The 13th European Individual Championship is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria,
from March 20th to 31st, 2012. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves,
plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per
move, starting from move one. The total prize fund is 100,000 Euros, with the
top three taking 14,000, 11,000 and 9,000 Euros respectively.
Round four – Gawain Jones in the sole lead
The start of round four in Plovdiv
English GM Gawain Jones, 2635, beat Russian GM Boris Savchenko, 2580 with the
black pieces to emerge alone at the top of the scoreboard, with 4.0/4 points
and a fantastic rating performans of 3317. All other games on the first twelve
boards were drawn, with most of them lasting around five hours. The first decisive
games finished on board 117, where French GM Roman Edouard, 2607, defeated Swedish
GM Nicolas Grandadam, 2361, in ninety minutes.
Top seed Fabiano Caruana of Italy (above left), playing white, had a clear
advantage throughout his game against Bulgarian GM Julian Radulski, over 200
points below him on the Elo scale, but did not manage to convert it into a full
point in spite of 72 moves of trying. Remarkably Ukrainian GM Vladimir Onischuk,
2516, lost his game to 14-year-old German FM Alexander Donchenko, rated 2309.
Unfortunately this game is not yet available. Turkish GM Dragan Solak, 2602,
lost ot lost to FM Kirill Alekseenko, 2367, from Russia.
Here's an interesting game from round four, annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
[Event "European Individual Championship"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2012.03.23"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Vallejo Pons, Francisco"]
[Black "Nabaty, Tamir"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D20"]
[WhiteElo "2693"]
[BlackElo "2559"]
[Annotator "Ramirez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "49"]
[SourceDate "2012.03.23"]
{This wasn't one of the top top boards, but I found this game to be highly
entertaining.} 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 e5 4. Bxc4 exd4 5. exd4 Bd6 6. Nf3 Nf6
7. Qe2+ {A relatively rare move but far from harmless.} (7. O-O O-O 8. Nc3 Nc6
{has been seen in countless games.}) 7... Qe7 8. Qxe7+ Kxe7 {Boldly taking
with the King! I mean, why would you delay your development unnecessarily?
Why would you put your bishop, which is well placed on d6, on an inferior
square? What's the worse that can happen, there are no queens on the board!} (
8... Bxe7 9. O-O O-O 10. Nc3 Nbd7 {And Black hasn't fully equalized just yet.
Tkachiev beat Morozevich in the World Blitz Championship, 2008 with this
position}) 9. O-O Be6 (9... Re8 10. Ng5 $14 {is surprisingly annoying.}) 10.
Re1 Kd7 11. Ne5+ {Already quite ambitious. White is exchanging the pieces
that defend the black king. But defend from what? There are no queens!} (11.
Bxe6+ fxe6 12. Nc3 Nc6 {really just lets Black off the hook. White might have
a minimal plus but eventually it should be neutralized.}) 11... Bxe5 (11... Kc8
{is ok according to the computers, but I can't imagine anyone not taking the
knight.}) 12. dxe5 Bxc4 13. exf6 gxf6 14. Nc3 {Black's king is slightly
exposed and White has better development and a few targets. Immediately he
might be looking to play Ne4 and hit f6.} c5 $6 {A highly optimistic move.
This move is designed against Ne4, as Black will now have the strong reply
Kc6! but it is not developing a piece...} 15. Bf4 $1 {Black has a rather
unusual problem - not only does he have to try to develop his pieces, he has
to do it in a way that protects his king.} (15. Ne4 Kc6 16. Nxf6 Nd7 17. Nxd7
Kxd7 18. Bf4 Kc6 $11 {Leaves black with very little to worry about.}) 15... Nc6
(15... Na6 16. Rad1+ Kc8 17. Ne4 {is already immediately losing.}) 16. Red1+ $1
{A fabulous move. It seems illogical at first to use this rook, but it is
well justified.} (16. Rad1+ Nd4 17. b3 Ba6 {is also better for White, but not
nearly as much as the move in the game.} 18. b4 {is now met with} Rhe8 $1 {
forcing some trades and relieving some pressure.}) 16... Ke6 $6 {Ignoring how
fragile the king can be.} (16... Nd4 17. b3 Ba6 18. b4 $16) 17. b3 $1 Ba6 (
17... Kf5 {was the last saving attempt, but it looks illogical.} 18. bxc4 Kxf4
19. Rd5 $16 {is a serious problem for Black.}) 18. Rd6+ Kf5 19. Nd5 {An attack
from the blue! White has a ton of threats and there is very little
counterplay.} Nd4 20. Rxf6+ Ke4 21. f3+ $1 {It's quite possible that Black
missed this lethal move. Without it, White only has a strong advantage.} (21.
Nc7 Ne2+ 22. Kh1 Nxf4 23. Re1+ Ne2 24. Nxa6 bxa6 25. Rxe2+ $16 {And even this
should be lost, but Black has hope.}) 21... Kd3 (21... Kxd5 22. Rd6# {is a
surprising mate. Who needs a queen when you have a rook and a bishop? They
move the same, after all!}) 22. Rd1+ Kc2 23. Rd2+ Kb1 24. Nc3+ Ka1 25. a4 {
Black must now sacrifice a knight to merely postpone checkmate. A glorious
game where simple development prevailed. Never, ever, underestimate how weak
your king can be. Even grandmasters do it from time to time, and they are
severely punished for it!} 1-0
Top rankings after round five
Behind the leader Gawain Jones we have 20 players with 3.5/4 points, and then
43 players sharing 3.0/4 points. We are especially impressed with Romanian WIM
Irina Bulmaga, rated 2307, who is currently playing at a 2765 performance level.
In the fifth round Gawain Jones has white against Russian Nikita Vityugov,
who is 74 points ahead of him on the rating scale. The experienced Bulgarian
GM Kiril Georgiev, 2671, takes on 15-year-old Ukrainian star Illya Nyzhnyk,
2585. Top seed Fabiano Caruana has the black pieces against GM Sergei Zhigalko,
rated 117 points below him.
Remaining schedule + Playchess commentary
After every round there will be special wrap-up commentary on Playchess.
This starts at 20:00h Server time (= CET, = , 23:00h Moscow, 19:00h London,
3 p.m. New York, 12:00 noon California, 03:00h Beijing, 00:30h New Delhi –
you can find the time in your location here).
Commentary is in English.
| Day |
Date |
Time |
Program |
Playchess commentary |
| Saturday |
March 24 |
15:00 |
Round 5 |
Lawrence Trent |
| Sunday |
March 25 |
15:00 |
Round 6 |
Lawrence Trent |
| Monday |
March 26 |
Free Day |
|
| Tuesday |
March 27 |
15:00 |
Round 7 |
Sam Collins |
| Wednesday |
March 28 |
15:00 |
Round 8 |
Sam Collins |
| Thursday |
March 29 |
15:00 |
Round 9 |
Robert Ris |
| Friday |
March 30 |
15:00 |
Round 10 |
Robert Ris |
| Saturday |
March 31 |
13:00 |
Round 11 |
Valeri Lilov |
| Saturday |
March 31 |
20:00 |
Closing |
|
| Sunday |
April 01 |
Departure |
|
Links
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