ECC 03: Leaders emerge

by Alejandro Ramirez
9/17/2014 – SOCAR was able to easily vanquish Oslo Schakselskap while Novy Bor squashed SK Rockaden 6-0. These two victories put both teams as the leaders since SPB and Obiettivo Risarcimento split the point with six draws each. Tomorrow's match will be crucial to the standings. In the Women's section Monte Carlo finally won a match, though barely, while SHSM could not hold the lead.

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2014 European Club Cup

This mega swiss tournament brings together the top teams from the top leagues in Europe to compete for the European Club Champion title. Most teams have reinforcementes specifically for this event, while others send their local players that have served them throughout the seasons.

Many 2700+ players are participating in the event. The tournament is a seven round swiss system that coincides with the Bilbao Grand Slam Finals, for which we will have separate reports.

The matches in the Open section will be six-on-six, while on the Women's section will be four-on-four.

Open Section

1 SOCAR Azerbaijan (1) 4.5 1.5 Oslo Schakselskap (24)
1.1 2756 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½ ½ Hammer, Jon Ludvig 2630
1.2 2784 Topalov, Veselin 0 1 Agdestein, Simen 2622
1.3 2758 Giri, Anish 1 0 Stubberud, Ornulf 2342
1.4 2730 Wang, Hao 1 0 Hauge, Lars Oskar 2322
1.5 2673 Korobov, Anton 1 0 Mihajlov, Sebastian 2257
1.6 2655 Safarli, Eltaj 1 0 Persson, Mats 2239
2 SPB (4) 3 3 Obiettivo Risarcimento (2)
2.1 2732 Svidler, Peter ½ ½ Caruana, Fabiano 2801
2.2 2755 Dominguez Perez, Leinier ½ ½ Nakamura, Hikaru 2782
2.3 2742 Vitiugov, Nikita ½ ½ Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2768
2.4 2694 Matlakov, Maxim ½ ½ Bacrot, Etienne 2729
2.5 2641 Efimenko, Zahar ½ ½ Fressinet, Laurent 2712
2.6 2638 Khairullin, Ildar ½ ½ Georgiev, Kiril 2626
3 Beer Sheva (8) 3 3 Malakhite (3)
3.1 2579 Roiz, Michael ½ ½ Karjakin, Sergey 2777
3.2 2678 Rodshtein, Maxim 0 1 Grischuk, Alexander 2789
3.3 2641 Postny, Evgeny ½ ½ Leko, Peter 2734
3.4 2551 Greenfeld, Alon 1 0 Shirov, Alexei 2701
3.5 2573 Huzman, Alexander ½ ½ Motylev, Alexander 2686
3.6 2495 Khmelniker, Ilya ½ ½ Bologan, Viktor 2648
4 G-Team Novy Bor (5) 6 0 SK Rockaden (20)
4.1 2736 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 1 0 Blomqvist, Erik 2506
4.2 2722 Navara, David 1 0 Hermansson, Emil 2455
4.3 2725 Harikrishna, P. 1 0 Bator, Robert 2422
4.4 2680 Sasikiran, Krishnan 1 0 Hedman, Erik 2362
4.5 2636 Bartel, Mateusz 1 0 Engqvist, Thomas 2348
4.6 2638 Hracek, Zbynek 1 0 Kenneskog, Theodor 2285
5 Odlar Yourdu (7) 3 3 SG Solingen (9)
5.1 2632 Sutovsky, Emil 1 0 Ragger, Markus 2657
5.2 2614 Durarbayli, Vasif ½ ½ L'Ami, Erwin 2630
5.3 2660 Mamedov, Rauf 1 0 Sandipan, Chanda 2619
5.4 2483 Bajarani, Ulvi ½ ½ Naumann, Alexander 2558
5.5 2615 Guseinov, Gadir 0 1 Andersen, Mads 2470
5.6 2514 Rasulov, Vugar 0 1 Wegerle, Joerg 2435

Only the top 5 matches are shown

SOCAR was able to fullfill prediction and beat Oslo, even though Agdestein somewehat surprisingly beat Topalov. SPB ended up splitting 3-3 against Obiettivo Risarcimento in an usual six draw match.

Meanwhile Beer Sheva drew Malakhite after Shirov lost his game (he has had a horrible tournament thus far with two losses against lower rated players) while Grischuk won a brilliancy against Rodshtein:

[Event "30th ECC Open 2014"] [Site "Bilbao ESP"] [Date "2014.09.16"] [Round "3.3"] [White "Grischuk, Alexander"] [Black "Rodshtein, Maxim"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A07"] [WhiteElo "2789"] [BlackElo "2678"] [PlyCount "43"] [EventDate "2014.09.14"] [WhiteTeam "Malakhite"] [BlackTeam "Beer Sheva"] 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 c6 3. Bg2 Bf5 4. c4 dxc4 5. Na3 e5 6. Nxc4 e4 7. Nfe5 {Already a very unusual game. White's centralized knights are annoying, but at the same time they can be vulnerable to an attack.} Qc7 8. d4 f6 $6 {This probably beings Rodshtein's problems.} 9. Ne3 Be6 10. N5c4 f5 {White's position looks cramped, but in fact after a timely f3 it is Black's underdevelopment that will come into play.} 11. O-O Nf6 12. f3 $1 exf3 13. Rxf3 g6 14. g4 $1 {Why not? Going forward with the attack. Grischuk simply opens up lines.} f4 (14... Nxg4 15. Nxg4 fxg4 16. Re3 {is ugly to say the least.}) 15. g5 Nh5 16. d5 $1 { More powerful play!} cxd5 17. Nxd5 Qc5+ 18. Nce3 $1 {The beautiful point of White's position. d5 is defended and Black's position surprisingly collapses.} fxe3 (18... Bg7 19. b4 $16) (18... Bxd5 19. b4 Qb6 20. Qxd5 $18) 19. b4 Qd6 20. Rxe3 {Rxe6 and Nc7+ is a threat.} Na6 21. Bb2 Bg7 22. Nf6+ {A wonderful victory by Grischuk.} (22. Nf6+ Ke7 23. Qxd6+ Kxd6 24. Rd1+ Ke7 25. Rd7+ Kf8 26. Rxe6 $18) 1-0

The defending champions, Novy Bor, vanquished SK Rockaden without any problems while Odlar Yourdu, a very slight favorite against SG Solingen, was only able to take half a point as both of their bottom boards suffered a loss.

Some of the players have mentioned that the organization would have been of great quality, but they didn't expect or were able to handle so many players. The website has had some technical difficulties as well.

Ladya (right) barely edged out Gros Xake Taldea 3.5-2.5

Standings

Rk ID Team Fed
Games
+
=
-
Pts
1 5 G-Team Novy Bor CZE
3
3
0
0
6
2 1 SOCAR Azerbaijan AZE
3
3
0
0
6
3 9 SG Solingen GER
3
2
1
0
5
4 8 Beer Sheva ISR
3
2
1
0
5
5 3 Malakhite RUS
3
2
1
0
5
6 7 Odlar Yourdu AZE
3
2
1
0
5
7 4 SPB RUS
3
2
1
0
5
8 2 Obiettivo Risarcimento ITA
3
2
1
0
5
9 11 Ladya RUS
3
2
1
0
5
10 12 Gros Xake Taldea ESP
3
2
0
1
4

Round Three Games

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Women's Section

1 Ladya (2) 2.5 1.5 SHSM Nashe Nasledie (8)
1.1 2472 Galliamova, Alisa 1 0 Gunina, Valentina 2540
1.2 2469 Zatonskih, Anna 1 0 Kosteniuk, Alexandra 2543
1.3 2421 Atalik, Ekaterina ½ ½ Girya, Olga 2476
1.4 2401 Zaiatz, Elena 0 1 Kashlinskaya, Alina 2433
2 Rishon Letzion (3) 0 4 Ugra (1)
2.1 2331 Efroimski, Marsel 0 1 Ushenina, Anna 2481
2.2 0 Madivani, Maka 0 1 Kovanova, Baira 2399
2.3 1957 Vardi, Shlomit 0 1 Guseva, Marina 2352
2.4 1937 Federovski, Adi 0 1 Shadrina, Tatiana 2327
3 Batumi Chess Club "Nona" (4) 4 0 Herzliya Chess Club (7)
3.1 2507 Khotenashvili, Bela 1 0 Len, Irina 2133
3.2 2464 Melia, Salome 1 0 Yakovleva, Tatiana 2047
3.3 2426 Batsiashvili, Nino 1 0 Lian, Marina 1871
3.4 2242 Mikadze, Miranda 1 0 Haitovich, Avital 1891
4 Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo (5) 2.5 1.5 SC Bad Konigshofen (6)
4.1 2663 Hou, Yifan ½ ½ Paehtz, Elisabeth 2467
4.2 2551 Muzychuk, Anna ½ ½ Mkrtchian, Lilit 2457
4.3 2540 Lagno, Kateryna ½ ½ Savina, Anastasia 2373
4.4 2430 Skripchenko, Almira 1 0 Schoene, Maria 2261

Despite Gunina's and Kosteniuk's recent string of successes, today it was their losses that cost SHSM the match. Ladya takes it with wins by Galliamova and Zatonskih, while Atalik just had to hold Girya to a draw. Despite Kashlinskaya's effort, SHSM falls to Ladya 2.5-1.5.

Hou Yifan overseeing her teammates' games

Kateryna Lagno (right) struck a crucial blow to China
in the Olympiad by beating Hou Yifan, but now they are teammates!

Both of the Israeli teams got destroyed 4-0, which is not entirely surprising.

Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo finally won a match as Skripchenko took the last board against Schoene. A closer match than the top seeded team would have liked.

SHSM suffered a tough defeat allowing Ladya to
catch up to them, and leaving Nona in clear first

Standings

Rk ID Team Fed
Games
+
=
-
Pts
1 4 Batumi Chess Club "Nona" GEO
3
3
0
0
6
2 1 Ugra RUS
3
2
0
1
4
3 2 Ladya RUS
3
2
0
1
4
4 8 SHSM Nashe Nasledie RUS
3
2
0
1
4
5 6 SC Bad Konigshofen GER
3
1
0
2
2
6 5 Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo MNC
3
1
0
2
2
7 3 Rishon Letzion ISR
3
1
0
2
2
8 7 Herzliya Chess Club ISR
3
0
0
3
0

Round Three Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games. Some games unavailable.

Photos by Manu de Alba from Bilbao's Facebook site

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.

Grandmaster Alejandro Ramirez has been playing tournament chess since 1998. His accomplishments include qualifying for the 2004 and 2013 World Cups as well as playing for Costa Rica in the 2002, 2004 and 2008 Olympiads. He currently has a rating of 2583 and is author of a number of popular and critically acclaimed ChessBase-DVDs.

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