ETCC R7: Azerbaijan crushes Bulgaria, takes the lead

11/10/2011 – After six rounds Romania, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria were in the lead, with ten match points each. Then came the unexpected drubbing, and could have easily ended with a 4-0 for the Azeris. Bulgaria , who were in the lead after five rounds, are now in place six, while Azerbaijan is first on match and board points. The Russian women continue to lead, with two full match points. Report after round seven.

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3rd – 11th November in Halkidiki, Greece

The ETCC is a nine-round Swiss, with one open section and one section for the women’s teams. The time control is 90 min for 40 moves + 30 min for the rest of the game + 30 sec increment for every move played starting from the first move. The member countries of the European Chess Union (ECU) have the right to enter one team of four players plus one reserve in the open competition, and one team of four female players and one reserve in the women’s competition. There are 38 teams in the former and 28 in the latter. The games are being played in the Olympic Hall Congress Center (1500 sq.m.), within the five-star Porto Carras Grand Resort, which is located in an enchantingly verdant landscape in Halkidiki, Greece.

Round six report

France vs the leading Bulgaria (picture above) was a 2-2 tie, with Ivan Cheparinov bringing in a point in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Kiril Georgiev dropping one to Andrei Istratescu on board four.


Russia vs Azerbaijan in round six – but where is Peter Svidler, playing on board one?


There he is, checking out the Grischuk game on the next board

Russia was defeated 1½-2½ by Azerbaijan after a board one loss by Peter Svidler to Teimour Radjabov, Armenia beat Spain by a similar margin, while Germany trounced Italy 3-1 with wins by Georg Meier and Rainer Buhmann.


Germany vs Italy, with Georg Meier playing Fabiano Caruana in the foreground


Greece vs Romania, a match the latter won to go into the overall lead

Quite importantly Romania defeated Greece 2½-1½ to join Azerbaijan and Bulgaria in the lead on match and board points.

All results of round six – Open section


WGMs Jolanta Zawadzka and Joanna Majdan Gajewska playing for Poland

In the Women's section Russia was held to a 2-2 tie by Poland, while Ukraine defeated Georgia 2½-1½ and moved within one match point of the leaders.

The star of this leadership chase is GM Kateryna Lahno (above), who has scored 4.5/6 on board one with a 2671 performance. Of course Katya can only look with wonder at GM Anna Muzychuk, who has scored 6.5/7 for Slovenia and showed a performance of no less than 2741 points.

Women's section

Video impressions of round six by Vijay Kumar

Round seven report


Round seven of the ETCC under way, with Georgia vs Croatia in the foreground


In good spirits: the Bulgarian team (Topalov, Cheparinov,
Delchev and Radulski) before the start of round seven


Winning ways: the Azeris, with Radjabov, Gashimov, Mamedyarov and Safarli

The big news is the 3½-½ drubbing given to Bulgaria by Azerbaijan – in fact it could have almost ended 4-0, since Teimour Radjabov was pressing with black against Veselin Topalov, who in the end managed to survive. Vugar Gashimov, who appears to have completely recovered from his health episode in round five, severely punished Ivan Cheparinov after the Bulgarian went for a flashy continuation on move 19. Here are the four games from this round:


Romania lost its match against Germany (above with Buhmann, Fridman, Meier
and Naiditsch) and with it the lead in the tables.

Armenia (above right) defeated France when Maxime Vachier Lagrave (second from left), the young French GM's second loss in a row. Maxime he really needs to be rested, after playing six games, netting with a 2.0 points with a 2550 performance.

Finally you should take a look at Switzerland vs Ukraine (picture above). What do you think the result was? Well, 3-1 for the Alpine country, with Oliver Kurmann and Richard Forster scoring against Pavel Eljanov and Zahar Efimenko. And finally, Spain was duly crushed by Russia, moving the favourites up to place nine (from place 13!) in the table.

All results of round seven – Open section

Video impressions of round seven by Vijay Kumar

In the Women's section Russia (above right, Nadezhda Kosintseva on board one) defeated Armenia with Natalija Pogonina scoring the vital point against Maria Kursova (both players are WGMs). Ukraine lost to Poland with a first loss in this tournament (after playing 4½ out of five) to GM Monika Socko. But even after this loss Kateryna has the third highest performance, 2671, amongst the ladies, with just Anna Muzychuk (2741) and Nino Khurtsidze (2723) ahead of her.

Women's section

Top standings after seven rounds (open)

Rk.
SNo
 Team
Gms
  + 
  = 
 – 
 TB1 
 TB2 
 TB3 
TB4
TB5
1
3
 Azerbaijan
7
5
2
0
12
18.5
110.5
293.5
78.5
2
4
 Armenia
7
5
1
1
11
18.0
101.0
250.3
70.0
3
10
 Germany
7
5
1
1
11
17.5
107.0
265.8
76.5
4
5
 Hungary
7
4
2
1
10
17.0
99.0
235.3
69.0
5
17
 Romania
7
5
0
2
10
17.0
90.5
200.8
68.0
6
7
 Bulgaria
7
4
2
1
10
15.5
114.5
251.3
82.5
7
9
 Netherlands
7
4
2
1
10
15.5
111.0
246.0
80.0
8
6
 France
7
3
3
1
9
16.0
109.0
242.3
78.5
9
1
 Russia
7
4
1
2
9
16.0
108.0
242.0
76.0
10
22
 Italy
7
4
1
2
9
15.5
99.5
202.3
76.0
11
18
 Serbia
7
4
0
3
8
18.0
86.0
205.0
63.5
12
14
 Poland
7
3
2
2
8
17.0
96.0
229.0
68.5
13
26
 Switzerland
7
3
2
2
8
16.0
81.5
172.3
61.0
14
19
 Greece
7
4
0
3
8
15.5
100.0
196.5
77.0
15
12
 Czech Rep.
7
2
4
1
8
14.5
103.0
205.5
75.0
16
21
 Slovenia
7
3
2
2
8
13.5
111.0
215.3
80.0

Top standings after seven rounds (women)

Rk.
SNo
 Team
Gms
  + 
  = 
 – 
 TB1 
 TB2 
 TB3 
TB4
TB5
1
1
 Russia
7
6
1
0
13
19.5
107.5
291.5
77.0
2
5
 Poland
7
5
1
1
11
18.5
109.5
279.8
80.0
3
2
 Ukraine
7
5
0
2
10
17.5
109.0
261.3
77.5
4
3
 Georgia
7
5
0
2
10
17.0
116.5
277.0
82.5
5
12
 France
7
5
0
2
10
17.0
97.5
231.3
68.5
6
8
 Bulgaria
7
4
1
2
9
15.5
106.0
224.5
74.5
7
18
 Czech Rep.
7
3
3
1
9
15.5
104.0
228.8
74.0
8
14
 Serbia
7
3
2
2
8
16.5
85.5
172.0
66.0
9
11
 Slovenia
7
3
2
2
8
15.5
84.5
161.5
65.0
10
4
 Armenia
7
3
2
2
8
14.5
110.0
221.3
77.5
11
6
 Hungary
7
3
2
2
8
14.0
105.0
202.8
72.5
12
7
 Germany
7
3
1
3
7
16.0
97.5
218.0
70.0
13
17
 Azerbaijan
7
3
1
3
7
14.5
94.5
185.5
67.0
14
15
 Israel
7
3
1
3
7
14.0
100.5
192.8
70.5
15
21
 Austria
7
3
1
3
7
13.5
80.0
130.5
61.5
16
19
 Croatia
7
3
1
3
7
13.0
101.5
182.5
69.5
17
9
 Romania
7
3
1
3
7
12.0
114.0
184.5
81.0

Pictures on the official ETCC website are provided by
Anastasiya Karlovich, Tzveta Karavelova and Goran Urosevic.

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 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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