XIV European Individual Championship has started

by ChessBase
5/5/2013 – The European Individual Championship held in Legnica, Poland is the strongest Swiss system tournament in the year, and the numbers say it all: twelve players are rated 2700 or more, 38 of the world’s top 100 players are participating, and so on. Despite only being one round deep, surprises abound such as a draw by IM Mariya Muzychuk with a 2700+ player.  Here are the pictures and games.

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Prize fund: The prize fund is 100,000 EUR
Main prizes: 90,950 EUR + Special (Performance minus Rating) 
9,050 EUR: 1st - 14,000, 2nd - 11,000, 3rd - 9,000 etc.
Tourney mode: 11-round Swiss System
Time control: 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds/move starting with the first move
Game start: daily 15:00 (server time), last round 16th May at 13:00
Rest day: 12th May

XIV European Individual Championship

This year the European Individual Championship is being held in Legnica, Poland, a quaint little city in the west of the country.


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Its main claim to history dates all the way back to 1241 in the Battle of Legnica when the Polish forces were overrun by the Mongols led by the grandsons of Genghis Khan. Naturally, you should feel free to casually mention Legnica to your friends, and when they admit to not having heard of it, you can shake your head in feigned dismay at their pitiful ignorance.

It retains much of the unique Old World beauty, unmarred
by the many wars that have gone around it. This is the
House "Under the Quail Basket".

Though not quite an ‘Open’ inasmuch as just anyone can play, the European Individual Championship is nevertheless the strongest Swiss system tournament in the year, and this edition is no exception. The numbers say it all: twelve players are rated 2700 or more, 38 of the world’s top 100 players are participating, you need to go down the ranking list to player no.108 to find a player who is not even a grandmaster, though to be fair it seems more a formality for Armenian IM Karen Grigoryan rated 2559. There are two sections each year, the Open (meaning men but women allowed) and the Women, which is now held on separate dates.

Tournament Director Artur Czyż opens the tournament

And the race is on!

At the top of the pecking list is reigning European Champion Dmitry Jakovenko (2734), followed by Evgeny Tomashevsky, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi, the 2010 champion, and Zoltan Almasi, just off his superb win at the 48th Capablanca Memorial last week.

For many of the top seeds, the first round was business as usual, whether by overpowering their opponents, or just exploiting the mistakes by their lower-rated counterparts.

[Event "14th Euro Indiv 2013"] [Site "Legnica POL"] [Date "2013.05.05"] [Round "1.4"] [White "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"] [Black "Holzke, Frank"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A33"] [PlyCount "73"] [EventDate "2013.05.05"] 1. c4 c5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 e6 6. a3 Be7 7. e4 O-O 8. Nf3 Qc7 9. Be2 b6 10. O-O Bb7 11. Bg5 Rad8 12. Re1 Qb8 13. Bf1 Ng4 14. Bxe7 Nxe7 15. h3 Ne5 16. Nxe5 Qxe5 17. Qd2 f5 18. exf5 Qxf5 19. Nb5 Nc8 20. Rad1 a6 21. Nc3 Ne7 22. Qe3 Bc6 23. Qxb6 Ng6 24. Qe3 Nh4 25. Qg3 Qh5 26. Re5 Nf5 27. Qg4 Qf7 28. c5 Ne3 $2 {This creative move is based on a slight miscalculation, but sadly for Black, a fatal one.} 29. fxe3 Qf2+ 30. Kh1 Qxb2 {This was the position Holzke had seen. The Nc3 is not only en prise, but is pinned with the unprotected rook on e5.} 31. Rh5 $1 {The fact is White has no need to worry about the knight since he already has an extra in his dungeon.} ({The key was that if} 31. Qc4 {which seems to protect the knight on c3, Black would have the clever} Rxf1+ $1 {winning back the knight since} 32. Rxf1 Qxg2#) 31... Qxc3 32. Bd3 g6 33. Rxh7 $1 Qxd3 (33... Kxh7 34. Qxg6+ Kh8 35. Qh7#) 34. Rxd3 Kxh7 35. Qh4+ Kg7 36. Qe7+ Kg8 37. Rd4 1-0

Reigning European Champion Dmitry Jakovenko

That said, even round one had its fair share of unexpected results, starting with board one as top-seed Jakovenko found himself held to a draw by local IM Jan-Krysztof Duda (2506). IM Mariya Muzychuk (2483), sister of GM Anna Muzychuk, also struck a blow for the women as she also held top Czech player David Navara (2706) to a draw.

WGM Jolanta Zawadzka is one of the females in the 'Open' section.

The top boards are all broadcast live on the official site as well as Playchess, and make for oodles of mouth-watering chess. Don’t miss it.


Links

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.

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