European Championship Rd7: Let the race begin!

While both GM Anton Guijarro and Howell have demonstrated enterprising chess, the way they achieved their 6.0/7 scores was very different. After a third-round hiccup and losing to the host’s GM Sergei Azerov, young Spaniard Anton Guijarro scored win after win to show why he almost won the Gibraltar Open. Here we see how he destroyed black’s fortress in a mere 20 moves in a Sicilian Taimanov. This is a good lesson to remember: if you are playing a sharp opening, you better be well-prepared otherwise things could go wrong for you very soon.

David Anton-Guijarro is Spain's most promising talent, and though he is not quite at Paco's level, he is getting there

Anton Guijaro vs Bosiocic

In round seven however, David opted for an unconventional position in a symmetric English where his opponent, Yuri Kuzubov, got tired of solid maneuvers and weakened his pawn structure, which gave Black a long-term advantage. Anton Guijarro finally converted his advantage into a full point.

The British David Howell, however took a different path to the top. After two slow draws in the early rounds where a round 1 GM draw offer helped the British to in fact get away with an easy half a point, David Howell was back in his element and scored five consecutive wins including his victories in rounds six and seven where he demonstrated fantastic technical skills and tactical accuracy against some tough nuts!

David Howell is also producing what may be his greatest result yet. Still, the European Championship is 11 rounds long, so much can happen still.

His victory against Ukrainian GM Vladimir Onischuk stands out in particular, in a show of technique reminiscent of one many endgame victories by Capablanca. The third world champion whose skills somehow made chess look simple!

V. Onischuk vs Howell

Here is an interesting position that stood out:

Artemiev vs Can

If there is one thing in common about open tournaments is the fairy tale of lower-rated players. Sometimes these fairy-tales last long and turn the professional life of players. For instance, We saw Artashes Minasian's early rise to the top of the table which did not last round as in round seven the Armenian is standing on humble 50%. On the other hand, another Armenian, IM Arman Mikaelyan, has been having the tournament of his life so far. The unknown player from a country with a rich history in chess, scored back-to-back wins against 2600 GMs to stand at a mighty 5.5/7 result, which keeps him tied for third only half a point shy from the leaders. Being the only IM at top of the table, Mikaelyan is ia hot pursuit for either a norm or qualification to the World Cup!

The hard-working arbiters who help make or break an event

In fact, it should be pointed out that the European Championship is a perfect place to score norms and great results, IMs look for GM norms, FMs try for IMs or even higher , WIMs, WGMs, …. . One reason for this is simply the sheer number of titled players, ensuring chances to the end. The other reason is that being one of the Continental championships (Asia took place recently and the Americas is starting in a couple of days in Colombia), all norms are worth double. In other words, a norm won here is worth two in a player’s quest for the title.

Aged 76, Igor Konyshko is the oldest player in the competition

Considering this trend, a WFM should be happy with a WIM or a WGM norm but this is not the case for the Russian WFM Bibisara Assaubayeva. This Russian talent, who just turned 13, is sitting on a 2558 performance eye-balling a succulent GM norm, the very first one I would presume, in her career. With only one loss against a strong GM, and four GMs in all, this young lady is on her way to becoming a power to be reckoned in the men’s world!

Prodigy WFM Bibisara Assaubayeva is pretty much guaranteed an IM norm, with chances for more. After seven rounds, her Elo perfomrance is also the highest of any female participant, and there are a few! (photo by Eteri Kublashvili)

Standings after seven 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.