European Championship: Artemiev claims the lead

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. 

Opening package: 1.b3 and Black Secrets in the Modern Italian

Wesley So published two new opening DVDs: 1.b3, the so called Nimzo-Larsen-Attack, for White and his black secrets in the modern Italian. Get them in a package and save money!

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: 

Power Play 8 - Knights and Bishops

When we are starting out in chess we are told that knights and bishops both have a value of three points, but it is quite clear that in some positions a bishop is clearly superior to a knight - and vice versa. After watching this 8th Power Play DVD you’ll have a better idea of how to play positions with knights and bishops – what to look for, what to avoid, and how to place your pawns.

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 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)

Standings after Round 10 (top 25)

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

Links

• Official site
• Round 8 & 9: Seven on 7
• Round 6 & 7: Second half, still four leaders
• Round 5: Four at the top
• Round 3 & 4: A long list of leaders
• Round 1 & 2: Start of the European Championship in Skopje
• Full results (Chess-Results)