European Championship Rd5: Swings and surges

Photos from official site

As every fairy tale has an end, Artashes Minasian’s fantastic start faced bitter back-to-back losses with an important impact on the standing so far: Kuzubov’s victory over Minasian made the Ukrainian the only player with a 100% score after the 4th round. Kuzubov then went on to draw an uneventful game against German-Azeri Arkadij Naiditsch to ensure a share of the lead after the 5th round with 4.5/5.

The talented young GM Kovalev from Belarus was the second player to defeat Minasian, in round five, and is at 4.0/5

After round four, no fewer than 18 players were tied with 3.5/4, hoping to catch up with the new leader, of which three successfully completed this mission. The most notable and somewhat surprising result among these three decisive games on top board was Friedman’s victory over Fedoseev. The young Russian GM, who just recently joined the 2700 club, has been on fire for quite some time in the past few months. Known for his uncompromising and aggressive style, Fedoseev essayed an early f4 and piece sacrifice which gave him a promising attack. However, with a lot of complications present on the board, it was Fedoseev who first went astray and his attack fizzled soon after. Once the queens were off the board, Friedman played a perfect game to bring home the bacon. The German has shown a great deal of fighting spirit and clarity in winning positions which makes him a strong candidate for a great finish in this event, should he continue to play with the same resilience.

Vladimir Fedoseev vs Daniel Fridman

The other two victories to allow Cheparinov and Melkumyan respectively to join the lead were surprisingly one-sided matches, in which white prevailed by employing the Catalan defense.

Thus after five rounds four players share first with 4.5/5 while a pack of twenty-seven players trails them by just half a point with 4.0/5. Every one of them is a GM except for one: IM Toms Kantans (2490, and 23 years old) from Latvia who also has four points. The Latvian has played four 2600+ GMs in the past four rounds and has scored 3.0/4 without any losses.

Alexander Riazantsev, who is also the reigning Russian Champion, is at 4.0/5

Ukrainian GM Ruslan Ponomariov in a good mood

Anton Guijaro vs Bortnyk

13-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva, born in Kazakhstan, now living in Russia, has had a very strong start with 3.0/5 and a 2580 performance. She has faced 3 GMs and suffered no losses.

The following rounds will be decisive for many players in different ways. Players on +1 or +2 scores, will try hard to score in order to climb the rungs, while players with +3 or +4 are more likely to play a bit more cautiously to maintain their position, while seeking chances to score without too much risk. The reason us that there is more at stake than just the top prizes, there are also the qualifying spots for the World Cup, a prize in their own right.

Standings after five rounds

Click for complete standings

Links

• Official tournament site
• All games in PGN or Replay them directly here (many analyzed)

You can use ChessBase 14 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.