Euro Club Cup: Star-studded finals

Strong teams eliminated

The playoffs of the European Club Cup, taking place online this year, left a number of strong teams (and players) out of contention on Monday. In terms of rating average, the most surprising elimination was that of the German champions of Baden-Baden, which had Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport, Etienne Bacrot, Alexei Shirov and Arkadij Naiditsch in its lineup. The strong Russian squad “New old boys” — led by Evgeny Tomashevsky — was also knocked out.

The 18 teams that advanced from the first phase were divided in three sections and played single round robin tournaments, with the top three teams from each group advancing to the final stage. The most dominating performance was seen in Group A, where “Ladya Kazan” won all five matches, led by an inspired Vladislav Artemiev on top board (4½/5 points).

In contrast, no team scored more than 6 points in Group C, where “Mednyi Vsadnik” (Vladimir Fedoseev, Maxim Matlakov), “4NCL Guildford” (Michael Adams, David Howell) and “Poland Hussars” (Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wojciech Moranda) made it into the finals.

Group A - Top 3 

Practical Chess Strategy: The Bishop

When it comes to strategy, one of the key things that chess professionals understand much better than amateur players is the role of the bishop which is the key theme on this video course.

Group B - Top 3

Group C - Top 3

The Chess Player's Mating Guide Vol. 1: The King in the Centre

One of the first lessons you learn in chess is to bring your king into safety by castling – be it on the kingside or the queenside - after having developed your minor pieces. By ignoring this rule of thumb, not only may your king end up in trouble, but your other pieces and in particular, your rooks, may never end up playing much of a role, and before you know it, things are looking grim. Even at the highest level, the consequences of neglecting this basic element of opening theory has been frequently underestimated. In this first volume of the new Mating Guide series, the emphasis will be on how to exploit a vulnerably placed king in the centre. A must-have for ambitious chess players who want to improve their own attacking skills.

Links

• Official site
• The European Chess Club Cup will be played online this year
• Find all results on Chess-Results