Valerij Popov takes gold at the European Rapid Championship

A 4-way tie

The European Rapid Championship took place in Skopje, FYR of Macedonia, from December 8th to 9th and attracted 409 players, who competed for a prize fund of EUR €20,000. The event was organised by the Gambit Asseco SEE chess club, with the official sponsorship of Asseco SEE Group and under the auspices of the European Chess Union and the Chess Federation of Macedonia. The tournament was a 13-round Swiss open with a time control of 15 minutes plus 10 seconds bonus per move. 

Russian GM Valerij Popov was the sole leader from rounds nine to eleven, but young grandmasters Andrey Esipenko (Russia, 16 y.o.), Vahap Sanal (Turkey, 20 y.o.) and Luca Moroni (Italy, 18 y.o.) caught up with him to tie for the first place with 10½/13 points each. The tiebreak criteria, however, gave the title of European Rapid Champion to the 40th seed GM Valerij Popov. Popov enriched his collection of European Rapid championship medals after winning the silver back in 2008 (Warsaw, Poland) with exactly the same 10½/13 score. His successful performance at the tournament was marked by solid positional play, tactical sharpness when necessary, and virtually no blunders.

In round nine, Popov took down second seed Rauf Mamedov with the black pieces. In the following position, it looks like the black knight is in trouble, but Popov found a cunning tactical idea to use the knight's position to his advantage:

Power Play 20: Test Your Attacking Chess

Grandmaster Daniel King presents ten exemplary attacking performances. At key moments he stops and asks you to play a move. King then gives feedback on the most plausible continuations. It’s the next best thing to having your own personal trainer!

34...Nh3+! was the killer blow. Instead, 34.Nd3? would have been a step in the wrong direction, as the position remains complicated after 35.Rxf6 Qa7+ 36.Kh1 Rxf6 37.Qe8+ Rf8 (38...Kh7?? would be a typical time-scramble blunder, with 38.Be4+ g6 39.Bxg6+ Rxg6 40.Re7++ to follow). In the game, White resigned after 35.Kh1 Rxf1+ 36.Bxf1 Rxf1 37.Kg2 Nf4+.

Azerbaijani Olympic player GM Rauf Mamedov played some of the sharpest games and scored 9 points to come up 16th

16-year-old Andrey Esipenko finished in second place. In round twelve, he finished off Dragisa Blagojevic in style. 

Mating Patterns

On this DVD, Grandmaster and worldrenowned commentator Maurice Ashley reviews some of the most interesting patterns with examples meant to educate and entertain.

In an already winning position, the young Russian with white went 35.Rc7! — Esipenko threatening the Arabian mate with 36.Nf6+, followed by 37.Rxh7+, therefore, GM Blagojevic tried to exchange queens with 35...Qb1+ and prevent the threat with ...Bg7 or ...Rb6 afterwards. White, however, does not have to comply: 36.Kh2! and Black resigned in view of 36...Qxd3 37.Nf6+ Kh8 38.Rxh7#.

GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) fell against Esipenko but was once again the best female performer with 8 points

The 20-year-old Turkish player Vahap Sanal arrived in Skopje as the 54th seed but managed to tie for first place after drawing only one game during the whole weekend. In round four, he defeated Markus Ragger with the white pieces from a complicated endgame:

First Steps in Endgames

If you want to become a strong player you have to study the endgame. That's just the way it is. Andrew Martin's DVD 'First Steps in Endgames' offers a superb introduction for players rated below 1600.

Austria's best player GM Markus Ragger scored 9½ points to finish 8th 

Luca Moroni Jr. from Italy also was a surprise winner, as he was the 53rd seed in the initial line-up. In round eight, his win over Daniel Fridman included a queen sacrifice in the middle of the board:

GM Kiril Georgiev, representing Macedonia, had a poor start but finished with an amazing string of seven wins in a row to secure the fifth place with 10 points. GM David Navara had the same score to end up sixth. 

Improve your Tactics

The aim of this course is to help you understand how to make tactical opportunities arise as well as to sharpen your tactical vision - these selected lectures will help to foster your overall tactical understanding.

GM Kiril Georgiev scored 7/7 points in the last 7 rounds!

GM David Navara’s games are always in focus

Hungarian young hope WFM Annamaria Marjanovic (17 y.o.) defeated GM Kiril Georgiev and drew against GM Rusev to score 8 points and gain no less than 48 rating points

In a sixth round game with both players in time trouble, we saw Anton Demchenko missing an easy win against Viacheslav Tilicheev. The Russian would later manage to get the full point anyway:

GM David Anton Guijarro (Spain) ended up 10th with 9½ points

GM Marin Bosiocic (Croatia) finished 13th with 9½ points

Master Class Vol.2: Mihail Tal

On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.

Polish GM Mateusz Bartel lost this game, but his back-to-back wins in the last two rounds secured him 14th place with 9½ points

Your author, IM and WGM Iva Videnova, finished with 8 points

Bojana Bejatovic is the best Macedonian woman player

Next year's European Rapid & Blitz Championship is set to take place in Tallinn, Estonia from December 11th to 15th, 2019.

Final standings (top 20)

All available games

Links

• Official site
• Full results (Chess-results)
• Vladislav Artemiev is 2018 European Blitz Champion