Matthias Blübaum wins European Championship 2022!

Matthias Blübaum started the tournament with a draw but then scored six wins in a row to become sole leader. After three draws in rounds 8 to 10 Blübaum was caught by Sargissian, and before the last round both had 8.0/10 and shared first place. However, Blübaum was first on tiebreak.

The tournament hall

In the final round Blübaum played with White against Saric and Sargissian played with White against Jaime Santos. Sargissian decided to play it safe and drew after only six moves. After this quick draw of his closest rival Blübaum knew that he needed only a draw against Saric to win the title because he had the best tiebreak of all players who could theoretically reach a score of 8.5/11.

The decisive game: Blübaum against Saric

But Saric needed to win against Blübaum to become European Champion 2022. The Croatian Grandmaster tried to reach a double-edged position by going for the King's Indian but Blübaum quickly simplified by opting for the King's Indian Exchange Variation. This soon led to a drawish endgame and though Saric tried to get chances the game was drawn after 44 moves, which gave Blübaum the title.

In this game Blübaum showed a very professional approach against the King's Indian, but in round three he went for a sharper approach against the King's Indian.

Final standings after 11 rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	20	GM	Bluebaum Matthias					2642	8,5	2594	69,0	74,0	2785	10	20,4
2	7	GM	Sargissian Gabriel					2681	8,5	2578	72,5	77,5	2772	10	13,1
3	4	GM	Saric Ivan					2687	8,0	2589	73,0	78,5	2742	10	8,2
4	9	GM	Cheparinov Ivan					2672	8,0	2585	69,5	74,0	2742	10	9,7
5	17	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime					2648	8,0	2546	70,5	76,5	2705	10	8,0
6	35	GM	Yilmaz Mustafa					2624	8,0	2530	64,0	69,0	2688	10	9,5
7	26	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan					2636	8,0	2523	59,5	64,5	2680	10	6,4
8	32	GM	Durarbayli Vasif					2628	8,0	2509	67,0	73,0	2669	10	5,9
9	131	IM	Gadimbayli Abdulla					2451	7,5	2637	70,0	74,0	2717	10	39,9
10	65	GM	Iskandarov Misratdin					2577	7,5	2631	73,5	79,0	2731	10	23,8
11	12	GM	Guseinov Gadir					2661	7,5	2589	69,5	74,5	2703	10	6,7
12	29	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel					2632	7,5	2567	70,0	75,0	2681	10	7,8
13	22	GM	Sargsyan Shant					2639	7,5	2567	65,5	71,0	2682	10	6,7
14	102	GM	Kobo Ori					2510	7,5	2564	67,5	71,5	2655	10	23,9
15	31	GM	Moussard Jules					2630	7,5	2558	67,5	72,5	2672	10	6,9
16	14	GM	Tari Aryan					2653	7,5	2553	65,0	70,0	2670	10	3,1
17	3	GM	Anton Guijarro David					2694	7,5	2551	67,0	71,0	2660	10	-3,0
18	21	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy					2639	7,5	2547	70,0	74,5	2657	10	3,3
19	37	GM	Kozul Zdenko	S50				2619	7,5	2545	65,5	71,0	2659	10	6,9
20	93	GM	Nesterov Arseniy					2522	7,5	2540	67,0	70,5	2641	10	18,8
21	44	GM	Indjic Aleksandar					2605	7,5	2536	66,0	71,0	2647	10	7,6
22	28	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.					2633	7,5	2531	67,0	73,0	2648	10	3,0
23	43	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy					2606	7,5	2530	68,0	72,5	2644	10	6,6
24	18	GM	Ragger Markus					2647	7,5	2521	65,0	69,0	2629	10	-0,8
25	34	GM	Lagarde Maxime					2626	7,5	2518	65,0	69,5	2624	10	2,1
26	30	GM	Abasov Nijat					2630	7,5	2518	64,5	69,0	2636	10	1,6
27	23	GM	Petrosyan Manuel					2637	7,5	2518	63,0	68,5	2637	10	1,2
28	38	GM	Bartel Mateusz			ACP		2616	7,5	2502	63,0	68,0	2620	10	1,2
29	51	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo					2594	7,5	2496	62,0	67,5	2611	10	3,4
30	41	GM	Brkic Ante					2607	7,5	2483	61,5	66,0	2602	10	0,1

...317 players

The first 20 players qualify for the World Cup.

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Johannes Fischer Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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