, how well Morozevich decides to play this tournament and if Nepomniachtchi can hold his own on board one. Rating-wise it seems as if this is the last team that has strong winning chances, as the drop-off after SHSM is over 60 average rating points.

The ECC under way

The first round went without any major incidents. Almost all the top teams won, as expected in a Swiss system, although not all of them did it without dropping some board points. Only the Italian team managed to score a perfect 6-0 from the top 10 teams, while Socar dropped half a point. Manuel Bosboom took a full point from Peter Leko, but the rest of his team got crushed in the match Malkhite vs. En Passant:

The biggest upset of the day was probably by Peter Wells from England, who at 2455 was certainly an underdog against Arakadij Naidtisch, but the English player took it and overcame the 250+ point rating difference. White Rose, however, convincingly fell to Gros Xake Taldea 4.5-1.5.

Standings

Rk	Team	Fed		Games	+	=	-	Pts	GamPnt
1	Obiettivo Risarcimento	ITA		1	1	0	0	2	6
2	Minsk	BLR		1	1	0	0	2	6
3	Schachgesellschaft Zurich	SUI		1	1	0	0	2	6
4	Cercle d'Echecs de Bois Colombes	FRA		1	1	0	0	2	6
5	SOCAR Azerbaijan	AZE		1	1	0	0	2	5.5
6	G-Team Novy Bor	CZE		1	1	0	0	2	5.5
7	Odlar Yourdu	AZE		1	1	0	0	2	5.5
8	Beer Sheva	ISR		1	1	0	0	2	5.5
9	Ladya	RUS		1	1	0	0	2	5.5
10	SK Rockaden	SWE		1	1	0	0	2	5.5

Round One Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Women's Section

The Women's section is considerably smaller. With only eight teams the tournament is a round robin.

The Women's World Champion Hou Yifan is playing for Monte Carlo,
but they didn't start with the right foot this event

N	Team	Fed		Rtg	Captain
1	Ugra	RUS		2429	Lobach Pavel
2	Ladya	RUS		2441	Lilia Timurova
3	Rishon Letzion	ISR		1806	Shlomit Vardi
4	Batumi Chess Club "Nona"	GEO		2491	Marika Japaridze
5	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	MNC		2568
6	SC Bad Konigshofen	GER		2388	Rene Gabel
7	Herzliya Chess Club	ISR		1986	Shlomo Kandelshine
8	SHSM	RUS		2498	Alexandr Zlochevskii

The favorites are the defending champions, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo. Despite that, the competition is quite stiff and both SHSM and Nona have very real chances to win. Ugra and Ladya cannot be underestimated either, although it is hard to see SC Bad Konigshofen or either of the israeli teams being a serious threat.

Surprises started as early as round one as Monte Carlo fell to Nona.

1		Ugra (1)	1.5	2.5	SHSM (8)
1.1	2481	Ushenina, Anna	0	1	Gunina, Valentina	2540
1.2	2482	Pogonina, Natalija	0	1	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2543
1.3	2399	Kovanova, Baira	½	½	Girya, Olga	2476
1.4	2352	Guseva, Marina	1	0	Kashlinskaya, Alina	2433
2		Ladya (2)	4	0	Herzliya Chess Club (7)
2.1	2472	Galliamova, Alisa	1	0	Len, Irina	2133
2.2	2469	Zatonskih, Anna	1	0	Yakovleva, Tatiana	2047
2.3	2421	Atalik, Ekaterina	1	0	Lian, Marina	1871
2.4	2401	Zaiatz, Elena	1	0	Haitovich, Avital	1891
3		Rishon Letzion (3)	0.5	3.5	SC Bad Konigshofen (6)
3.1	2331	Efroimski, Marsel	½	½	Paehtz, Elisabeth	2467
3.2	0	Madivani, Maka	0	1	Mkrtchian, Lilit	2457
3.3	1957	Vardi, Shlomit	0	1	Savina, Anastasia	2373
3.4	1937	Federovski, Adi	0	1	Schoene, Maria	2261
4		Batumi CC "Nona" (4)	2.5	1.5	Cercle Monte-Carlo (5)
4.1	2566	Dzagnidze, Nana	½	½	Hou, Yifan	2663
4.2	2507	Khotenashvili, Bela	½	½	Muzychuk, Anna	2551
4.3	2464	Melia, Salome	1	0	Lagno, Kateryna	2540
4.4	2426	Batsiashvili, Nino	½	½	Cramling, Pia	2516

The duel of russian powerhouses between Ugra and SHSM favored the higher rated team as both Gunina and Kosteniuk, who come from Gold medalling at the Olympiad, took their two games at the top boards and despite Guseva's efforts of beating Kashlinskaya, Girya (who was also part of the winning Russian team) sealed the deal with a draw.

Ladya annihilated Herzliya while SC Bad Konigshofen did the same to Rishon Letzion. The true surprise was that Nona dispatched Monte Carlo. The games are not available at this time and will be uploaded as soon as possible.

Standings

Rk	ID	Team	Fed		Games	+	=	-	Pts	GamPnt
1	2	Ladya	RUS		1	1	0	0	2	4
2	6	SC Bad Konigshofen	GER		1	1	0	0	2	3.5
3	4	Batumi Chess Club "Nona"	GEO		1	1	0	0	2	2.5
4	8	SHSM	RUS		1	1	0	0	2	2.5
5	1	Ugra	RUS		1	0	0	1	0	1.5
6	5	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	MNC		1	0	0	1	0	1.5
7	3	Rishon Letzion	ISR		1	0	0	1	0	0.5
8	7	Herzliya Chess Club	ISR		1	0	0	1	0	0

Photos by Manu de Alba from Bilbao's Facebook site

Links Official tournament site All Games in PGN All Women Section 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.