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The day before
On the second Saturday prior to the last round the players enjoyed once again an enjoyable and instructive excursion. This time it was a city tour dedicated to the old city of the Israeli capital led by the chess NM and tourist guide Peter Gokhvat.
Getting ready to visit a bit of history
During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times,
attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
Visiting the many beautiful sites within the city
A fresco depicting ancient Jerusalem
The Western Wall where worshippers come on pilgrimages
The gong for the start of the 11th and final round was jointly hit by the guest of honour
MK Zeev Elkin, chairman of the Likud party in the Knesset ( the Israeli parliament), a chess
enthusiast himself who blessed the participants in Hebrew, English and Russian, and the
president of the European Chess Union GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili.
The fresh European champion for 2015 is Russian GM Evgeny Najer! In the final round having a better position he accepted a draw offer by his compatriot Denis Khismatullin to secure the desired championship title though not before making sure that David Navara, the other runner-up, wouldn’t achieve more than a draw against Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov.
The final step before becoming champion
Top-seed David Navara came just short of winning with 8.0/11 with a 2801 performance
The new champion scored 8.5/11 ahead of Navara, Bartel and Khismatullin with 8.0/11 each. 22 players scored 7.5 points each securing a place in the world cup games next October in the Azeri capital of Baku.
Georgian IM Nino Batsiashvili finished in the middle of the pack with 6.0/11
Enjoying the many activities surrounding the tournament
The great upset of the championship was the poor finish of the former continental champion, Russian Ian Nepomnianchtchi; who had led the field to what seemed to be a second title but managed to score just half a point in the last three rounds with an especially painful defeat against Polish Mateusz Bartel, and missing the qualifying group by a half-point.
To his credit, Bartel's win was an inspired attack, sacrificing the knight on move fourteen:
The greatest surprise of the last round was the young Israeli Ohad Kraus who beat former European champion, Russian Vladimir Potkin scoring a GM norm and mind you he is just an untitled 2190 rated player!
|
Rk
|
SNo
|
Ti.
|
Name
|
FED
|
Rtg
|
Pts
|
TB
|
| 1 | 37 | GM | Najer Evgeniy | RUS | 2634 | 8.5 | 2636 |
| 2 | 1 | GM | Navara David | CZE | 2735 | 8.0 | 2643 |
| 3 | 39 | GM | Bartel Mateusz | POL | 2631 | 8.0 | 2600 |
| 4 | 28 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2653 | 8.0 | 2547 |
| 5 | 71 | GM | Vovk Yuri | UKR | 2588 | 7.5 | 2648 |
| 6 | 11 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2687 | 7.5 | 2646 |
| 7 | 67 | GM | Ipatov Alexander | TUR | 2592 | 7.5 | 2634 |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2727 | 7.5 | 2623 |
| 9 | 33 | GM | Volokitin Andrei | UKR | 2646 | 7.5 | 2623 |
| 10 | 7 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2695 | 7.5 | 2615 |
| 11 | 13 | GM | Sjugirov Sanan | RUS | 2678 | 7.5 | 2609 |
| 12 | 8 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | UKR | 2695 | 7.5 | 2608 |
| 13 | 22 | GM | Motylev Alexander | RUS | 2665 | 7.5 | 2607 |
| 14 | 128 | Iljiushenok Ilia | RUS | 2450 | 7.5 | 2598 | |
| 15 | 47 | GM | Kempinski Robert | POL | 2625 | 7.5 | 2592 |
| 16 | 30 | GM | Smirin Ilia | ISR | 2650 | 7.5 | 2590 |
| 17 | 12 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | BUL | 2681 | 7.5 | 2589 |
| 18 | 20 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | ARM | 2668 | 7.5 | 2585 |
| 19 | 35 | GM | Popov Ivan | RUS | 2639 | 7.5 | 2583 |
| 20 | 19 | GM | Laznicka Viktor | CZE | 2670 | 7.5 | 2583 |
| 21 | 26 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | ISR | 2660 | 7.5 | 2580 |
| 22 | 73 | GM | Brkic Ante | CRO | 2586 | 7.5 | 2577 |
| 23 | 27 | GM | Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter | GER | 2654 | 7.5 | 2540 |
| 24 | 18 | GM | Grachev Boris | RUS | 2670 | 7.5 | 2531 |
| 25 | 75 | GM | Nabaty Tamir | ISR | 2585 | 7.5 | 2530 |
| 26 | 92 | GM | Can Emre | TUR | 2555 | 7.5 | 2463 |
The winner's trophy
The prize giving was attended by the board of the European chess union and started with a projected blessing by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu .Speeches were made by President of the ECU, GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (himself a former European champion) and ACP (Association of chess professionals) president GM Emil Sutovsky who both praised the superb organization of the event expressing their hope for more such major tournaments in Israel soon enough.
The ceremony included a spectacular dance and light show
Lights were provided to include the audience in the show
Together with Moshe Slav chairman of the Israel chess federation and Amiram Kaplan, chairman of the organizing committee and secretary of the ECU Thodoros Tsorbatzoglou awarded the 120 thousand Euro prize-fund and the huge trophies.
The winners David Navara (second), Evgeny Najer (first) and Mateusz Bartel (third)
In addition to the general standings winners special prizes were given to the best ACP premium members and to the best seniors headed by GMs Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia), Valery Neverov (Ukraine) and Alex Khuzman (Israel) on 6.5 points each. Best Junior was Polish GM Jan Krzysztof Duda on 6.5/11 and best Jerusalem player was Ori Kobo on 5.5 and a final norm for the IM title.
Report by Yachanan Afek and Albert Silver
Photos by Yoav Nis
LinksThe 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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs. |
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