11/11/2013 – After three rounds of play Czech Republic and France are the only teams with all of their matches won as they vanquished Ukraine and Turkey respectively. In the women's section Armenia swept Poland 3 and now shares the lead with Ukraine and Poland 1. The Russian women took vengeance from yesterday and won 4-0 The Russian men's team did not fare so well.
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Throughout this video course, we will study how to master sacrifices and the initiative in several aspects: opposite-coloured bishops, the bishop pair, the exchange sacrifice, launching an attack, and the good moment to sacrifice will be covered.
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You might remember that there was a similar sounding event that happened only recently, the European Club Championship, but the events are certainly different as the Club Championship allows players from outside Europe to compete while the European Team Championship is a battle between different nations. The ETCC will be held in Warsaw, Poland from November 7th - November 18th. The event is a team swiss played in 11 rounds.
Open Section
The open section finally has two clear leaders. France beat Ukraine when its top two boards produced important wins. Tkachiev's game was 79 moves long but eventually he forced a pawn through and won a very pretty endgame. The Czech Republic brought Turkey back down from the clouds and inflicted an easy 3.5-0.5 defeat on the Russian vanquishers. This puts France and Czech Republic at the top of the leaderboard as no other team has been able to win all of their matches.
The list of teams with 5/6 points (matches count for two points a piece) is rather formidable. Georgia, Greece, Armenia and Azerbaijana are all lurking just half a match point away from the leaders. The obvious team missing is Russia who keeps having dismal results. They drew the admittedly strong team of England and Russia only has 3 points out of 6.
Despite the fact that the following game was not played in round three, it is quite instructive and it is from one of the players themselves! The following is Kotronias' win over Howell from yesterday:
[Event "ETCC ( Open section )"] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.11.10"] [Round "2"] [White "Howell, David"] [Black "Kotronias, Vassilios"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B51"] [WhiteElo "2644"] [BlackElo "2564"] [Annotator "Kotronias Vassilios"] [PlyCount "96"] [EventDate "2013.11.10"] [SourceDate "2013.11.10"] {Playing the young generation has become a very complicated task nowadays; With computer preparation at its heights and positional knowledge being part and parcel of almost every professional's arsenal the prospects of us "old hands" outplaying the ambitious newcomers border on the miraculous. The following game is an exception, and obviously I dont expect David to repeat such an inaccurate opening play anytime soon as he is a serious GM with many trophies under his belt. And actually, the variation he chose is not at all bad, it was probably one or two lapses of concentration that prevented white from displaying this line's full potential. Moving on to team atmosphere, statistics and tradition, I must admit that the positive outcome of my game against David may have been influenced to a certain extent by the good results we have managed to achieve as a team against England in the past few years. A positive factor for us, contriving to repeating success, was undoubtedly the absence of Nigel Short from their line-up, who, in spite of having a rather negative score against Greek players, could have made the difference in such a close match.} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 {David plays the Rossolimo quite often, and has scored an impressive string of victories with it.} d6 {I usually play 3...g6, so I guess he was well prepared for that.} 4. O-O Bd7 5. Re1 Nf6 6. c3 a6 7. Bf1 Bg4 8. d4 $5 {Not one of the main lines, but it certainly contains a great deal of poison for the uninitiated.} cxd4 9. cxd4 d5 (9... e5 $5 {is the other main move, with complex play.}) 10. e5 Nd7 11. h3 $5 {An interesting continuation.} (11. Be3 e6 {is hardly inspiring for White.}) 11... Bxf3 12. Qxf3 Nxd4 $5 {An attempt to mix thing up.} ({Safe and solid is} 12... e6 $1 13. Be3 Qb6 14. Nd2 Rc8 15. Nb3 Bb4 16. Rec1 O-O 17. Qg4 Rfe8 { with just a tiny edge for White. This is my recommendation to Black players actually, as the game should have been a laborious issue for me.}) 13. Qxd5 { Principled.} ({Better, however was} 13. Qd1 $1 {after which I intended} Nc6 ( 13... Ne6 $2 14. Qxd5 Ndc5 15. Nc3 $16 {is better for White in view of his two bishops and lead in development.}) 14. e6 fxe6 15. Nc3 Nf6 16. Rxe6 Kf7 {, thinking I had a good position. The truth is that White keeps some initiative by an inspired exchange sacrifice:} {After} 17. Rxf6+ $1 exf6 18. Nxd5 b5 $1 19. Bd3 $1 {( I had underestimated this move )} ({Simply losing are both} 19. Qb3 $4 Nd4 $19) ({and} 19. a4 $2 Nb4 $19) 19... Bd6 20. Bc2 Re8 {Black should be able to hold the resulting position but White has various tries and over the board the situation is a bit unpleasant. For example,} 21. Be3 (21. Qh5+ Kf8 22. Bh6 $1 Ra7 $1 23. Be3 Rxe3 24. Nxe3 g6 25. Qh6+ Kg8 26. Rd1 Rd7 27. h4 Bf8 28. Rxd7 Bxh6 29. Rxd8+ Nxd8 30. Nd5 Kf7 31. Nc7 Bc1 32. b3 Ba3 33. Nxa6 Bd6 {looks equal}) 21... g6 22. Bb6 Qb8 23. Bb3 Kg7 24. Rc1 Re6 25. Nxf6 $1 Rxf6 26. Rxc6 Bh2+ 27. Kh1 Be5 28. Qd7+ Kh8 29. Bc7 Rxc6 30. Qxc6 Qxc7 31. Qxa8+ Kg7 32. g3 Qe7 $14) 13... Nc2 {Black of course plunges in at the offered opportunity; you dont have often the chance to win a rook nowadays!} 14. e6 $1 fxe6 15. Qxe6 $2 {After this White will be pushed back with gain of time.} (15. Rxe6 $1 Nf6 (15... Qc7 16. Qe4 {(intending Bf4)} Nc5 17. Qxc2 Nxe6 18. Nc3 $44 {is complicated}) 16. Qxb7 Qc8 17. Qb3 $3 Nd4 $1 (17... Nxa1 18. Qa4+ Qd7 19. Rc6 $3 $16 {produces an incredible position that is actually better for White.} ) 18. Qa4+ Qd7 19. Qxd7+ Nxd7 20. Re2 Nxe2+ 21. Bxe2 e5 {would have been an approximately balanced ending.}) 15... Qb6 $1 {Now White has to retreat and Black gradually takes over.} 16. Qe4 $6 ({The more reserved} 16. Qe2 $15 {was better.}) 16... Qc6 $1 $17 {White obviously missed this. Now Black's advantage is serious and I didnt let go in the remainder of the game.} 17. Qe2 Nxe1 $1 { The right rook, in spite of the fact it's not a whole rook! I didnt want to leave White with many pieces pointing at my King.} 18. Qxe1 e5 19. Nc3 Bc5 20. Ne4 Bd4 {Here I felt quite safe with my bishop anchored on the nice square d4.} 21. Bg5 O-O 22. Rc1 Nc5 $1 {This is why it is instrumental to have the Queen on c6 as now the pressure on e4 and f2 forces exchanges favourable for Black.} 23. Nxc5 Bxc5 (23... Bxf2+ $5 24. Qxf2 Rxf2 25. Kxf2 Qb6 26. b3 Qg6 27. Be3 Rf8+ $1 28. Ke1 $1 (28. Kg1 $4 Qg3 $19) 28... h6 $17 {was also good, but less human.}) 24. Bh4 (24. b4 $4 Bxf2+ 25. Qxf2 Rxf2 26. Rxc6 Rxf1+ $19 {is out of the question.}) (24. Be3 Bxe3 25. Qxe3 (25. Rxc6 Bxf2+ 26. Qxf2 Rxf2 $19) 25... Qd6 $19 {would have been hopeless.}) 24... Qb6 25. Rc2 Bd4 26. b3 $2 {White drifts to a hopeless position. The last thing to consider in such cases is a defence of a worthless pawn.} (26. Bd3 $8 {was the only move to offer some practical chances, although after} g6 27. Bc4+ Kg7 $17 {Black should gradually prevail.}) 26... Qg6 $1 $19 {I was very pleased to control e4, as that practically guaranteed pushing my pawn to that square next move, cutting the White defences in two.} 27. Qc1 e4 28. Rc4 Bb6 29. Be2 Qf5 30. Qe1 Rae8 31. Bg3 h5 32. a4 Re6 $1 {Black has raging pressure on f2; The game has been decided.} 33. Rb4 Rg6 34. Bc4+ Kh8 35. Rxb6 Rxb6 36. Qe3 Rg6 37. Kh2 Rxg3 $1 {The best practical choice; The resulting ending holds no chances of salvation for White. } 38. fxg3 h4 $1 39. gxh4 Qf4+ 40. Qxf4 Rxf4 41. Kg3 Rf5 42. h5 {Trying to stop ...g6 followed by ...Kg7 but Black does not necessarily need his King in this ending.} b5 $1 43. axb5 axb5 44. Be2 b4 45. Bc4 Rc5 $1 46. Be2 (46. Be6 e3 47. Bg4 Rc3 48. Be6 e2+ 49. Kf2 Re3 $19) 46... Rc3+ 47. Kf4 e3 48. Bd1 Rxb3 { White resigned.} 0-1
Giri was unable to win today against Israel's top board, and the Israeli team surprisingly beat the Netherlands 2.5-1.5. This is mainly surprising because Israel has none of their top players.
Aronian's 2788 performance is "not bad". Armenia is in the follower pack with 5 out of 6 points.
L'Ami, rated 2648 from the Netherlands
Vallejo Pons' Spanish team had a tough round and they fell to Hungary's power 3-1
Bo.
3
FRANCE
Rtg
-
4
UKRAINE
Rtg
3 : 1
1.1
GM
BACROT, Etienne
2749
-
GM
ARESHCHENKO, Alexander
2720
½ - ½
1.2
GM
VACHIER-LAGRAVE, Maxime
2742
-
GM
VOLOKITIN, Andrei
2682
½ - ½
1.3
GM
EDOUARD, Romain
2653
-
GM
EFIMENKO, Zahar
2657
1 - 0
1.4
GM
TKACHIEV, Vladislav
2637
-
GM
MOISEENKO, Alexander
2709
1 - 0
Bo.
9
CZECH REPUBLIC
Rtg
-
18
TURKEY
Rtg
3½: ½
2.1
GM
NAVARA, David
2705
-
GM
SOLAK, Dragan
2618
1 - 0
2.2
GM
LAZNICKA, Viktor
2677
-
GM
IPATOV, Alexander
2630
½ - ½
2.3
GM
HRACEK, Zbynek
2638
-
GM
ESEN, Baris
2565
1 - 0
2.4
GM
BABULA, Vlastimil
2574
-
GM
YILMAZ, Mustafa
2577
1 - 0
Bo.
19
ROMANIA
Rtg
-
15
GREECE
Rtg
2 : 2
3.1
GM
LUPULESCU, Constantin
2630
-
GM
BANIKAS, Hristos
2633
½ - ½
3.2
GM
JIANU, Vlad-Cristian
2565
-
GM
PAPAIOANNOU, Ioannis
2639
0 - 1
3.3
GM
PARLIGRAS, Mircea-Emilian
2576
-
GM
MASTROVASILIS, Dimitrios
2589
½ - ½
3.4
GM
NEVEDNICHY, Vladislav
2590
-
GM
HALKIAS, Stelios
2555
1 - 0
Bo.
2
ARMENIA
Rtg
-
27
AUSTRIA
Rtg
2½:1½
4.1
GM
ARONIAN, Levon
2801
-
GM
RAGGER, Markus
2672
½ - ½
4.2
GM
MOVSESIAN, Sergei
2700
-
GM
SHENGELIA, David
2543
½ - ½
4.3
GM
SARGISSIAN, Gabriel
2676
-
IM
KREISL, Robert
2410
1 - 0
4.4
GM
PETROSIAN, Tigran L.
2660
-
IM
SCHREINER, Peter
2452
½ - ½
Bo.
12
POLAND
Rtg
-
6
AZERBAIJAN
Rtg
1½:2½
5.1
GM
SOCKO, Bartosz
2661
-
GM
MAMEDYAROV, Shakhriyar
2757
0 - 1
5.2
GM
SWIERCZ, Dariusz
2627
-
GM
RADJABOV, Teimour
2715
0 - 1
5.3
GM
BARTEL, Mateusz
2626
-
GM
MAMEDOV, Rauf
2647
1 - 0
5.4
GM
MITON, Kamil
2597
-
GM
GUSEINOV, Gadir
2607
½ - ½
Bo.
7
HUNGARY
Rtg
-
11
SPAIN
Rtg
3 : 1
6.1
GM
ERDOS, Viktor
2658
-
GM
VALLEJO PONS, Francisco
2705
½ - ½
6.2
GM
BALOGH, Csaba
2630
-
GM
SALGADO LOPEZ, Ivan
2610
1 - 0
6.3
GM
ALMASI, Zoltan
2710
-
GM
KORNEEV, Oleg
2637
1 - 0
6.4
GM
POLGAR, Judit
2689
-
GM
VAZQUEZ IGARZA, Renier
2588
½ - ½
Bo.
14
GEORGIA
Rtg
-
10
GERMANY
Rtg
2½:1½
7.1
GM
JOBAVA, Baadur
2695
-
GM
MEIER, Georg
2623
1 - 0
7.2
GM
MCHEDLISHVILI, Mikheil
2631
-
GM
KHENKIN, Igor
2612
½ - ½
7.3
GM
PANTSULAIA, Levan
2595
-
GM
BARAMIDZE, David
2614
1 - 0
7.4
IM
NIGALIDZE, Gaioz
2494
-
GM
FRIDMAN, Daniel
2600
0 - 1
Bo.
1
RUSSIA
Rtg
-
5
ENGLAND
Rtg
2 : 2
8.1
GM
GRISCHUK, Alexander
2785
-
GM
ADAMS, Michael
2752
½ - ½
8.2
GM
SVIDLER, Peter
2752
-
GM
MCSHANE, Luke J
2696
1 - 0
8.3
GM
ANDREIKIN, Dmitry
2710
-
GM
SHORT, Nigel D
2680
½ - ½
8.4
GM
MOROZEVICH, Alexander
2727
-
GM
JONES, Gawain C B
2648
0 - 1
Bo.
29
ISRAEL
Rtg
-
8
NETHERLANDS
Rtg
2½:1½
9.1
GM
POPILSKI, Gil
2483
-
GM
GIRI, Anish
2732
½ - ½
9.2
IM
RAZNIKOV, Danny
2481
-
GM
SOKOLOV, Ivan
2625
½ - ½
9.3
GM
BARON, Tal
2487
-
GM
L'AMI, Erwin
2648
½ - ½
9.4
IM
BORUCHOVSKY, Avital
2472
-
GM
SMEETS, Jan
2620
1 - 0
Bo.
22
SLOVENIA
Rtg
-
13
ITALY
Rtg
2 : 2
10.1
GM
LENIC, Luka
2637
-
GM
CARUANA, Fabiano
2782
1 - 0
10.2
GM
SKOBERNE, Jure
2573
-
GM
BRUNELLO, Sabino
2615
½ - ½
10.3
GM
BORISEK, Jure
2555
-
GM
GODENA, Michele
2501
½ - ½
10.4
GM
TRATAR, Marko
2494
-
GM
ROMBALDONI, Axel
2530
0 - 1
Bo.
16
CROATIA
Rtg
-
23
POLAND FUTURES
Rtg
3 : 1
11.1
GM
SARIC, Ivan
2628
-
GM
DUDA, Jan-Krzysztof
2542
½ - ½
11.2
GM
STEVIC, Hrvoje
2611
-
GM
DRAGUN, Kamil
2543
1 - 0
11.3
GM
PALAC, Mladen
2571
-
GM
TOMCZAK, Jacek
2581
1 - 0
11.4
GM
BRKIC, Ante
2580
-
GM
PIORUN, Kacper
2555
½ - ½
Bo.
26
DENMARK
Rtg
-
17
BELARUS
Rtg
1 : 3
12.1
GM
HANSEN, Sune Berg
2563
-
GM
ZHIGALKO, Sergei
2694
½ - ½
12.2
GM
PALO, Davor
2553
-
GM
ZHIGALKO, Andrey
2619
½ - ½
12.3
GM
RASMUSSEN, Allan Stig
2486
-
GM
TETEREV, Vitaly
2501
0 - 1
12.4
IM
ANDERSEN, Mads
2499
-
GM
STUPAK, Kirill
2494
0 - 1
Bo.
28
ICELAND
Rtg
-
24
POLAND GOLDIES
Rtg
1½:2½
13.1
GM
STEFANSSON, Hannes
2539
-
GM
TAZBIR, Marcin
2555
½ - ½
13.2
IM
GRETARSSON, Hjorvar Steinn
2511
-
GM
BULSKI, Krzysztof
2538
0 - 1
13.3
GM
DANIELSEN, Henrik
2502
-
GM
GDANSKI, Jacek
2518
0 - 1
13.4
IM
KJARTANSSON, Gudmundur
2455
-
IM
MASTERNAK, Grzegorz
2333
1 - 0
Bo.
20
SERBIA
Rtg
-
25
SWEDEN
Rtg
3½: ½
14.1
GM
IVANISEVIC, Ivan
2619
-
GM
GRANDELIUS, Nils
2557
½ - ½
14.2
GM
PERUNOVIC, Milos
2613
-
GM
TIKKANEN, Hans
2544
1 - 0
14.3
GM
DAMLJANOVIC, Branko
2569
-
GM
BERG, Emanuel
2547
1 - 0
14.4
GM
INDJIC, Aleksandar
2534
-
GM
BLOMQVIST, Erik
2508
1 - 0
Bo.
32
FINLAND
Rtg
-
21
BULGARIA
Rtg
½ :3½
15.1
GM
NYBACK, Tomi
2586
-
GM
RUSEV, Krasimir
2539
0 - 1
15.2
IM
KARTTUNEN, Mika
2440
-
GM
PETKOV, Vladimir
2570
0 - 1
15.3
IM
AGOPOV, Mikael
2435
-
GM
ARNAUDOV, G. Petar
2448
0 - 1
15.4
FM
EBELING, Daniel
2365
-
IM
DIMITROV, Radoslav
2445
½ - ½
Bo.
30
MONTENEGRO
Rtg
-
37
SCOTLAND
Rtg
3 : 1
16.1
GM
DJUKIC, Nikola
2543
-
FM
MORRISON, Graham
2351
1 - 0
16.2
GM
BLAGOJEVIC, Dragisa
2524
-
FM
TATE, Alan
2299
0 - 1
16.3
GM
DRASKO, Milan
2447
-
GRANT, Jonathan I M
2257
1 - 0
16.4
GM
KOSIC, Dragan
2504
-
MINNICAN, Alan
2135
1 - 0
Bo.
36
NORWAY
Rtg
-
31
SWITZERLAND
Rtg
1½:2½
17.1
IM
TARI, Aryan
2420
-
GM
PELLETIER, Yannick
2575
½ - ½
17.2
HAUGE, Lars Oskar
2301
-
GM
GALLAGHER, Joseph G.
2504
0 - 1
17.3
FM
HOLM, Kristian Stuvik
2281
-
IM
KURMANN, Oliver
2424
½ - ½
17.4
SALOMON, Johan
2246
-
IM
FORSTER, Richard
2452
½ - ½
Bo.
38
WALES
Rtg
-
33
BELGIUM
Rtg
0 : 4
18.1
IM
JONES, Richard S.
2435
-
IM
MICHIELS, Bart
2506
0 - 1
18.2
FM
VARLEY, Peter
2251
-
IM
RINGOIR, Tanguy
2514
0 - 1
18.3
HEWITT, William
2061
-
IM
DOCX, Stefan
2488
0 - 1
18.4
PLEASANTS, Allan J
2027
-
IM
SOORS, Stef
2404
0 - 1
Bo.
34
LITHUANIA
Rtg
-
35
FYR MACEDONIA
Rtg
4 : 0
19.1
GM
ZAGORSKIS, Darius
2480
-
IM
PANCEVSKI, Filip
2478
1 - 0
19.2
IM
BEINORAS, Mindaugas
2389
-
GM
BOGDANOVSKI, Vlatko
2459
1 - 0
19.3
LAURUSAS, Tomas
2409
-
IM
KIZOV, Atanas
2413
1 - 0
19.4
FM
VEDRICKAS, Tautvydas
2305
-
GM
STANOJOSKI, Zvonko
2417
1 - 0
Replay open games of round 3
Women's Section
The Russian team: crying or laughing, you can decide
Russia was at least able to take some vengeance from yesterday's game as they annihilated a weak Austrain team who besides their first board, IM Eva Moser, is not really a threat to Russia. On the top boards Ukraine showed their strength by beating France as Ushenina and Muzychuk took out Milliet and Maisuradze. Armenia smashed Poland 3, which is strong in its own right. Poland (Poland 1?) barely beat Romania but it is enough for them to share first place. Israel continues surprising as they held Georgia to a draw.
In a somewhat strange pairing Ukraine, despite having won all their matches and being the highest rated team will move down to board two to face Israel, while Poland and Armenia will battle out on who stays on top of the leaderboard.
A sad but necessary mention is team England's showing, which despite being a decent enough team for the competition has not managed to score a single half or full point in any of its games. This has caused a little bit of a stir in the English online chess forums...
Kosteniuk has played two games and won them both
Eva Moser is by far and away Austria's best woman, but she wasn't quite high enough to challenge Gunina today
L'Ami, rated 2361 from Romania
Danielian helped her team smash Poland 3 and they are one of the leaders
Most players prefer to attack rather than defend. But what is the correct way to do it? GM Dr Karsten Müller has compiled many rules and motifs to guide you, along with sharpening your intuition for the exceptions.
Videos: Caro-Kann with 2.Nf3 d5 3,d3 by Christian Bauer and Saemisch Benoni by David Navara. "Lucky bag" with 45 annotated games - analyses by Anish Giri, Alexander Motylev, Romain Edouard et al. Update service with 43,000 new games.
Looking for some action against the Ruy Lopez? The Delayed Jaenisch, arising from the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 f5, will be your choice from now on!
2nd Move Anti-Sicilian Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 10131 games from Mega 2023 or the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 847 are annotated.
In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.
Start of the Bundesliga season 22/23 with analyses by Eljanov, Van Wely, McShane, l'Ami and many others. "Special" on Mikhail Tal, opening videos by Ponomariov, King and Marin. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
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