tag: European Championship 2012 - Page 1

European Championship: Jakovenko is champion with last round victory

4/1/2012 – It’s never over until it’s over, and the last round of the embattled European Championship merely reiterated this truism. Laurent Fressinet was the clear favorite as he held a half-point lead over the rest, but Dmitry Jakovenko crowned his final sprint to the top with a decisive victory taking the title. Fressinet came second, and Vladimir Malakhov third. Final report with GM commentary.

Zero Tolerance, Sofia Rules and Dress Code

3/31/2012 – The events that have clouded the European Chess Championship in Plovdiv – after Shakhriyar Mamedyarov another Azeri GM, Eltaj Safarli, has abandoned the event after defaulting in round nine – have generated a great deal of discussion: is "zero tolerance" really necessary, how should one regulate draw offers, and should arbiters be measuring skirt lengths? Reader feedback.

European Championship: Mamedyarov defaulted again, quits tournament

3/30/2012 – The second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who lost a game owing to the "zero tolerance" rule yesterday, today defaulted by breaking the "Sofia Rule", which does not allow draw offers to be made before move 40, and always through the arbiter. A second game, Baron-Safarli, was similarly defaulted. Mamedyarov quit the tournament and will not be playing in the remaining rounds. What a mess.

European Championship: Mamedyarov defaulted 'for ten second delay'

3/29/2012 – The "Zero Tolerance" rule strikes again. This time it was second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who ran afoul of a rule that punishes any player who is not seated at the board when the starting gong for a round sounds with immediate forfeit. As the Azeri wrote in his Twitter, he arrived about ten seconds late for a game that was supposed to cement his second half comeback. Round eight report.

European Championship: six players default on DST

3/26/2012 – Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks so that evenings have more daylight and mornings less. Clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and backward in autumn. The date for the spring adjustment was Saturday night. Unfortunately the Georgian squad, with two players set to break performance records, did a Darwinian screw-up of the time switch.

Gawain Jones leads with 4.0/4 in Plovdiv

3/24/2012 – On the top twelve boards there were eleven draws in round four of the European Championship in Bulgaria. The one decisive game was the black piece win by Gawain Jones against Russian GM Boris Savchenko,. The English GM is now the only player left with a perfect score. GM Alejandro Ramirez has selected a game that wasn't one of the top top boards, but which he found to be highly entertaining.

Plovdiv European Championship: Revolt of the underrated

3/23/2012 – There were plenty of upsets in the first three rounds in Bulgaria. Typically an IM or even FM rated 250 points below his opponent would take the full point, often with the black pieces. There are now eleven players with 3.0/3 and 41 with 2½ points. The hero of round two was 15-year-old Illya Nyzhnyk, who defeated Dutch Champion Anish Giri, 132 points his senior. Report with GM commentary.

13th European Championship has started in Plovdiv

3/21/2012 – This event, with 300 players, 15 of whom are rated above 2700, is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from March 20th to 31st, 2012. The zero tolerance rule is in force and draw offers are forbidden before move 40. In round one our attention was focussed on two young stars, top seed Fabiano Caruana, 19, and fourth seed Anish Giri, two years his junior. Annotations by GM Alejandro Ramirez.
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