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Azerbaijan clings to a small lead after an eigth round victory over Russia on Sunday, moved them to 13 matchpoints. They play third place Ukraine on top table in Monday's final round. Russia meets the German squad, who has scored back-to-back wins over Armenia and Israel, and looking to medal.
Croatia's unlikely run came to an abrupt halt as they lost in Round 6 to Hungary 3½ : ½, and then to Russia the following round 3 : 1. Poland suffered a similar fate, also losing twice to Russia and Israel in succession.
Leko's win over Ivan Saric contributed to Hungary's rout of Croatia | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com
GM Daniel Fernandez looked at the two key games from the sixth round: The top game Peter Leko vs. Ivan Saric and Ian Nepomnichtchi's key win over Jan-Krzystof Duda.
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My best games in the Sveshnikov
The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence is considered one of the most promising replies to 1.e4, often giving rise to sharp and complex positions which require precise and inventive play from both sides. Thus, an opening tailor-made for Alexei Shirov (FIDE World Cup finalist in 2007), who has included it into his repertoire with both White and Black and knows the mutual tricks and traps all too well.
After six impressive rounds from the Hungarians, during which they gave up just two matchpoints in ties with Armenia and the Netherlands, they finally faltered against Azerbaijan in the seventh round, thanks largely to the streaking Rauf Mamedov. With his win over Ferenc Berkes he crossed the 2700 mark for the first time.
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The other key match of the round was Russia-Croatia which hinged on wins by Nikita Vitiugov and Daniil Dubov.
Mamedov's streak continued to an incredible 7½ out of 8 as he beat Daniil Dubov in a bloddy match with Russia in which all four games were decisive.
Azerbaijan stunned Russia with a 3 : 1 victory, as Mamedov has been impressive | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com
Lawrence looks at Grischuk vs. Mamedyarov and Mamedov vs. Dubov. (Also available in the ChessBase Videos portal.)
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Rasmus Svane, one of the young "princes" of German chess has done well in Crete, scoring 5½ from his 7 games played as the fifth and youngest member of the team. In Round 8, he upset the veterin Israeli GM Ilia Smirnin.
Notes by IM Irene Sukandar (Play through the moves on the live diagram!)
Some of the Grandmaster games could make you feel better about yourself, especially when one missed simple calculation like this.
19.Rc1 Qd5 Black could enjoy equality by bringing the Bishop back to f5. But instead, Smirin chose a pretty "ambitious" move.
But after 20. Qc3 the black position just collapsed. 20... Bd1 And now Black's Bishop on d1 is very restricted and soon be lost. Perhaps Smirin missed 20... Bf5 21. e4 +-
21.Kf2 g5 22.Qd3 Rd8 23.Qxd5 Rxd5 24.Nd3 f5 25.Rxd1 e4 26.Bxg7 1-0
| No. | Team | MP | Res. | : | Res. | MP | Team |
| 1 | Russia | 12 | 1 | : | 3 | 11 | Azerbaijan |
| 2 | Hungary | 10 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 10 | Ukraine |
| 3 | Israel | 10 | 1 | : | 3 | 9 | Germany |
| 4 | Netherlands | 9 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 9 | Turkey |
| 5 | France | 9 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 9 | Croatia |
| 6 | Romania | 8 | 2½ | : | 1½ | 8 | Serbia |
| 7 | Greece 1 | 8 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 8 | England |
| 8 | Armenia | 8 | 2 | : | 2 | 8 | Poland |
| 9 | Georgia | 7 | ½ | : | 3½ | 8 | Spain |
| 10 | Austria | 7 | ½ | : | 3½ | 7 | Belarus |
| Rk. | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 |
| 1 | Azerbaijan | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 172,5 |
| 2 | Russia | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 167,0 |
| 3 | Ukraine | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 155,0 |
| 4 | Germany | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 165,0 |
| 5 | Turkey | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 134,0 |
| 6 | Croatia | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 130,0 |
| 7 | Hungary | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 170,5 |
| 8 | Spain | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 135,5 |
| 9 | Israel | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 128,5 |
| 10 | England | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 128,5 |
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