Euro Club Cup: Star-studded finals

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
3/30/2021 – The playoffs of the European Club Cup were played on Monday, with 18 teams divided in 3 sections fighting to qualify to the final stage — a 10-team single round robin. An exciting qualifier left strong teams out of contention. The all-play-all final will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday. | Follow the games live!

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

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 

 
  1. Ladya Kazan (TB1: 10 / TB2: 14,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Artemiev Vladislav 2709 RUS 4,5 5 2633
2 GM Kamsky Gata 2665 USA 3,0 5 2603
3 GM Timofeev Artyom 2594 RUS 3,5 5 2594
4 IM Sharafiev Azat 2432 RUS 3,5 5 2539
 
  2. Hamburger Schachklub 1830 (TB1: 6 / TB2: 11)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Grandelius Nils 2670 SWE 2,5 4 2642
2 GM Svane Rasmus 2613 GER 2,0 4 2651
4 GM Engel Luis 2553 GER 2,0 4 2568
5 GM Heinemann Thies 2502 GER 1,5 4 2567
6 FM Kramer Julian 2419 GER 3,0 4 2550
 
  3. Clichy Echecs 92 (TB1: 4 / TB2: 9,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Van Foreest Jorden 2701 NED 0,0 1 2631
2 GM Maghsoodloo Parham 2676 IRI 2,0 4 2656
3 GM Amin Bassem 2695 EGY 3,0 5 2586
4 GM van Wely Loek 2620 NED 1,5 5 2578
5 GM Hamdouchi Hicham 2561 MAR 3,0 4 2476
6 GM Delorme Axel 2480 FRA 0,0 1 2561
 

Group B - Top 3

 
  1. Odlar Yurdu (TB1: 8 / TB2: 13)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Mamedyarov Shakh. 2770 AZE 3,0 5 2645
2 GM Guseinov Gadir 2665 AZE 3,0 4 2620
3 GM Abasov Nijat 2664 AZE 2,5 4 2631
4 GM Durarbayli Vasif 2606 AZE 3,0 4 2542
5 GM Safarli Eltaj 2598 AZE 1,5 3 2557
 
  2. Novy Bor (TB1: 7 / TB2: 12)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Harikrishna Pentala 2730 IND 0,5 2 2735
2 GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2726 IND 3,5 5 2619
3 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw 2694 POL 3,0 5 2574
4 GM Navara David 2697 CZE 3,0 4 2542
5 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2647 IND 1,5 2 2589
6 GM Ragger Markus 2680 AUT 0,5 2 2460
 
  3. SF Deizisau e.V. (TB1: 7 / TB2: 11,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Bluebaum Matthias 2670 GER 1,0 4 2718
2 GM Donchenko Alexander 2659 GER 2,5 4 2668
3 GM Meier Georg 2628 GER 1,0 3 2584
4 GM Heimann Andreas 2606 GER 1,5 2 2485
5 GM Keymer Vincent 2591 GER 3,0 4 2575
6 GM Kollars Dmitrij 2598 GER 2,5 3 2502
 

Group C - Top 3

 
  1. Mednyi Vsadnik (TB1: 6 / TB2: 10,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Fedoseev Vladimir 2687 RUS 2,0 5 2711
2 GM Matlakov Maxim 2688 RUS 0,5 5 2656
4 GM Esipenko Andrey 2701 RUS 4,0 5 2612
5 GM Shimanov Aleksandr   2597 RUS 4,0 5 2555
 
  2. 4NCL Guildford (TB1: 6 / TB2: 10,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Adams Michael 2716 ENG 2,5 4 2693
2 GM Howell David W L 2658 ENG 2,0 4 2628
3 GM McShane Luke J 2674 ENG 2,5 4 2677
4 GM Jones Gawain C B 2670 ENG 1,0 4 2611
5 GM Cheparinov Ivan 2667 BUL 2,5 4 2544
 
  3. Poland Hussars (TB1: 5 / TB2: 11,5)
Bo.   Name Rtg FED Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Duda Jan-Krzysztof 2729 POL 4,0 5 2687
2 GM Moranda Wojciech 2618 POL 3,5 5 2649
3 GM Socko Bartosz 2618 POL 1,0 2 2660
4 GM Tomczak Jacek 2610 POL 2,0 5 2598
5 GM Klekowski Maciej 2510 POL 0,0 1 2667
6 IM Teclaf Pawel 2507 POL 1,0 2 2502
 

Links

Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register