tag: Gjakova - Page 1

Ernesto Inarkiev is the 2016 European Champion

5/24/2016 – It was nothing short of an imperial performance by Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev who stormed away with the tournament from start to finish, defeating all his would-be challengers, to end on 9.0/11 with a 2882 performance. Igor Kovalenko, who lost to him in round nine, bounced back with two big wins to take sole second. Here is the report with games and positions.

2016 Euro Ch. Rd9: Inarkiev activates 'god mode'

5/22/2016 – In a number of video games, such as classics like Doom 2 and many others, there is a secret cheat code that unlocks "God Mode". Once unlocked and active, this usually makes player-characters invulnerable. Ernesto Inarkiev seems to have stumbled on that code as he won a second straight game with black to grab sole lead, a full point ahead.

2016 Euro Ch. Rd8: Inarkiev continues to steamroll

5/21/2016 – Going into round eight, two players lead ahead of the rest. To say this is crunch time is an understatement. Ernesto Inarkiev scored a powerful win over co-leader David Navara taking sole lead, followed by a dozen others, all with chances to steal the gold at the first slip. In the meantime, Pavel Eljanov called Dubov's win a masterpiece reminiscent of Torre-Lasker.

Gjakova, Rd. 7: Inarkiev and Navara lead

5/20/2016 – Ivan Saric, after six rounds sole leader at the European Championship in Gjakova, suffered a setback in round seven and lost against Ernesto Inarkiev. After this win Inarkiev has 6.0/7 and shares the lead with top seed David Navara, who won a rook ending against Baadur Jobava. Half-a-point behind the leaders follows a group of six players with 5.5/7 each.

Gjakova: Ivan Saric takes the lead

5/18/2016 – Ivan Saric was the only player from the top group who won in round six of the European Championship in Gjakova. The Croatian grandmaster showed himself to be well-prepared and came up with a new move in the Marshall. This led to an endgame which Saric won after two inaccurate moves of his opponents. With 5.5/6 Saric is now sole leader.

Gjakova: Three players lead with 4.0/4.

5/16/2016 – After four rounds three players lead the field at the European Championship with 4.0/4 each. Baadur Jobava played a fine game, in which he continually put pressure on his opponent. Ernesto Inarkiev was well-prepared and alert and Radoslaw Wojtaszek showed a lot of patience in a King's Indian structure which was rewarded when his opponent finally went wrong.

Nine leaders in Gjakova

5/15/2016 – After three rounds nine players share the lead with 3.0/3 at the European Championship in Gjakova and only two of them belong to the top ten of the starting list: Radoslav Wojtaszek and Maxim Matlakov. Nine of the 15 top encounters in round three were decided, six times the Elo-favorites won, but in three games the favorites failed to win.
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