Alkaloid triumphs at the European Club Cup in Novi Sad

Alkaloid triumphs in Novi Sad

Photos: Lennart Ootes

From 5th to 13th November the European Club took place in Novi Sad (Serbia). Top players such as Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri etc. played in Novi Sad. 62 teams competed in the Open, 14 in the Women's Tournament, both played seven rounds Swiss.

Gold: Alkaloid

The team Alkaloid started as the number two seed and deserved the win, particularly because they showed a real team effort: they lost only two single games, all players had good results and the team won or drew all crucial matches against its direct rivals.

The winners from team Alkaloid

In round five the Macedonians took a big step towards the title by winning narrowly against St. Petersburg, the team that eventually finished second. The game on board five was crucial:

Fedoseev-Kryvoruchko

In round six Alkaloid played against top Syberia and went through some fearful before finally securing a 3-3 draw.

Korobov-Yu

Yu Yangyi scored 5.5/7 and was a cornerstone of Alkaloid's triumph.

In the last round Alkaloid played against SHMS Legacy Square team from Moscow and needed only one team-point to win the title. They had no problems to secure this point.

Silver: Mednyi Vsadnik

Mednyi Vsadnik from St. Petersburg had a strong and motivated team and started the tournament with three clear wins, followed by a smooth 4.5-1.5 victory in round four against VSK Sveti Nikolaj Srpski from Serbia. After losing against Alkaloid in round five they came back with a vengeance, beating Beer Sheva (ISR) 5-1. In the last round match against top seed Syberia they secured the silver medal. Peter Svidler, board one of Petersburg, was in excellent shape: he won against Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Ding Liren, two world-class players.

Peter Svidler was in great shape and led his team to place two.

In the final round Mednyi Vsadnik played against Siberia and it took Peter Svidler and his team some effort to draw the match after Leinier Dominguez Perez - Mednyi Vsadniks' board two - fell victim to Anish Giri's fine endgame technique and Bu Xiangzhi Bu and Peter Svidler had to cope with a pawn-deficit in the endgame. But in the end they both managed to hold their games and Mednyi Vsadnik won silver.

Giri-Dominguez Perez

A close match: Mednyi Vsadnik against Syberia

Bronze: SHSM Legacy Square Moskau

No doubt a surprisingly good result of the team from Moscow which ranked eighth in the starting list. Legacy Square played without their top player Sergey Karjakin and the experts doubted the chances of the Moscovites to win a medal. But Daniil Dubov had a fantastic 5.0/7 score on board two, and Vladimir Malakhov (5.5/7) and Vadim Zvjaginsev (5/6) also scored well.

The 20-year old Daniil Dubov from Legacy Square Moskau.

(By the way: I heard that "Legacy Square" is a mistranslation of the Russian name of the club. It should rather be "Allowed Square" or "Possible Square", indicating the idea of moving a piece or a pawn to a certain square while conforming to the rules.)

Ashdod finished fourth. With an Elo-performance of 2888 Ashdod's top board Vasily Ivanchuk played an excellent tournament.

After his excursion to the world of draughts Vasily Ivanchuk celebrated a comeback and won gold for the best performance on board one.

Final standings after seven rounds

...

62 teams

Games