3/26/2019 – Maxim Rodshtein and Kacper Piorun were the leading duo after five rounds but a draw in their head-to-head in the sixth round allowed Nils Grandelius and Andrey Esipenko (pictured arriving with Kirill Alekseenko) to catch up, so this quartet now sits atop the field of the European Championships in Skopje with 6 points. The 22 best players qualify for the World Cup. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ analyses the highlights. | Photo: Patricia Claros
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Still wide open
We've passed the midpoint at the European Championships in Skopje. Seven rounds out of eleven have already been played. Two players have achieved five wins and a pair of draws — Maxim Rodshtein and Kacper Piorun — and two have managed the astounding feat of six wins (and a loss) each: Nils Grandelius and Andrey Esipensko. Eight players, including top seed Vladislav Artemiev are a half point behind with 5½. The group on 5 points reaches all the way down to 42nd place! This is a tough tournament! There's still plenty of time left for anyone in the top 40 or so to make a late surge.
Let's take a look at how the leaders got there.
The top board in Round 6: Rodshtein vs Alekseenko | Photo: Patricia Claros
In round six, the Israeli won against Kirill Alekseenko. Kacper Piorun defeated Ferenc Berkes. Rodshtein took on Alekseenko's Grünfeld defence, fianchetto variation, and gradually White gained the upper hand. The game between Piorun and Berkes ended up in a bishop vs knight endgame. GM Daniel Fernandez looks at these and other top games of the sixth round:
The Grünfeld is a highly dynamic opening in which Black's position often seems to hang together by a single thread; and yet, this apparently precarious equilibrium appears to be enough to make it entirely viable — up to the highest level.
Vladislav Artemiev kept up the pace with a win over David Paravyan by sacrificing an exchange in the endgame to create dangerous passed pawns.
The Russian 'Chuck Norris' pounced with 37.♖xd5 ♜xd5 38.♘xf6 ♜e5 39.♘xe8 and went on to prove the strength of his kingside passers.
The positional exchange sacrifice is one of the most powerful and fascinating strategic weapons in chess. On this DVD Sergey Tiviakov explains why the positional exchange sacrifice is such a strong weapon and how to use it.
Commentary by GM Ivan Sokolov and GM Adrian Mikhalchishin | European Chess TV on YouTube
No draws Nils
After dropping his third round game to Sergei Azarov, the Swedish number one Nils Grandelius has won four games in a row. The Russian Alexandr Predke was the most recent victim. Grandelius is now sporting a 2864 performance rating.
For Andrey Esipenko, the winning streak stands at five games! In Monday's seventh round, the newly 17-year-old (born March 22, 2002) Esipenko took down Boris Gelfand on the white side of a Sveshnikov Sicilian. Both games, plus Mamedov-Azarov and the Piorun-Rodshtein draw are analysed below.
The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence is considered one of the most promising replies to 1.e4, often giving rise to sharp and complex positions which require precise and inventive play from both sides. Thus, an opening tailor-made for Alexei Shirov (FIDE World Cup finalist in 2007), who has included it into his repertoire with both White and Black and knows the mutual tricks and traps all too well.
Macauley PetersonMacauley 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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