European Championship: Artemiev claims the lead

3/29/2019 – Top seed Vladislav Artemiev has moved into the sole lead for the first time, as the only player with 8 points after ten rounds. He beat fellow Russian Andrey Esipenko on board one in Skopje on Thursday. Nine players trail by half a point, including Maxim Rodshtein, who will have White against Artemiev in the last round, which starts two hours earlier on Friday. A score of at least 7½ will be needed to qualify for the World Cup. | Photo: Patricia Claros

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Artemiev undefeated with six wins

It took Vladislav Artemiev just 25 moves to obtain a winning advantage against his young compatriot, Andrey Esipenko in the top game of the tenth round in Skopje.

The game resembled the fianchetto Grünfeld seen in Anish Giri vs Nils Grandelius at the 2014 Qatar Masters, through move 17, and the players looked to be heading towards a peaceful draw when Esipenko committed a subtle blunder.

Black would keep the balance with 23...b6 24.♘b3 ♜c8. But Esipenko's 23...♚g7 gave Artemiev an opening: 24.♕a3 tickles the black knight and the e7 pawn. Black should retreat 24...♞b6 but the 17-year-old tried 24...b6 and was forced to give up the pawn after 25.♘b3 ♞c5 (White threatened ♖c6) 26.♘xc5 bxc5 27.♖xc5. A clear pawn up for White and that was all Artemiev needed.

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Grandelius vs Anton

All smiles before the game: Grandelius vs Anton | Patricia Claros

On board two, Grandelius vs Anton started as an Italian but reached an unusual double-knight ending in which Black was down a pawn, yet actually was for choice due to the awkwardly frozen nature of White's knights:

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White's knight on g7 is trapped and its sibling is frozen in defence. Anton simply won the queenside pawns with his own marauding steed, while Grandelius was preoccupied with freeing his. But with so few pawns remaining, that was not enough, and a draw was reached on move 52.

One player making a late surge is Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the German number one, who has won three in a row en route to 7½. He was the beneficiary in round ten of a gross oversight in a rook and pawn ending by Croatian GM Marin Bosiocic:

Bosiocic, having reached time control, thought for 11 minutes and played the losing 41.♔d4 when 41...♜c1! tees up an eventual c3 break and it's game over. Bosiocic missed that 41.♔xe4 let's the White king move up the board to generate sufficient counterplay to keep Black's queenside pawns at bay.

A lucky break for Nisipeanu who will be White in the last round against Kacper Piorun, and almost certain of one of the 22 World Cup qualification spots.

Nisipeanu

Nisipeanu is looks to be headed for Khanty-Mansiysk in September | Photo: Patricia Claros

In fact, it would not be surprising to see a significant number of draws on the top boards which would guarantee qualification. More excitement can be expected from the groups of players with 7 and 6½ points.

Results of Round 10 (top 20)

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	2736	7	1 - 0	7	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2603	69
2	9	GM	Grandelius Nils	2694	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2643	28
3	58	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2613	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2673	13
4	11	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2683	6½	½ - ½	7	GM	Piorun Kacper	2631	37
5	10	GM	Korobov Anton	2686	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2627	41
6	56	GM	Bosiocic Marin	2614	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	2670	14
7	15	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2667	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2611	61
8	16	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2666	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2590	80
9	29	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	2642	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2539	110
10	81	GM	Can Emre	2586	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Lysyj Igor	2635	32
11	62	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2611	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Gledura Benjamin	2630	38
12	91	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2574	6½	½ - ½	6	GM	Dubov Daniil	2703	3
13	2	GM	Tomashevsky Evgeny	2705	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2616	53
14	7	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2698	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2613	57
15	59	GM	Erdos Viktor	2612	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Ragger Markus	2696	8
16	64	GM	Bindrich Falko	2610	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2662	18
17	67	GM	Deac Bogdan-Daniel	2609	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Edouard Romain	2658	20
18	23	GM	Gelfand Boris	2655	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Moussard Jules	2601	71
19	76	GM	Huschenbeth Niclas	2594	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2644	26
20	27	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	2644	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2600	73

Standings after Round 10 (top 25)

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	Rp
1	1	GM	Artemiev Vladislav			2736	8,0	2592	58,0	2818
2	37	GM	Piorun Kacper			2631	7,5	2621	60,0	2792
3	13	GM	Rodshtein Maxim			2673	7,5	2609	57,0	2784
4	9	GM	Grandelius Nils			2694	7,5	2592	58,5	2769
5	16	GM	Berkes Ferenc			2666	7,5	2592	56,5	2768
6	28	GM	Anton Guijarro David			2643	7,5	2573	54,0	2749
7	38	GM	Gledura Benjamin	U20		2630	7,5	2570	55,0	2744
8	14	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter			2670	7,5	2562	53,5	2742
9	41	GM	Movsesian Sergei			2627	7,5	2525	51,0	2704
10	58	GM	Oparin Grigoriy			2613	7,5	2515	50,0	2692
11	110	GM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian			2539	7,0	2618	56,5	2726
12	91	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej			2574	7,0	2601	57,0	2715
13	11	GM	Cheparinov Ivan			2683	7,0	2600	57,0	2732
14	69	GM	Esipenko Andrey	U18		2603	7,0	2582	57,0	2707
15	23	GM	Gelfand Boris	S50		2655	7,0	2582	54,5	2714
16	81	GM	Can Emre			2586	7,0	2581	55,5	2702
17	79	GM	Petrov Nikita			2591	7,0	2580	52,0	2702
18	39	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr			2629	7,0	2568	54,5	2700
19	32	GM	Lysyj Igor			2635	7,0	2563	56,5	2696
20	15	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan			2667	7,0	2557	55,5	2693
21	29	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim			2642	7,0	2550	57,0	2684
22	61	GM	Lupulescu Constantin			2611	7,0	2547	54,5	2677
23	20	GM	Edouard Romain			2658	7,0	2529	52,0	2666
24	76	GM	Huschenbeth Niclas			2594	7,0	2517	48,5	2647
25	35	GM	Fridman Daniel			2633	7,0	2509	50,5	2647

All available games

Pattern Recognition and Typical Plans

On this DVD GM Adrian Mikhalchishin presents games of the World Champions of the past to explain typical patterns and strategic concepts of these games and to show how grandmasters apply these ideas today.

Commentary by GM Ivan Sokolov and GM Adrian Mikhalchishin | European Chess TV on YouTube

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European Championship: Artemiev claims the lead

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Mastering the London System

Artemiev undefeated with six wins

Results of Round 10 (top 20)

Standings after Round 10 (top 25)

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