
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.
1.e4 | 1,185,008 | 54% | 2421 | --- |
1.d4 | 959,510 | 55% | 2434 | --- |
1.Nf3 | 286,503 | 56% | 2441 | --- |
1.c4 | 184,834 | 56% | 2442 | --- |
1.g3 | 19,892 | 56% | 2427 | --- |
1.b3 | 14,600 | 54% | 2428 | --- |
1.f4 | 5,954 | 48% | 2377 | --- |
1.Nc3 | 3,911 | 50% | 2384 | --- |
1.b4 | 1,791 | 48% | 2379 | --- |
1.a3 | 1,250 | 54% | 2406 | --- |
1.e3 | 1,081 | 49% | 2409 | --- |
1.d3 | 969 | 50% | 2378 | --- |
1.g4 | 670 | 46% | 2361 | --- |
1.h4 | 466 | 54% | 2382 | --- |
1.c3 | 439 | 51% | 2425 | --- |
1.h3 | 289 | 56% | 2420 | --- |
1.a4 | 118 | 60% | 2461 | --- |
1.f3 | 100 | 47% | 2427 | --- |
1.Nh3 | 93 | 66% | 2506 | --- |
1.Na3 | 47 | 62% | 2476 | --- |
Please, wait...
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4 Bd6 6.Nf3 Nf6 7.Qe2+ 7.0-0 0-0 8.Nc3 Nc6 7...Qe7 8.Qxe7+ Kxe7 8...Bxe7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Nc3 Nbd7 9.0-0 Be6 9...Re8 10.Ng5 10.Re1 Kd7 11.Ne5+ 11.Bxe6+ fxe6 12.Nc3 Nc6 11...Bxe5 11...Kc8 12.dxe5 Bxc4 13.exf6 gxf6 14.Nc3 c5?! 15.Bf4! 15.Ne4 Kc6 16.Nxf6 Nd7 17.Nxd7 Kxd7 18.Bf4 Kc6= 15...Nc6 15...Na6 16.Rad1+ Kc8 17.Ne4 16.Red1+! 16.Rad1+ Nd4 17.b3 Ba6 18.b4 Rhe8! 16...Ke6?! 16...Nd4 17.b3 Ba6 18.b4± 17.b3! Ba6 17...Kf5 18.bxc4 Kxf4 19.Rd5± 18.Rd6+ Kf5 19.Nd5 Nd4 20.Rxf6+ Ke4 21.f3+! 21.Nc7 Ne2+ 22.Kh1 Nxf4 23.Re1+ Ne2 24.Nxa6 bxa6 25.Rxe2+± 21...Kd3 21...Kxd5 22.Rd6# 22.Rd1+ Kc2 23.Rd2+ Kb1 24.Nc3+ Ka1 25.a4 1–0
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Vallejo Pons,F | 2693 | Nabaty,T | 2559 | 1–0 | 2012 | D20 | European Individual Championship | 4 |
Please, wait...
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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