ETCC: Highlights from first two rounds

by ChessBase
10/30/2017 – After rounds one and two, seven teams have won both matches in the open, with the overall leader Hungary winning 6½ of 8 possible board points. Among the leaders are Armenia who brought in Levon Aronian to face the host team of Greece (pictured). The women's tournament has eight teams, each with two wins. The leader is Israel with 6½ board points. England's new Grandmaster Daniel Fernandez annotates five games for our report. | Photo: ETCC on Instagram (www.instagram.com/etcc2017)

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Seven teams on 2 : 0

The story of Round 1 was the surprise upset of second seed Azerbaijan at the hands of the Italian squad. Italy kept the momentum in Round 2 against Turkey, again largely thanks to a win from Sabino Brunello, who knocked off Mustafa Yilmaz. On Saturday he upset Arkadij Naiditsch in a game annoted by GM Daniel Fernandez below.

Several top names made their debut appearance in the round, including newlywed Levon Aronian for Armenia, and Alexander Grischuk for Russia. Aronian overcame Greek top board Ioannis Papaioannou en route to a 2½ : 1½ win for the Armenians. After nursing a small edge with the bishop pair for much of the game, Aronian let his oppenent pull equal with the black pieces as move 40 approached. But just shy of the time control, Papaioannou blundered:

 

38...f6?

Forgetting the pin on the seventh rank, black was swiftly punished: 39.Bxf6 Qg6 40.Bc3 Rb5 41.Qh4 1-0 With two pawns down and no counterplay, Papaioannou gave up.

GM Daniel Fernandez also annotates this game below.


(Below) Levon Aronian sporting a wedding ring | Photo: ETCC2017 Instagram

Results of Round 2

Levon Aronian

Team MP Res. : Res. MP Team
Armenia 2 : 2 Greece 1
Romania 2 ½ : 2 Hungary
Netherlands 2 : 2 Ukraine
Georgia 2 : 2 Czech Republic
France 2 2 : 2 2 Spain
Belarus 2 : 2 Russia
Croatia 2 : 2 Serbia
Turkey 2 : 2 Italy
England 1 3 : 1 1 Norway
Moldova 1 1 : 3 1 Israel
Poland 1 3 : 1 1 Greece 2
Slovakia 1 ½ : 1 Germany
Azerbaijan 0 4 : 0 0 Austria
Slovenia 0 : 0 Denmark
Finland 0 1 : 3 0 Portugal
Belgium 0 : 0 Switzerland
Iceland 0 : 0 Albania
Kosovo* 0 1 : 3 0 Montenegro
FYROM 0 2 : 2 0 Greece - Crete
Faroe Islands 0 2 : 2 0 Scotland

Annotated games by GM Daniel Fernandez

 

Click or tap a game in the list to switch games


Winning against the Grünfeld

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.


Top ten teams after two rounds

Rk. Team  TB1 
1 Hungary 4
2 Netherlands 4
3 Armenia 4
4 Czech Republic 4
5 Italy 4
6 Croatia 4
7 Russia 4
8 France 3
9 Spain 3
10 Germany 3

Tiebreak 1: Match points (2 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss)
Tiebreak 2: Team Sonneborn-Berger (minus the lowest result)
Tiebreak 3: Board points

Interestingly, Vladimir Fedoseev was replaced at the last minute by Daniil Dubov. The ETCC Instagram paged updated this photo post with a comment noting the change.

All games (rounds 1 and 2)

 

An Anti-Sicilian Repertoire

Tired of spending hours and hours on the boring theory of your favourite opening? Then here is your solution, play an Anti-Sicilian with 3.Bb5 against 2...d6 or 2...Nc6, and 3.d3 against 2...e6. In 60 minutes you will get a crash course in how to avoid mainstream theory and in understanding the ideas of this Anti-Sicilian setup. After these 60 minutes you should be able to survive the Sicilian for a long time, without being bothered by new developments found by engine x supported by an x-core machine. Now that it finally comes down to understanding, let's play chess!


Women

In the Women's tournament, eight teams, including rating favourites Russian and Georgia, have won both matches, but so far the underdog Israeli team has racked up the most board points. They face a tough test against Poland in Round 3.

Results of Round 2

Team MP Res. : Res. MP Team
Israel 2 : ½ 2 Italy
Czech Republic 2 : 2 Russia
France 2 ½ : 2 Georgia
Ukraine 2 3 : 1 2 Armenia
Poland 2 3 : 1 2 Germany
Azerbaijan 2 : 2 Hungary
Spain 2 : ½ 2 Romania
Turkey 2 : 2 Netherlands
Greece 1 0 3 : 1 0 England
Austria 0 ½ : 0 Belarus
Serbia 0 : 0 Switzerland
Belgium 0 0 : 4 0 Slovenia
Croatia 0 2 : 2 0 Lithuania
Greece 2 0 2 : 2 0 Norway
Montenegro 0 : 0 FYROM
Slovakia 0 4 : 0 0 Finland

Top ten teams after two rounds

Rk. Team  TB1 
1 Israel 4
2 Georgia 4
3 Spain 4
4 Poland 4
5 Ukraine 4
6 Turkey 4
7 Hungary 4
8 Russia 4
9 Slovenia 2
10 Czech Republic 2

Tiebreak 1: Match points (2 for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss)
Tiebreak 2: Team Sonneborn-Berger (minus the lowest result)
Tiebreak 3: Board points

All games (rounds 1 and 2)

 

The Sicilian Tajmanov-Scheveningen

The Sicilian has been known for decades as the most reliable way for Black to obtain an unbalanced but good position. Among the most popular Sicilians at the top level the two that certainly stand out are the Najdorf and the Paulsen.


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