ECC 04: SOCAR, Nona unstoppable

by Alejandro Ramirez
9/18/2014 – In the Open section SOCAR took sweet revenge from last year's match-up against Novy Bor and took a comfortable 4-2 victory, with victories by Topalov, Giri and Radjabov. They face Obiettivo Risarcimento in a thrilling fifth round. Things are going smoothly for Batumi's Nona in the Women's section as they edged out Ugra with a 2.5-1.5 vital victory. Both teams now lead alone.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

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.

Tha 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 2 G-Team Novy Bor (5)
1.1 2756 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar ½ ½ Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2736
1.2 2784 Topalov, Veselin 1 0 Navara, David 2722
1.3 2752 Adams, Michael ½ ½ Harikrishna, P. 2725
1.4 2758 Giri, Anish 1 0 Laznicka, Viktor 2675
1.5 2717 Radjabov, Teimour 1 0 Sasikiran, Krishnan 2680
1.6 2730 Wang, Hao 0 1 Bartel, Mateusz 2636
2 Obiettivo Risarcimento (2) 4.5 1.5 Beer Sheva (8)
2.1 2801 Caruana, Fabiano 1 0 Roiz, Michael 2579
2.2 2782 Nakamura, Hikaru 1 0 Rodshtein, Maxim 2678
2.3 2768 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime ½ ½ Postny, Evgeny 2641
2.4 2729 Bacrot, Etienne 1 0 Greenfeld, Alon 2551
2.5 2626 Georgiev, Kiril ½ ½ Huzman, Alexander 2573
2.6 2585 Vocaturo, Daniele ½ ½ Khmelniker, Ilya 2495
3 Malakhite (3) 4 2 SPB (4)
3.1 2777 Karjakin, Sergey ½ ½ Svidler, Peter 2732
3.2 2789 Grischuk, Alexander 1 0 Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2755
3.3 2734 Leko, Peter ½ ½ Vitiugov, Nikita 2742
3.4 2696 Malakhov, Vladimir 1 0 Movsesian, Sergei 2663
3.5 2684 Lysyj, Igor ½ ½ Efimenko, Zahar 2641
3.6 2648 Bologan, Viktor ½ ½ Khairullin, Ildar 2638
4 Ladya (11) 3.5 2.5 SG Solingen (9)
4.1 2681 Kamsky, Gata 1 0 Ragger, Markus 2657
4.2 2598 Timofeev, Artyom ½ ½ L'Ami, Erwin 2630
4.3 2544 Ibragimov, Ildar ½ ½ Sandipan, Chanda 2619
4.4 2410 Makhmutov, Rail ½ ½ Naumann, Alexander 2558
4.5 2351 Sadykov, Ramil ½ ½ Andersen, Mads 2470
4.6 2344 Faizrakhmanov, Ramil ½ ½ Wegerle, Joerg 2435
5 Gros Xake Taldea (12) 2 4 Odlar Yourdu (7)
5.1 2715 Naiditsch, Arkadij 0 1 Sutovsky, Emil 2632
5.2 2650 Van Wely, Loek 1 0 Durarbayli, Vasif 2614
5.3 2471 Franco Alonso, Alejandro 0 1 Mamedov, Rauf 2660
5.4 2450 Gonzalez De La Torre, Santiago ½ ½ Bajarani, Ulvi 2483
5.5 2434 Argandona Riveiro, Inigo ½ ½ Abasov, Nijat 2527
5.6 2298 Martin Alvarez, Inigo 0 1 Mamedov, Nidjat 2624

Only the top 5 matches are shown

SOCAR was able to vanquish the defending champions without too may issues. Radjabov and Giri basically won out of the opening, while Topalov beat Navara in a long endgame. Despite Bartel's efforts SOCAR beat Novy Bor 4-2.

Obiettivo Risarcimento also had no problems in their match. Caruana continues his crushing streak and is now only 25 rating points away from the World Champion. Nakamura beat Rodsthein in another long endgame, a much needed win for the American who won with his usual persistence. 4.5-1.5 for the Italian team.

Round four under way

The Russian duel favored Malakhite as both Dominguez and Movsesian, playing with White, underestimated how dangerous the heavy piece endgames were for them. Grischuk and Malakhov took advantage of this perfectly and those two wins gave Malakhite the win over SPB. Grischuk passes Aronian in the live rating list, and for the first time in a long time Aronian is fourth in the live rating list.

Giri won without problems against Laznicka

Tomorrow's match between SOCAR and Obiettivo is definitely a must see.

Rk ID Team Fed
Games
+
=
-
Pts
1 1 SOCAR Azerbaijan AZE
4
4
0
0
8
2 2 Obiettivo Risarcimento ITA
4
3
1
0
7
3 3 Malakhite RUS
4
3
1
0
7
4 7 Odlar Yourdu AZE
4
3
1
0
7
5 11 Ladya RUS
4
3
1
0
7
6 5 G-Team Novy Bor CZE
4
3
0
1
6
7 6 SHSM Nashe Nasledie RUS
4
3
0
1
6
8 14 SK Hohenems AUT
4
2
2
0
6
9 21 Huginn Chessclub ISL
4
3
0
1
6
10 13 Haladas VSE HUN
4
3
0
1
6

Round Four Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Women's Section

1 SHSM Nashe Nasledie (8) 2 2 SC Bad Konigshofen (6)
1.1 2540 Gunina, Valentina ½ ½ Paehtz, Elisabeth 2467
1.2 2543 Kosteniuk, Alexandra ½ ½ Mkrtchian, Lilit 2457
1.3 2476 Girya, Olga 0 1 Savina, Anastasia 2373
1.4 2431 Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1 0 Schoene, Maria 2261
2 Herzliya Chess Club (7) 0 4 Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo (5)
2.1 2133 Len, Irina 0 1 Muzychuk, Anna 2551
2.2 2047 Yakovleva, Tatiana 0 1 Lagno, Kateryna 2540
2.3 1871 Lian, Marina 0 1 Cramling, Pia 2516
2.4 1891 Haitovich, Avital 0 1 Skripchenko, Almira 2430
3 Ugra (1) 1.5 2.5 Batumi Chess Club "Nona" (4)
3.1 2481 Ushenina, Anna 0 1 Dzagnidze, Nana 2566
3.2 2482 Pogonina, Natalija 0 1 Khotenashvili, Bela 2507
3.3 2399 Kovanova, Baira 1 0 Melia, Salome 2464
3.4 2352 Guseva, Marina ½ ½ Batsiashvili, Nino 2426
4 Ladya (2) 3.5 0.5 Rishon Letzion (3)
4.1 2472 Galliamova, Alisa 1 0 Efroimski, Marsel 2331
4.2 2469 Zatonskih, Anna 1 0 Madivani, Maka 0
4.3 2421 Atalik, Ekaterina ½ ½ Vardi, Shlomit 1957
4.4 2401 Zaiatz, Elena 1 0 Federovski, Adi 1937

SHSM lost an important half match point by only drawing SC Bad Konigshofen, who were not big underdogs but were outrated by almost 100 points in every board. The match of the day certainly was Ugra-Nona, and the Russian team needed to win to keep pace. However it was Nona that struck the blow! With wins by Dzagnidze and Khotenashvili over Ushenina and Pogonina, all it took was a draw in the last round for the Georgian team to secure their fourth match win in a row.

The two Israeli teams were, again, annihilated, though Rishon Letzion did save half a game point with a draw by Vardi against Atalik.

Standings

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

Round Four 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.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register