ETCC R06: Things heating up in Reykjavik

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ETCC R06: Things heating up in Reykjavik

In all our previous reports on the European Team Championships we covered the Open section first and only then wrote about the women tournament. Today we break the ritual and give you a detailed account about what happened in the top board clash in the women’s section between Russia and Ukraine. This was perhaps the most crucial match of the entire tournament. The Russian women’s team had been leading the event with a perfect 10.0/10. Close on their heels were the Ukrainian and Georgian teams with 8.0/10. Russia had already defeated Georgia in the fourth round. If there was any team who could have stopped the Russians it had to be the Ukrainians. This is how the pairing looked:

The World Champion played a flawless game to demolish Alexandra Kosteniuk

Mariya Muzychuk came to the board in a fighting mood. This was clearly shown as she essayed the Trompowsky. The aggressive position soon resulted in a complicated queenless middlegame.

Mariya Muzychuk – Alexandra Kosteniuk, round six

Black is very close to equality but only one move can help her achieve that. Can you find it?

With Kosteniuk’s loss, Russians were in trouble…

….but Kateryna Lagno made sure that the Ukrainians didn’t
run away with the match, by beating Anna Muzychuk

The game began with the Panov Botvinnik attack in the Caro Kann. It seemed like Anna with the black pieces had equalized out of the opening, but she still had to solve some micro problems. A crucial position was reached after White’s 21st move.

Kateryna Lagno – Anna Muzychuk, round six

This is an excellent position for training your prophylactic thinking. It’s Black to play.

If Anna had asked herself the question: what exactly is my opponent threatening here, she would have realized that it is the move c4-c5!, putting a lot of pressure on Black’s position. Hence it was imperative to break with 21…e5! Instead she played the toothless 21…g6?! and after 22.c5! White already had a huge advantage.

Natalia Zhukova won her game against Valentina Gunina with absolute ease on the third board

Zhukova would not have expected to beat one of the strongest players in the women chess so effortlessly. For Gunina things started to spiral downwards right out of the opening.

Natalia Zhukova – Valentina Gunina, round six

This is a very common position in the e3 Queen’s Indian.
It’s Black to move. What is wrong with the natural 7…0-0?!

Recently in the European Club Cup, the same position was reached between Vladimir Kramnik versus Veselin Topalov. Of course, Topalov knew that it was important to play 7…cxd4 8.exd4 d5! Although he lost that game it had nothing to do with the opening. Gunina instead played 7…0-0. This meant that Zhukova could push on with 8.d5! and Black got a very bad verison of the Benoni. The rest of the game was perfect milking of the opening advantage by Zhukova. She never really went wrong and brought home the advantage with smooth play.

If the Ukrainians managed to get a half point in the last board encounter between Alexandra Goryachkina and Anna Ushenina they would have won the match. However the young and talented Russian women’s Champion would not cooperate.

Alexandra Goryachkina won her game and ensured that the match was tied 2:2

The opening was a slow Slav. It was just the kind of positions that Goryachkina loves to play – slow and positional game with the opportunity to change gears at any moment. After the opening Black (Ushenina) had a solid but passive position. The players kept moving their pieces here and there for some time, but at the right moment Goryachkina pushed her pawn b4-b5. Ushenina seemed mentally unprepared for this breakthrough, played poorly and lost the game.

The tense and well balanced match ended in a draw. This means that the Russians keep their lead with a score of 11.0/12 match points. The Georgia team was able to win their match against France 2.5:1.5. They are now in the sole second spot with 10.0/12. But it looks highly unlikely that they would be able to catch Russia, now that the Russian team has played with almost all the strong opponents. By that same logic Georgia too seems to be the favourite to win silver and Ukraine will in all probability crush all the competition to win bronze. Anything can happen in these last three rounds, but there is good probability that things will pan out exactly as mentioned above.

Team pairings and results of round six

Full board results of round six + Rankings

Open Section

In the open section things are much more unpredictable as there are a lot of strong teams in the fray. Russia, however, seems untouchable as they defeated Georgia with a margin of 2.5:1.5. It was an exciting match with both sides exchanging punches. The top board clash between two good friends Baadur Jobava and Alexander Grischuk ended in a draw.

Baadur Jobava – Alexander Grischuk, round six

The above position arising out of the English Opening is quite a common one with
30 games played on it. However, we can always bank on Baadur to find a new move!

Baadur played the logical 9.Bf4!? and it turned out to be a novelty. It didn’t change the character of the position by much and the game ended in a draw after some more moves.

Novelties are a very common occurrence in Jobava’s games!

This was the only peaceful game of the match. On the second board Evgeny Tomashevsky once again proved what a fantastic attacker he is by beating Mikheil Mchedlishvili. Tomashevsky has recently played many such attacking games which are of great instructive value and worth going over. What he usually does is the following: play openings where he can build a strong center, get his knight on a central square, push a kingside pawn (most of the times h2-h4), swing the rook over via a rook lift, let the queen join in, and now for the difficult part: calculate all the variations accurately and closes off the game!

Master of building up attacks – Evgeny Tomashevsky

Levan Pantsulaia played a fine positional game to beat Ian Nepomniachtchi

Dmitry Jakovenko closed the match in Russia’s favour by beating Luka Paichadze

France continued their strong run in the tournament by beating the Ukrainians 2.5:1.5. With this win they are in the sole second spot with 10.0/11. The hero of the match was Laurent Fressinet who was able to beat Pavel Eljanov from the white side of the Berlin Wall. This tournament has been some sort of a downfall for the adherents of the Berlin. Black has lost many games in this event. But in the game between Laurent Fressinet and Pavel Eljanov, the result had nothing to do with the opening. Black got a fine position, even an edge, only to blunder towards the end and lose.

Laurent Fressinet – Pavel Eljanov, round six

After some inaccuracies Black has landed in a bad position. However, it is still not hopeless.
All that he has to do is leave the rook on d4 and be ready to capture Bxd4 with cxd4.
White is better but it is not the end of the world. Instead Eljanov played 31…Rd3??. Can you spot the win?

Laurent Fressinet was the hero for the French team in their match against Ukraine

A loss in a classical game is a rare occurrence for Eljanov

Magnus Carlsen was back in his element scoring, what looked like,
an almost effortless victory over Peter Leko with the Black pieces

Daniel King’s video will take guide you through the Leko-Carlsen game

Check out Daniel King's Power Play DVDs here

Carlsen did win his game but Norway lost their match against Hungary 2.5:1.5.

Arkadij Naiditsch scored an important win over Ivan Sokolov
to give Azerbaijan a 2.5:1.5 win over Netherlands

Armenia won their match against Germany with a score of 2.5:1.5
thanks to the victory of Hrant Melkumyan (above) over Daniel Fridman

Team pairings and results of round six

Full board results of round six + Standings

GM Simon Williams and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni are doing a great job as the official commentators.
You can have a look at all the interviews and live commentary video archives over here.

Pictures by Hrafn Jökulsson on the official facebook page of ETCC 2015

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN: Open + Women 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 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.