.jpeg)
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The European Blitz Championship was played online over three days on December 18-20. The tournament was organized by the Silesian Chess Federation and the European Chess Union with the support of the City of Katowice, the Polish Ministry of Sport and Polish company Mokate, which frequently sponsors chess events. The tournament was played on the Tornelo platform and was inaugurated by ECU President Zurab Asmaiparashvili.
On Friday evening, an 11-round Swiss tournament — open to all players with a rating above 2300 (plus some wildcards) — kicked off the proceedings. A total of 353 players from 40 countries participated, including 134 Grandmasters and 100 International Masters. The time control was 3 minutes for the game with 2-second increments per move.
The medallists
After 11 rounds, 16 players had qualified to the knockout section of the tournament. Before confirming who had qualified to the deciding stage, the games of the top 16 were subjected to a cheating check.
The best female players in the preliminary event were GM Antoaneta Stefanova (7 points), Anna Sargsyan (6½) and Monika Socko (6). They received special prizes, as did the best seniors and juniors.
And Action! - How to crown positional play by tactics
There are few names which, like that of Alexei Shirov, can be associated with fantastically imaginative and tactically influenced play. Now the Latvian grandmaster is presenting a DVD on precisely that element of the game of chess. And one that is completely based on his own games.
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Wojtaszek Radoslaw | POL | 2705 | 9 | 74,5 |
| 2 | GM | Hovhannisyan Robert | ARM | 2642 | 9 | 73,5 |
| 3 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | GEO | 2553 | 9 | 72,5 |
| 4 | GM | Onischuk Vladimir | UKR | 2622 | 9 | 69,5 |
| 5 | GM | Indjic Aleksandar | SRB | 2604 | 9 | 66,5 |
| 6 | GM | Navara David | CZE | 2697 | 8,5 | 74,5 |
| 7 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | ENG | 2670 | 8,5 | 74,5 |
| 8 | GM | Demidov Mikhail | RUS | 2523 | 8,5 | 74,5 |
| 9 | GM | Shirov Alexei | ESP | 2662 | 8,5 | 68,5 |
| 10 | GM | Deac Bogdan-Daniel | ROU | 2625 | 8,5 | 67,5 |
| 11 | GM | Safarli Eltaj | AZE | 2598 | 8,5 | 65,5 |
| 12 | IM | Ozen Deniz | TUR | 2397 | 8 | 81,5 |
| 13 | GM | Bluebaum Matthias | GER | 2670 | 8 | 76 |
| 14 | GM | Yilmaz Mustafa | TUR | 2630 | 8 | 71,5 |
| 15 | GM | Petrosyan Manuel | ARM | 2628 | 8 | 71 |
| 16 | GM | Meier Georg | GER | 2628 | 8 | 71 |
| 17 | GM | Steinberg Nitzan | ISR | 2553 | 8 | 69 |
| 18 | IM | Theodorou Nikolas | GRE | 2554 | 8 | 68,5 |
| 19 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ARM | 2598 | 8 | 67,5 |
| 20 | GM | Sanal Vahap | TUR | 2563 | 8 | 66,5 |
| 21 | GM | Moranda Wojciech | POL | 2618 | 8 | 66 |
| 22 | GM | Saric Ivan | CRO | 2652 | 8 | 65 |
| 23 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | ARM | 2682 | 8 | 64,5 |
| 24 | IM | Garayev Kanan | AZE | 2331 | 8 | 64 |
| 25 | GM | Dourerassou Jonathan | FRA | 2477 | 8 | 63,5 |
| 26 | GM | Aleksandrov Aleksej | BLR | 2574 | 8 | 62 |
The knockout phase kicked off on Saturday, with 4-game mini-matches followed by an Armageddon decider when needed (5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black, no increments, Black gets draw odds).
In the round-of-16, Georg Meier prevailed in Armageddon against the winner of the preliminary tournament, Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Alexei Shirov knocked out Mihkail Demidov. Levan Pantsulaia defeated Mustafa Yilmaz, also in Armageddon. The Armenian duel between Manuel Petrosyan Manuel and Robert Hovhannisyan ended with a win for Petrosyan, again after Armageddon.
Aleksandar Indjic won against Deniz Ozen with a smooth 3:0. Matthias Bluebaum also got a clear win, against Vladimir Onischuk. David Navarra, a member of the Wasko HETMAN GKS Katowice club, was one of the local heroes and won his match against Eltaj Safarli. Finally, Gawain Jones advanced to the next round by defeating Bogdan Daniel Deac.
In the quarterfinals David Navara, Gawain Jones, Alexei Shirov and Matthias Bluebaum won their matches against Levan Pantsulaia, Manuel Petrosyan, Georg Meier and Aleksandar Indjic respectively.
The semifinals, final and match for the third place were played on Sunday. In both semifinals an Armageddon encounter was necessary to find a winner. Gawain Jones defeated David Navara and Alexei Shirov got the better of Matthias Bluebaum.
Gawain Jones got a 2½:½ victory in the final match against Alexei Shirov. The match for third place between Matthias Bluebaum and David Navara ended with the same result in favour of the German grandmaster.
27.Nc4 Rxc4! [Black often sacrifices an exchange in the Sicilian, but it usually happens on c3.]
28.bxc4 Bf4 29.Kg2 Qc6 [29...Rc8! 30.c3 Rxc4 31.Qd3 Qc6 Black is better.]
30.c3 b3 31.Ba3 Qxc4 32.Qxd6 Rd8 33.axb3 axb3 34.Qb4 Qd3 35.Rbd1 Qxd1!? [A good practical decision in blitz. The two knights near the black king are quite dangerous. 35...Bd2–+]
36.Rxd1 Rxd1 37.Qxb3 Rd2 38.Bc1 [38.Nf1 Re2 39.Qb5]
38...Rd3 39.Qc2 [Better was 39.Bb2] 39...Bxc1 40.Qxc1 [40.Qxd3 Nf4+]
40...Nf4+ 41.Kg1 Rxg3+ [Yet another fork threat.]
42.Kh2 Rh3+ 0–1
Volume one of the DVD deals with 9.Bc4, White's sharpest option, and shows how Black can counter this ambitious try by White with the main lines of the Soltis variation (12...h5), which was played by Magnus Carlsen regularly as well.
