ECC 07: Two perfect scores

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)	3.5	2.5	SPB (4)
1.1	2784	Topalov, Veselin	1	0	Svidler, Peter	2732
1.2	2758	Giri, Anish	½	½	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	2755
1.3	2717	Radjabov, Teimour	½	½	Vitiugov, Nikita	2742
1.4	2730	Wang, Hao	½	½	Movsesian, Sergei	2663
1.5	2673	Korobov, Anton	½	½	Matlakov, Maxim	2694
1.6	2655	Safarli, Eltaj	½	½	Efimenko, Zahar	2641
2		G-Team Novy Bor (5)	4.5	1.5	SHSM Nashe Nasledie (6)
2.1	2736	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	½	½	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	2710
2.2	2722	Navara, David	1	0	Morozevich, Alexander	2731
2.3	2725	Harikrishna, P.	1	0	Dreev, Aleksey	2662
2.4	2675	Laznicka, Viktor	½	½	Grachev, Boris	2673
2.5	2680	Sasikiran, Krishnan	1	0	Najer, Evgeniy	2646
2.6	2638	Hracek, Zbynek	½	½	Dubov, Daniil	2614
3		Obiettivo Risarcimento (2)	1.5	4.5	Malakhite (3)
3.1	2801	Caruana, Fabiano	½	½	Karjakin, Sergey	2777
3.2	2782	Nakamura, Hikaru	½	½	Grischuk, Alexander	2789
3.3	2768	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	0	1	Leko, Peter	2734
3.4	2729	Bacrot, Etienne	0	1	Shirov, Alexei	2701
3.5	2712	Fressinet, Laurent	½	½	Motylev, Alexander	2686
3.6	2626	Georgiev, Kiril	0	1	Lysyj, Igor	2684
4		En Passant (29)	0.5	5.5	Odlar Yourdu (7)
4.1	2528	Nijboer, Friso	0	1	Durarbayli, Vasif	2614
4.2	2424	Bosboom, Manuel	½	½	Mamedov, Rauf	2660
4.3	2382	Vedder, Henk	0	1	Bajarani, Ulvi	2483
4.4	2392	Peng, Zhaoqin	0	1	Guseinov, Gadir	2615
4.5	2286	Vedder, Richard	0	1	Abasov, Nijat	2527
4.6	2205	De Graaf, Dick	0	1	Mamedov, Nidjat	2624
5		SG Solingen (9)	4.5	1.5	Haladas VSE (13)
5.1	2657	Ragger, Markus	1	0	Ruck, Robert	2572
5.2	2630	L'Ami, Erwin	½	½	Nemeth, Miklos	2494
5.3	2619	Sandipan, Chanda	½	½	Kovacs, Gabor	2463
5.4	2470	Andersen, Mads	1	0	Nagy, Gabor	2414
5.5	2435	Wegerle, Joerg	½	½	Csonka, Attila Istvan	2339
5.6	2401	Schaefer, Markus	1	0	Pergel, Laszlo	2241

Only the top 5 matches are shown

A lone win by Topalov, who has his third great result in a tournament in a row, gave the win to SOCAR over SPB. The game could have ended in a draw but Svidler completely miscalculated the opposite colored bishop endgame. The move 43...Kg7 would probably have held the game, simply going toward the center, but instead he chose to solidify his h-pawn with h4 and that lost a crucial tempo. The rest of the games were hard fought draws.

Radjabov-Vitiugov was one of the five draws in SOCAR-SPB

Novy Bor beat SHSM by quite a margin, 4.5-1.5. Morozevich lost a position in which he was simply clearly better against Navara and the same happened to Dreev against Harikrishna. A series of mistakes of Najer against Sasikirian put the nail in the coffin for SHSM.

Giri gained four places in the live rating list and is now seventh in the world!

Malakhite took full advantage of these results as they had a great match against Obiettivo Risarcimento. With draws on the first two boards between Caruana-Karjakin and Grischuk-Nakamura, Malakhite struck a win in both MVL-Leko and Shirov-Bacrot with very good display of technique. Lysyj made it look easy against Georgiev and that gave the Russian team a great 4.5-1.5 victory, allowing them to clinch third.

Most teams had identifying shirts or uniforms

Topalov looking at Caruana-Karjakin from Obiettivo vs. Malakhite

Final Standings

Rk	ID	Team	Fed		Games	+	=	-	Pts	MatPnt	SB1_MG	GamPnt
1	1	SOCAR Azerbaijan	AZE		7	7	0	0	14	14	265.5	31
2	5	G-Team Novy Bor	CZE		7	6	0	1	12	12	233	32
3	3	Malakhite	RUS		7	5	1	1	11	11	197.5	25.5
4	7	Odlar Yourdu	AZE		7	4	2	1	10	10	206.5	28
5	9	SG Solingen	GER		7	4	2	1	10	10	181	27
6	6	SHSM Nashe Nasledie	RUS		7	5	0	2	10	10	178	27.5
7	15	Minsk	BLR		7	5	0	2	10	10	176.5	26
8	11	Ladya	RUS		7	4	2	1	10	10	164	24
9	4	SPB	RUS		7	4	1	2	9	9	203	25.5
10	2	Obiettivo Risarcimento	ITA		7	4	1	2	9	9	191	26.5

Round Seven Games

Select from the dropdown menu to replay the games

Women's Section

1		Batumi Chess Club "Nona" (4)	2.5	1.5	SHSM Nashe Nasledie (8)
1.1	2566	Dzagnidze, Nana	1	0	Gunina, Valentina	2540
1.2	2507	Khotenashvili, Bela	½	½	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	2543
1.3	2464	Melia, Salome	1	0	Girya, Olga	2476
1.4	2426	Batsiashvili, Nino	0	1	Kashlinskaya, Alina	2433
2		Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo (5)	3	1	Rishon Letzion (3)
2.1	2663	Hou, Yifan	1	0	Efroimski, Marsel	2331
2.2	2540	Lagno, Kateryna	1	0	Madivani, Maka	0
2.3	2516	Cramling, Pia	1	0	Vardi, Shlomit	1957
2.4	2430	Skripchenko, Almira	0	1	Federovski, Adi	1937
3		SC Bad Konigshofen (6)	2.5	1.5	Ladya (2)
3.1	2467	Paehtz, Elisabeth	1	0	Galliamova, Alisa	2472
3.2	2457	Mkrtchian, Lilit	½	½	Zatonskih, Anna	2469
3.3	2373	Savina, Anastasia	1	0	Atalik, Ekaterina	2421
3.4	2261	Schoene, Maria	0	1	Zaiatz, Elena	2401
4		Herzliya Chess Club (7)	0	4	Ugra (1)
4.1	2133	Len, Irina	0	1	Pogonina, Natalija	2482
4.2	2047	Yakovleva, Tatiana	0	1	Kovanova, Baira	2399
4.3	1871	Lian, Marina	0	1	Guseva, Marina	2352
4.4	1891	Haitovich, Avital	0	1	Shadrina, Tatiana	2327

Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo won handedly against Rishon Letzion, despite a big upset on board four where Skripchenko lost to Federovski. The German team of SC Bd Kongshofen finished with a nice last round surprise against Ladya while Ugra, as usual, overwhelmed Herzliya Chess Club.

The match of the day was certainly between Nona and SHSM. The Russian team had to win to secure second while a draw would let the second place be decided by tiebreaks. At the end this would be irrelevant as Nona took yet another win and convincingly won the tournament by vanquishing every single one of their opponents. An amazing performance from the Georgian team who very deservedly take the title.

Valentina Gunina strolling by the top Open section boards

Rishon Letzion won one match (against Herzliya) and obtained 4.5 game points

Ugra didn't have quite enough points to debunk SHSM from third

Kateryna Lagno was not in her best shape this tournament. Here she is overlooking Paehtz vs. Galliamova, a game that ended in favor of the German player.

Dzagnidze's amazing 2737 performance was a big reason for Nona's victory. However she was still 12 performance rating poitns behind Hou Yifan, who took best first board.

Melia Salome also had a good event

Winners! Nona Chess Club from Georgia

Final Standings

Rk	ID	Team	Fed		Games	+	=	-	Pts	MatPnt	SB1_MG	GamPnt
1	4	Batumi Chess Club "Nona"	GEO		7	7	0	0	14	14	108	20.5
2	5	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	MNC		7	5	0	2	10	10	104	19
3	8	SHSM Nashe Nasledie	RUS		7	4	1	2	9	9	97	18
4	1	Ugra	RUS		7	4	0	3	8	8	83.5	17
5	6	SC Bad Konigshofen	GER		7	3	1	3	7	7	84	16
6	2	Ladya	RUS		7	3	0	4	6	6	83	15.5
7	3	Rishon Letzion	ISR		7	1	0	6	2	2	16.5	4.5
8	7	Herzliya Chess Club	ISR		7	0	0	7	0	0	0	1.5

Round Seven 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.