Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova and Nona are European Club Cup 2019 Champions

by Sagar Shah
11/18/2019 – The European Club Cup came to an end with the fourth seeds Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova in the Open and third seeds Nona in the Women's tournament winning the title. The most important feature of both the teams was consistent performance by all the team members en route to wininng the title. In this article we bring you some of the most interesting moments from the event and also pictures from the closing ceremony.

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The European Club Cup came to an end with the Italian team Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova (literally "objective compensation") winning with a perfect score of 14.0/14 in the open section. The silver medal went to Ave Novy Bor from Czech Republic and the third place was taken by Mednyi Vsadnik from Russia.

Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova were deserving winners. They beat the top two seeds of the tournament — Alkaloid and Mednyi Vsadnik in rounds six and seven respectively. It was slightly unfortunate that the event was too short for the first and the second placed teams — Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova and Ave Novy Bor to face each other. This was also the case in 2018 when the winner Mednyi Vsadnik did not play Ave Novy Bor in the entire event. Well, these two year results should be enough to convince the organizers that with the number of teams growing in this event, it has become necessary to have a nine-round event.

Name Pts.
Rapport Richard 3,5
Adams Michael 4,0
Leko Peter 4,0
Vallejo Pons Francisco 4,0
Jones Gawain C B 5,0
Saric Ivan 4,0
Vocaturo Daniele 3,5
Brunello Sabino 2,5

Team roster and individual results

It's amazing that literally every player in the team gained rating at the event. Only Ivan Saric lost half an Elo point and Sabino Brunello dropped 6 points. Rapport, Adams and Leko all played very solid chess. Here's Leko's fine win against Alekseenko. The win is even more creditable as Alekseenko is in the best form of his chess career, having finished third at the Grand Swiss 2019.

 

The hardest hitter was Gawain Jones with 5.0/6. 

In our previous report we had already mentioned how Ivan Saric played a splendid game to beat Azerbaijani youngster Aydin Suleymanli. In the final and most critical round of the event it was Daniele Vocaturo who rose to the occasion against Vladislav Kovalev of Alkaloid.

It was only fitting that the Italian no.1 scored the most critical win of the event for the team

 

Team Ave Novy Bor won the silver just like last year

Name Pts.
Harikrishna Pentala 3,5
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 4,0
Navara David 3,0
Ragger Markus 3,5
Sasikiran Krishnan 3,5
Bartel Mateusz 5,0
Babula Vlastimil 3,0
Kriebel Tadeas 3,0

It is very interesting to note that Harikrishna Pentala, Vidit Gujarathi, David Navara, Markus Ragger, Sasikiran Krishnan, Mateusz Bartel — all the top six GMs of team Ave Novy Bor lost some Elo points! Different players delivered in different rounds. They lost only one round to the eventual bronze medalist Mednyi Vsadnik with a score of 3½:2½. But this was a round that they should not have lost. Sasikiran was completely winning his game against Maxim Rodshtein and eventually lost.

 

For Rodshtein, although luck was on his side against Ave Novy Bor, when it was his game against Gawain Jones from Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova, things turned 180 degrees!

 

Harikrishna played the third longest game ever in the history of classical chess against David Howell. It lasted for 236 moves. The position was completely drawn, but Howell kept trying to find ways to keep the struggle going. He used the strategy of making a pawn move every time he was close to the 50 move rule. Harikrishna, however, stood his ground and managed to hold the draw without too many difficulties.

 

Howell, wasn't too happy with the conduct of the arbiters and tweeted after the game:

The team of Mednyi Vsadnik led by Leinier Dominguez finished third

Top board of team Alkaloid was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Team Alkaloid, the top seeds, had a forgettable event as they lost two matches against Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova and Mednyi Vsadnik. But both the losses were by a margin of just 2½:3½. The positive news for team Alkaloid was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov winning the gold on board no. 1. Here's one tremendous game by Mamedyarov:

 

Final standings (Open)

Rk. Team  TB1 
1 Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova 14
2 AVE Novy Bor 12
3 Mednyi Vsadnik 11
4 Alkaloid 10
5 Moscow Chess Team 10
6 Valerenga 10
7 Molodezka 10
8 Vugar Gashimov 10
9 Koge SK 10
10 Primorsky District 10

Women's Championship

Third seeded Team Nona from Georgia won the gold medal | Photo: European Chess Union Twitter

The Georgian ladies started out slow, but as the tournament progressed, they found their footing and were able to win two crucial matches against second placed Kyiv Chess Federation and Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo. Nino Batsiashvili and Bela Khotenashvili both scored wins in both the matches against Monika Socko and Deimante Daulyte Cornette from Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo and against Abdumalik Zhansaya and Osmak Lulija.

 
Name Pts.
Dzagnidze Nana 4,0
Javakhishvili Lela 4,0
Batsiashvili Nino 4,5
Khotenashvili Bela 4,0
Melia Salome 1,0

The Kyiv Chess Federation finished second | Photo: European Chess Union Twitter

Name Pts.
Muzychuk Mariya 5,0
Muzychuk Anna 4,0
Abdumalik Zhansaya 3,5
Osmak Iulija 2,5
Gaponenko Inna 1,5

The bronze medal was won by Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo.

Final standings (Women)

Rk. Team  TB1 
1 Nona 11
2 Kyiv Chess Federation 10
3 Cercle d`Echecs Monte Carlo 10
4 Odlar Yurdu 9
5 Ugra 8
6  AVE Novy Bor 8
7 SPB Chess and Draughts Sport School 8
8 ZSK Maribor 8
9 Caissa Pentole Agnelli 7
10 Jelica PEP 6

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Sagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.

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