European Championship: Gold for Artemiev

by Macauley Peterson

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3/29/2019 – There was some drama in the last round thanks to Nils Grandelius who was the only player with 7½ points to win his game. That guaranteed the Swedish number one the Silver medal in Skopje, but it was up to the board one game between Israeli Maxim Rodshtein and tournament leader Vladislav Artemiev to determine the gold. In the end the top seed held on to finish first on tiebreak with 8½. Kacper Piorun took bronze. | Photo: eicc2019.mk

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Grandelius goes for it

Nils Grandelius really put the pressure on Vladislav Artemiev as the Swede won his last round game with the black pieces to move to 8½ points. Grandelius grabbed his chances against Benjamin Gledura and won this clutch game with engine-like precision. Meanwhile, Artemiev was suffering a bit against Maxim Rodshtein, but managed to keep everything under control until they finally shook hands on move 46 allowing Artemiev to seal his European Championship victory on tiebreak.

It’s done! Artemiev Vladislav hold a draw against Rodshtein and tie for the first place with Grandelius Nils!
The decision of the 1st place comes to tiebreaks! pic.twitter.com/SVjdVwIQ7N
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) March 29, 2019

Grandelius already secured qualification to the World Cup in 2018, so he come out swinging with black against Benjamin Gledura with no fear.

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After this win, Grandelius would have taken the silver regardless of the outcome on board one, but Rodshtein narrowly missed out on a medal with his draw result; Kacper Piorun had the slightly better tiebreak score (the opponents' average rating minus the lowest).

As expected, many of the top boards ended in relatively quick draws, with 8 points sure to qualify for one of the 22 World Cup spots. E.g.:

Nisipeanu ½ - ½ Piorun (17 moves)
Movsesian ½ - ½ Berkes (15 moves)
Anton ½ - ½ Oparin (36 moves)
Rakhmanov ½ - ½ Cheparinov (22 moves)
Esipenko ½ - ½ Ponomariov (10 moves)

All the players above have qualified to the World Cup, including those who finished with 7½.

Rodshtein certainly took a shot at beating Artemiev, but while he nursed an advantage for much of the game, it was never obviously enough to have real winning chances, especially after Artemiev evacuated his king from the kingside in a remarkable sequence:

Black's king abandons the castle: 28...♚f8 29.h5 ♚e7 30.♕d3 ♜c7 31.♜h2 ♚d7 32.hxg6 hxg6 33.♔b1 ♚c7 34.♔a2 ♚b7 35.♖a3 ♚a7 and the king finds a new home.

However, there was one hidden resource that might have changed the course of the last round, had Rodshtein spotted it:

43.♖h7 ♜c7 44.f5! exf5 45.e6! would have posed Artemiev some serious problems. Instead, the players were already thinking about shaking hands, which they did four moves later.

Artemiev analyses the game with Ivan Sokolov on the live webcast

Congratulations to Artemiev Vladislav (RUS)- the Winner of European Individual Chess Championship 2019, Nils Grandelius (SWE) on silver and Piorun Kacper (POL) who took the bronze medal!
The event is officially declared closed by the ECU President, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili. pic.twitter.com/N4tJKe0Po8
— European Chess Union (@ECUonline) March 29, 2019

Of the players who entered the final round with 7 points, only Eltaj Safarli and Niclas Huschenbeth won their games.

Safarli set a landmine for Matthias Bluebaum that gave the Azerbaijani GM a quick win:

21.♗e5! Bluebaum thought for 16 minutes before taking 21...fxe5? (after 21...♚g7 22.♖f4 fxe5 23.♕xe5+ ♚g8 Black has a tough defence but can survive), and White is on top after 22.♘xe5+ ♚g7 23.♖xd7 ♜xd7 and now not 24.♘xd7 ♛d4= but rather 24.♕g4 and after taking the rook, the e6 pawn falls next.

The Semi-Slav: A GM guide for the tournament player

The Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6) can arise via various move orders, has decided World Championships, and is one of Black's most fascinating replies to 1 d4. Magnus Carlsen's second, Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen explains in detail what this opening is all about.

Romain Edouard vs Huschenbeth was a Semi-Slav Meran with colours reversed. Edouard created a passed b-pawn and was in good position a few moves before falling intro a trap:

Can you spot the knockout blow for Black?

35...♜xg2+! 36.♔xg2 ♜g6+ 37.♔h1 ♛xf2 and White is forced into 38.♕xe8+ and ♕xg6+ to prevent mate. Afterwards Black's queen and knight are too strong.

Results of Round 11 (top 20)

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	13	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2673	7½	½ - ½	8	GM	Artemiev Vladislav	2736	1
2	38	GM	Gledura Benjamin	2630	7½	0 - 1	7½	GM	Grandelius Nils	2694	9
3	14	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	2670	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Piorun Kacper	2631	37
4	41	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2627	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2666	16
5	28	GM	Anton Guijarro David	2643	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2613	58
6	39	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr	2629	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2683	11
7	69	GM	Esipenko Andrey	2603	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2667	15
8	18	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2662	7	1 - 0	7	GM	Bluebaum Matthias	2616	52
9	20	GM	Edouard Romain	2658	7	0 - 1	7	GM	Huschenbeth Niclas	2594	76
10	61	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2611	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Gelfand Boris	2655	23
11	79	GM	Petrov Nikita	2591	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim	2642	29
12	32	GM	Lysyj Igor	2635	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2574	91
13	110	GM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2539	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Fridman Daniel	2633	35
14	7	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2698	6½	1 - 0	7	GM	Can Emre	2586	81
15	56	GM	Bosiocic Marin	2614	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Tomashevsky Evgeny	2705	2
16	3	GM	Dubov Daniil	2703	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Erdos Viktor	2612	59
17	63	GM	Predke Alexandr	2611	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Kovalev Vladislav	2703	4
18	8	GM	Ragger Markus	2696	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2611	62
19	57	GM	Chigaev Maksim	2613	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Korobov Anton	2686	10
20	17	GM	Dreev Aleksey	2662	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Zhigalko Sergei	2604	68

Final standings after Round 11 (top 35)

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	Rp
1	1	GM	Artemiev Vladislav		2736	8,5	2600	70,0	2798
2	9	GM	Grandelius Nils		2694	8,5	2595	71,5	2792
3	37	GM	Piorun Kacper		2631	8,0	2626	72,5	2780
4	13	GM	Rodshtein Maxim		2673	8,0	2622	69,5	2779
5	16	GM	Berkes Ferenc		2666	8,0	2595	67,5	2755
6	28	GM	Anton Guijarro David		2643	8,0	2577	67,0	2737
7	14	GM	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter		2670	8,0	2569	67,0	2731
8	41	GM	Movsesian Sergei		2627	8,0	2539	62,5	2700
9	76	GM	Huschenbeth Niclas		2594	8,0	2531	62,0	2687
10	58	GM	Oparin Grigoriy		2613	8,0	2528	62,5	2687
11	18	GM	Safarli Eltaj		2662	8,0	2515	62,5	2680
12	110	GM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian		2539	7,5	2619	68,5	2715
13	91	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej		2574	7,5	2604	70,0	2705
14	11	GM	Cheparinov Ivan		2683	7,5	2603	69,0	2720
15	186	IM	Pultinevicius Paulius	U18	2439	7,5	2600	62,0	2698
16	69	GM	Esipenko Andrey	U18	2603	7,5	2591	70,0	2700
17	79	GM	Petrov Nikita		2591	7,5	2586	65,0	2694
18	23	GM	Gelfand Boris	S50	2655	7,5	2585	66,5	2702
19	38	GM	Gledura Benjamin	U20	2630	7,5	2583	68,5	2697
20	63	GM	Predke Alexandr		2611	7,5	2581	68,0	2693
21	39	GM	Rakhmanov Aleksandr		2629	7,5	2580	67,0	2696
22	73	GM	Bartel Mateusz		2600	7,5	2576	67,0	2687
23	3	GM	Dubov Daniil		2703	7,5	2569	67,0	2660
24	32	GM	Lysyj Igor		2635	7,5	2564	68,0	2683
25	15	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan		2667	7,5	2562	65,5	2683
26	61	GM	Lupulescu Constantin		2611	7,5	2558	66,5	2672
27	30	GM	Alekseev Evgeny		2640	7,5	2556	65,5	2675
28	29	GM	Zvjaginsev Vadim		2642	7,5	2554	68,0	2673
29	8	GM	Ragger Markus		2696	7,5	2552	65,5	2674
30	27	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy		2644	7,5	2538	63,5	2659
31	17	GM	Dreev Aleksey	S50	2662	7,5	2536	60,5	2658
32	35	GM	Fridman Daniel		2633	7,5	2512	63,0	2635
33	7	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco		2698	7,5	2500	58,5	2611
34	53	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	U20	2616	7,5	2491	59,0	2613
35	33	GM	Volokitin Andrei		2635	7,5	2479	57,0	2594

Players scoring 7½ or more

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The Semi-Slav: A GM guide for the tournament player

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

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Macauley Peterson Macauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.

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