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
Round eleven

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:
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 4.0-0 Bd7 5.Re1 a6 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bd7 9.Bg5 Nf6 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Nc3 e6 12.Qh5 Bg7 13.Rad1 Rc8 14.Nf5! exf5 14...0-0 15.Nxg7 Kxg7 16.Rd3 Rg8 17.Rh3 Kf8 18.Nd5! Rg7 19.Qh6 15.exf5+ Kf8 16.Ne4 Bc6 17.Nxd6 Qc7 18.Nxc8 Qxc8 19.Rd4 Qc7 20.Qd1 Bh6 21.h4 Qa5 22.Rd8+ Kg7 23.Qg4+ Bg5 24.Rdd1 h6 25.a3 Qc7 26.Qg3!? Qa5 26...Qxg3 27.fxg3 27.f4 Qc5+ 28.Re3 Bxg2 29.fxg5 29.Kxg2?? Qxc2+ 29...hxg5 30.hxg5 Rh1+? 31.Kxg2 Qc6+ 32.Rf3 Rxd1 33.gxf6+ Kxf6 34.Qh4+ Kg7 34...Ke5 35.Qe7+ Kd4 35...Kd5 36.c4+ Kd4 36...Kxc4 37.Qe2+ 37.Qe3+ 36.c3+ Kc4 37.Qe2+ 35.f6+ Kg8 35...Kg6 36.Qg4+ Kh6 37.Qg7+ Kh5 38.Qxf7+ Kg5 39.Qg7+ Kh5 40.Qh7+ Kg5 41.Qf5+ Kh4 42.f7 36.Qg3+ Kf8 37.Qb8+ Qe8 38.Rh3! 38.Qxb7 Qe2+ 39.Kg3 Rg1+ 40.Kf4 Qd2+ 41.Ke5 41.Re3 Qh2+ 42.Kf5 Qh5+ 43.Ke4 Qh1+ 44.Rf3 Rg4+ 45.Ke5 Qe1+ 38...Rd2+ 39.Kf3 1–0 - Start an analysis engine:
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Bartel,M | 2631 | Nepomniachtchi,I | 2714 | 1–0 | 2015 | B51 | 16th ch-EUR Indiv 2015 | 11.3 |
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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!
Final standings
Click for complete standings
Prize giving

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