ETCC: Highlights from first two rounds

10/30/2017 – After rounds one and two, seven teams have won both matches in the open, with the overall leader Hungary winning 6½ of 8 possible board points. Among the leaders are Armenia who brought in Levon Aronian to face the host team of Greece (pictured). The women's tournament has eight teams, each with two wins. The leader is Israel with 6½ board points. England's new Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez annotates five games for our report. | Photo: ETCC on Instagram (www.instagram.com/etcc2017)

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Seven teams on 2 : 0

The story of Round 1 was the surprise upset of second seed Azerbaijan at the hands of the Italian squad. Italy kept the momentum in Round 2 against Turkey, again largely thanks to a win from Sabino Brunello, who knocked off Mustafa Yilmaz. On Saturday he upset Arkadij Naiditsch in a game annoted by GM Daniel Fernandez below.

Several top names made their debut appearance in the round, including newlywed Levon Aronian for Armenia, and Alexander Grischuk for Russia. Aronian overcame Greek top board Ioannis Papaioannou en route to a 2½ : 1½ win for the Armenians. After nursing a small edge with the bishop pair for much of the game, Aronian let his oppenent pull equal with the black pieces as move 40 approached. But just shy of the time control, Papaioannou blundered:

38...f6?

Forgetting the pin on the seventh rank, black was swiftly punished: 39.Bxf6 Qg6 40.Bc3 Rb5 41.Qh4 1-0 With two pawns down and no counterplay, Papaioannou gave up.

GM Daniel Fernandez also annotates this game below.

(Below) Levon Aronian sporting a wedding ring | Photo: ETCC2017 Instagram

Results of Round 2

Levon Aronian

No.	SNo	Team	MP	Res.	:	Res.	MP	Team	SNo
1	6	Armenia	2	2½	:	1½	2	Greece 1	19
2	20	Romania	2	½	:	3½	2	Hungary	7
3	10	Netherlands	2	2½	:	1½	2	Ukraine	3
4	13	Georgia	2	1½	:	2½	2	Czech Republic	11
5	12	France	2	2	:	2	2	Spain	15
6	16	Belarus	2	1½	:	2½	2	Russia	1
7	14	Croatia	2	2½	:	1½	2	Serbia	17
8	18	Turkey	2	1½	:	2½	2	Italy	22
9	4	England	1	3	:	1	1	Norway	25
10	24	Moldova	1	1	:	3	1	Israel	5
11	8	Poland	1	3	:	1	1	Greece 2	29
12	28	Slovakia	1	½	:	3½	1	Germany	9
13	2	Azerbaijan	0	4	:	0	0	Austria	23
14	21	Slovenia	0	2½	:	1½	0	Denmark	31
15	32	Finland	0	1	:	3	0	Portugal	34
16	36	Belgium	0	1½	:	2½	0	Switzerland	26
17	27	Iceland	0	2½	:	1½	0	Albania	37
18	38	Kosovo*	0	1	:	3	0	Montenegro	30
19	33	FYROM	0	2	:	2	0	Greece - Crete	39
20	35	Faroe Islands	0	2	:	2	0	Scotland	40

Annotated games by GM Daniel Fernandez

Click or tap a game in the list to switch games

Winning against the Grünfeld

The Grünfeld is a highly dynamic opening in which Black's position often seems to hang together by a single thread; and yet, this apparently precarious equilibrium appears to be enough to make it entirely viable — up to the highest level.

Top ten teams after two rounds

Rk.	SNo	FED	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	HUN	Hungary	2	2	0	0	4	7,0	6,5
2	10	NED	Netherlands	2	2	0	0	4	6,0	5,5
3	6	ARM	Armenia	2	2	0	0	4	6,0	5,5
4	11	CZE	Czech Republic	2	2	0	0	4	5,0	6,0
5	22	ITA	Italy	2	2	0	0	4	5,0	5,0
6	14	CRO	Croatia	2	2	0	0	4	5,0	5,0
7	1	RUS	Russia	2	2	0	0	4	5,0	5,0
8	12	FRA	France	2	1	1	0	3	6,0	5,5
9	15	ESP	Spain	2	1	1	0	3	6,0	5,0
10	9	GER	Germany	2	1	1	0	3	3,5	5,5

Tiebreak 1: Match points (2 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss)
Tiebreak 2: Team Sonneborn-Berger (minus the lowest result)
Tiebreak 3: Board points

Interestingly, Vladimir Fedoseev was replaced at the last minute by Daniil Dubov. The ETCC Instagram paged updated this photo post with a comment noting the change.

Ten years after their triumph in 2007, reigning champions Russia return to Hersonissos hoping to retain their crown, with Alexander Grischuk the only 2007 gold medallist surviving! #etcc2017 #ecu #eurochess #russia photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

A post shared by European Team Chess Ch 2017 (@etcc2017) on Oct 20, 2017 at 6:39am PDT

All games (rounds 1 and 2)

An Anti-Sicilian Repertoire
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Women

In the Women's tournament, eight teams, including rating favourites Russian and Georgia, have won both matches, but so far the underdog Israeli team has racked up the most board points. They face a tough test against Poland in Round 3.