ECC 04: SOCAR, Nona unstoppable

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 Official tournament site All Games in PGN All Women Games in PGN 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.