European Club Cup Round 5 2008

Mens Section

Baden-Baden Won Mika To Take The Lead

The Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez currently has a good reputation for the black side, and it worked fine for Levon Aronian who achieved a draw against Etienne Bacrot on the second board of MIKA - Baden Baden. On the other hand, Arkadij Naiditsch, who is playing in excellent shape here in Kallithea, managed to neutralize opponent’s counterplay in the same opening and transpose into winning ending. Fransisco Vallejo Pons was in serious trouble on board five, but the German team was optimistic as Pentala Harikrishna held a firm advantage ever since the introducing moves of the Catalan opening. With this important win, Baden Baden takes a sole lead with perfect score after five rounds. Tomorrow they are paired against the surging PVK Kiev Chess.

On the second table Economist Saratov and Ashdod Illit Chess Club drew all the games before the time control, while PVK Kiev wrecked Sahovsko Drustvo Ptuj by 5-1, allowing only draws against Grandmasters in Sloveian team. Ural is back on track after a sound 4.5-1.5 win against CC Zagreb, with full points from Radjabov, Grischuk and Malakhov. The weakened Iretza Gros tried their best against powerful TPS Saransk, but the Russian team efficiently collected all points on the lower boards.

Womens Section

Defending Champion Monte Carlo Take The Lead While EPAM and Spartak Vidnoe Draw.

After the fifth round of the European Club Cup 2008 Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo is now leading with 9 points after defeating Aspopirgos Attikis the the local heroes by 3-1 while Spartak Vidnoe and EPAM are sharing the 2-3.places after drawing with each other as a result of Stefanova’s and Matveeva’s victories canceling each other out with 8 points. T-Com Podgorica and Economist Saratov are at 7 points and looking for more. The decisive game for the fight for the trophy might be between EPAM vs. Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo today.

The first board match between EPAM and Spartak Vidnoe did not produce any winner. GM Trang and WGM Hou made a draw after a long fight.

On the first board of EPAM and Spartak Vidnoe, GM Hoang and WGM Hou fought until the very end but without neither side overwhelming the other and the game ended as a draw. GM Stefanova won against IM Zatonskih displaying a meticulous endgame technique again by utilizing the material advantage. The a pawn looked dangerous in the game between IM Atalık and GM Zhao but white managed to create counterplay with the help of the d pawn neutralized the pawn and the full point was shared between the two players in the end. IM Tatiana Kosintseva was very close to a win against IM Matveeva but missing one move in a sharp position cost a lost for the 2007 European Champion and IM Matveeva scored a very important win for her team.

Svetlana Matveeva scored an important win against Tatiana Kosintseva and EPAM drew with Spartak Vidnoe.

Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo: GM Humpy, GM Cramling, IM Dzagnidze and IM Skripchenko (from left to right)

The upset of the event so far, the local heroes from Athens faced the defending champions Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo with at least 300 rating difference on every board but Aspopirgos was still able to extract one point from the Monaco side. GM Humpy Koneru face WIM Papadopoulou and gained a pawn around move 25 but there was still long way to go for a team and it was the last game to finish in the hall. There was a rook endgame with opposite colored bishop with the decisive extra d pawn on the board but it took some moves to reach the precise winning mechanism for the Indian Grandmaster. WIM Cherenkova, who is 4 out of 5 on board 2, made the upset of the round by winning against GM Pia Cramling, a very solid and experienced player with the help of a strong pawn storm on the king’s side which black did not seem to have a sufficient solution or counterplay against. The lack of coordination of the black pieces cost a lot in the game between Dzagnidze-Fakhretdinova game where the young Georgian invaded the seventh rank with her rooks which proved decisive. On the fourth board IM Skripchenko scored an easy win against Iordanidou by converting the extra piece.

The local heros Aspopirgos Attikis were halted by Monte Carlo.WIM Papadopoulou, WIM Cherenkova, WFM Fakhretdinova and Iordanidou.

MIKA Yerevan and Economist Saratov

A survival match for the fight for the top was played between Economist Saratov and MIKA Yerevan. Economist Saratov won 2.5-1.5 against MIKA Yerevan. The early draw between IM Ushenina and GM Chiburdanidze, IM Paehtz and GM Lahno were followed by a more complicated one between IM Khurtsidze and WGM Kovanova. The decisive game of the match was played between IM Danielian and IM Harika, where the Indian star carried her club to the victory. Black’s c pawn was very strong that white had to give the exchange but the material advantage was then converted by the world junior girls champion.

Economist Saratov suffered a draw against Vandeouvre and a loss against Monte Carlo in the first two rounds but after three consecutive wins they are back on track and had to fight well against Spartak Vidnoe to hold on to the higher spots in the standings.

T-Com Podgorica

T-Com Podgorica scored a comfortable 3.5-0.5 against their neighbors from Serbia, Radnicki Rudovci by IM Muzychuk, IM Gaponenko and IM Kovalevskya winning against WGM Chelushkina, WGM Olarasu and WIM Zivkovic.

In the game that would influence the middle of the standings, Madatech Haifa Chess Club defeated Panevezys Chess Club thanks to the wins of their last two boards Vovinkina and Porat.

Finek St.Petersburg: IM Cmilyte, WGM Zhukova, WGM Demina and IM Turova.

Finek St.Petersburg, the Russian champions, is not the team that you expect to see on lower boards with IM Korbut, IM Cmilyte, WGM Zhukova, WGM Demina and IM Turova, however they lost the crucial games so far including the one against Economist Saratov so that is the reason thy were at the seventh board but scored an easy win against Herzliya Chess Club.

CS Cotnari-Polithenica, swept Bischwiller while Gross-Lehna from Germany defeated Galaxias Thessaloniki by 3.5-0.5 by the individual wins of IM Petrenko, WGM Voicu and Nagel.

Malaysian Players in Action in World Youth Chess Championships 2008 After Round 4

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	Pts.	Rk.	K	rtg+/-	Group
7		Yeoh Li Tian	1955	MAS	0	1	½	1	2,5	33	0	0,00	Open 10
30		Aron Teh Eu Wen	0	MAS	1	0	0	1	2,0	41	0	0,00	Open 10
44		Lee Kah Meng Elgin	1811	MAS	½	0	1	½	2,0	51	0	0,00	Open 12
58		Azhar Muhammad Syakir Shazmeer	1844	MAS	0	1	0	1	2,0	53	0	0,00	Open 14
46		Ong Way Justin	2044	MAS	0	1	0	1	2,0	42	0	0,00	Open 16
3		Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada	0	MAS	1	1	½	0	2,5	13	0	0,00	Girls 08
27		Camilia Bt Johari	0	MAS	1	0	½	0	1,5	47	0	0,00	Girls 10
52		Nur Najiha Hisham	0	MAS	1	0	½	0	1,5	48	0	0,00	Girls 10
59		Nur Nabila Azman Hisham	0	MAS	1	0	½	1	2,5	25	0	0,00	Girls 12
29		Bakri Alia Anin Azwa	1907	MAS	½	½	1	0	2,0	38	0	0,00	Girls 14

Rd.

SNo

Name

Rtg

FED

Pts.

Res.

Group

Yeoh Li Tian 1955 MAS Rp:1569 Pts. 2,5

1	52		Lorpari Zangeneh Shahin	0	IRI	2,5	s 0	Open 10
2	26		Harshal Shahi	1694	IND	1,5	w 1	Open 10
3	59		Nguyen Ngoc Minh Tri	0	VIE	2,5	s ½	Open 10
4	40		Irgaliyev Alikhan	0	KAZ	1,5	w 1	Open 10
5	70		Sanders Isaac B	0	ENG	2,5	s	Open 10

Aron Teh Eu Wen 0 MAS Rp:1561 Pts. 2,0

1	75		Sinyanskiy Maxim	0	RUS	2,0	w 1	Open 10
2	1		Mousavi Seyed Khalil	2042	IRI	3,5	s 0	Open 10
3	67		Phan Luong	0	VIE	2,0	w 0	Open 10
4	62		Nguyen Van Toan Thanh	0	VIE	1,0	s 1	Open 10
5	65		Paulo Bersamina	0	PHI	2,0	w	Open 10

Lee Kah Meng Elgin 1811 MAS Rp:1545 Pts. 2,0

1	91		Tan Kwang Shing Bryan	0	SIN	1,0	s ½	Open 12
2	87		Nguyen Tan Thinh	0	VIE	2,5	w 0	Open 12
3	65		Clanchy Nicholas	0	ENG	0,5	s 1	Open 12
4	21		Akhmetov Ayan	1980	KAZ	2,0	w ½	Open 12
5	9	CM	Ostrovskiy Aleksandr A	2113	USA	2,0	s	Open 12

Azhar Muhammad Syakir Shazmeer 1844 MAS Rp:1954 Pts. 2,0

1	15		Meskovs Nikita	2247	LAT	3,0	s 0	Open 14
2	85		Shah Rushab	0	KEN	0,0	w 1	Open 14
3	31		Gaehwiler Gabriel	2093	SUI	3,0	s 0	Open 14
4	34		Hansen Pal Andreas	2074	NOR	1,0	w 1	Open 14
5	19		Kotainy Jens	2210	GER	2,0	s	Open 14

Ong Way Justin 2044 MAS Rp:1842 Pts. 2,0

1	10	FM	Jorczik Julian	2382	GER	3,5	s 0	Open 16
2	69		Karani Victor	0	KEN	0,0	w 1	Open 16
3	24		Rojas Alarcon Julian Antonio	2187	MEX	3,0	s 0	Open 16
4	71		Naidu Sayen	0	RSA	1,0	w 1	Open 16
5	29		Nuri Kambez	2179	SUI	2,0	w	Open 16

Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada 0 MAS Rp:1495 Pts. 2,5

1	30		Peng Janet	0	CAN	0,0	w 1	Girls 08
2	38		Sakalli Esin	0	TUR	2,0	s 1	Girls 08
3	32		Pham Vu Linh Chi	0	VIE	2,5	w ½	Girls 08
4	50		Vu Thi Dieu Uyen	0	VIE	3,5	s 0	Girls 08
5	42		Sneha n G	0	IND	2,5	w	Girls 08

Camilia Bt Johari 0 MAS Rp:1415 Pts. 1,5

1	61		Shah Sita	0	KEN	1,0	w 1	Girls 10
2	5		Vasova Mariya	1809	BUL	3,0	w 0	Girls 10
3	52		Nur Najiha Hisham	0	MAS	1,5	s ½	Girls 10
4	18	WFM	Rosales Pierina	0	PER	2,5	s 0	Girls 10
5	44		Katanova Marina	0	RUS	1,5	w	Girls 10

Nur Najiha Hisham 0 MAS Rp:1466 Pts. 1,5

1	18	WFM	Rosales Pierina	0	PER	2,5	w 1	Girls 10
2	8		Sunyasakta Satpathy	1766	IND	4,0	s 0	Girls 10
3	27		Camilia Bt Johari	0	MAS	1,5	w ½	Girls 10
4	16		Vasenina Anna	1646	RUS	2,5	s 0	Girls 10
5	28		Coelho Ramyres Santana	0	BRA	1,5	w	Girls 10

Nur Nabila Azman Hisham 0 MAS Rp:1764 Pts. 2,5

1	23		Terbe Zsuzsanna	1664	HUN	2,0	w 1	Girls 12
2	19		Tomin Ksenija	1756	SRB	2,0	s 0	Girls 12
3	24		Yigit Aleyna	1660	TUR	1,5	s ½	Girls 12
4	27		Ioan Diana	1597	ROU	1,5	w 1	Girls 12
5	4		Tereshechkina Maya	1961	RUS	2,5	s	Girls 12

Bakri Alia Anin Azwa 1907 MAS Rp:1655 Pts. 2,0

1	68		Pes Eleonora	0	ITA	0,5	w ½	Girls 14
2	76		Vuong Quynh Huong	0	VIE	2,0	s ½	Girls 14
3	46		Yu Sally	1776	AUS	2,0	w 1	Girls 14
4	14	WFM	Hakimifard Ghazal	2043	IRI	3,0	s 0	Girls 14
5	48		Bea Boglarka	1752	HUN	2,0	w	Girls 14

European Club Cup Round 4 2008

Mens Section

Mika Won the battle against Ural!

The top seeded Ural and MIKA were engaged in fearless battle in the 4th round of the European Club Cup. Levon Aronian won a beautiful game against Gata Kamsky and Arman Pashikian beat Alexander Motylev to present MIKA with a solid lead. Vladimir Malakhov succeeded only to reduce the margin by defeating Baadur Jobava, but with all the remaining games drawn, Ural was left without match points today.

Arkadij Naiditsch played a magnificent game versus Evgeny Najer and Paco Vallejo got more out of the tactical mess on board five, which was enough for Baden Baden to sign a comfortable 4-2 victory against TPS Saransk. Much more drama was seen in Linex - Economist where three games ran into the time trouble. Eventually, Linex hero from the earlier competitions - IM Manuel Perez Candelario - succumbed to Alexander Galkin, which was the only decisive game in the match.

The crowded playing hall

Photographers from Czech Republic, Armenia, India…

Pentala Harikrishna and Ni Hua

Teimour Radjabov and Magnus Carlsen playing through the opening

The team of Linex Magic

Peter Svidler and Vassily Ivanchuk

The team of Clichy Echecs 92

 

Womens Section

Deadlock in the Big Game, EPAM Joins the Spartak Vidnoe and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo

The struggle of the top two teams, Spartak Vidnoe and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo did not have any winner, while EPAM won against Internet T-Com Podgorica with the slightest margin to join the the top two teams. All three clubs have 7 points followed by the Greek team Aspopirgos Attikis that added another game to its winning streak to meet the Monte Carlo team on round 5, while Spartak will face EPAM. More on the key round of the European Club Cup 2008 for women below.

Hou Yifan and Humpy Koneru faced each other in the match between Spartak Vidnoe and Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo

The big match between Spartak Vidnoe and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo ended as a draw with the draws on top two boards WGM Hou-GM Humpy and GM Stefanova-GM Cramling. Dzagnidze’s win against Zhao and Kosintseva’s win against Socko canceled each other out. The second and third highest rated women on earth WGM Hou Yifan and GM Koneru Humpy who met in the World Championship semi finals in Nalchik this year met each other again on the first board of the crucial match up. The clash of the two female stars ended as a draw without any obvious lapses for both sides.

Nana Dzagnidze scored another important victory for her team.

Humpy Koneru herself revealed the interview that she have revealed that despite she played a different opening compared to her previous games and everything looked good for both sides in the middle game but she had some problems in the endgame stating “While transferring into the endgame, it was inferior for me. Maybe I should have played better in my arrangement of the pieces. Once I had the b file break in the queen side it was absolutely equal. The result was also good for the team since we can still play for the title.”

GM Cramling and GM Stefanova made a quick draw while IM Dzagnizde won a brilliant game against GM Zhao. The Georgian youngster forced her opponent’s king to have a journey around the board ending at h3, the point where the white king had no further escape from the mate. IM Kosintseva was the one to equalize by her win once again by utilizing the c4 outpost in the endgame.

IM Tatiana Kosintseva won against IM Monika Socko but her team Spartak Vidnoe did not manage to win against Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo.

EPAM continued its march to the top thanks to their narrow win against T-com Podgorica and joined the two other leaders Spartak Vidnoe and Monte Carlo Chess Club.Muzychuk and Hoang drew quietly. The second and third boards proceeded in a similar fashion and ended with the same result so it was the game between WGM Sharevich and IM Kovalevskaya that settled the game. White’s superior control over the center yielded the pressure on black’s camp which eventually left white with an extra camp but with opposite colored bishops and a pair of knights in the ending. In the end the decisive idea of playing f6 was executed by WGM Sharevich, the idea was already noted by GM Daniel Friedman who was already with the Chessdom team several moves before it was actually played.

Anna Sharevich's victory in the opposite colored bishop endgame was decisive for EPAM's victory against T-Com Podgorica.

The home side team Aspopirgos Attikis made another upset by grounding down Panevezys Chess Club thanks to the wins scored by WIM Cherenkova and WFM Farkretdinova while WIM Papadopolou hold IM Ciuksyte to a draw which were enough for the Athens team to get paired with the defending champions Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo and they are at the fourth place.

To be or not to be! Economist Saratov survived in the comeback battle with the champions of the domestic leauge, Finec St.Petersburg.

The two strong Russian clubs that were struggling including the winners of the 2008 Russian Team Championship Finek St.Petersburg and Economist Saratov faced each other on the fifth board. The Russian champions from St.Peterbrug went down with 1-3 while Econonist Saratov continued to look for a comeback after IM Ushenina and WGM Kovanova’s win against IM Korbut and IM Turova respectively.

MIKA Yerevan won against the Rumenian Cotnari-Politehnica Ias with the slightest margin, with the wins of IM Danielia and IM Khurtsidze despite the draw of GM Chiburdanidze with IM Peptan and the loss of Mrktchian against WGM Motoc. Rudar Ugljevcik was another team to score a close victory but against Herzliya Chess Club as did Vandoeuvre Echecs against SK Gross-Lenha. The French team inflicted yet another loss to the home side from Thessaloniki by 2.5-1.5 again.

Vandoeuvre made another upset this time against Gross-Lehna from Germany.

European Club Cup 2008 Round 3

Mens Section

The top seeded URAL Sverdlovskaya passed by another barrier, allowing only one draw to the team of Siroki Brijeg - Hering. Much more uncertainty was seen in the match between MIKA Chess Club and 4-time ECC winner Bosna Sarajevo. Being weakened after the unexpected cancelation of Alexander Morozevich, the Bosnian team still gave a stiff resistance. Baadur Jobava and Arman Pashikian brought a lead to MIKA, which proved to be decisive in spite of Magnus Carlsen’s rook blunder in the endgame against Sergei Movsesian.

OSG Baden-Baden once again cleverly used pieces colors to score 4.5-1.5 against the very solid Novoborsky SK. For the Russian derby, Economist SGSEU-1 introduced FIDE Grand Prix leader Wang Yue on the first board against FINEK Gazprombank. He was held to a draw by Vadim Zvjaginsev, but Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ni Hua and Dmitry Andreikin won their games to deliver a 4.5-1.5 score in favor of team from Saratov.

Thanks to Andrei Volokitin and Sergey Volkov, TPS Saransk managed to outplay Zagreb CC by a small margin even after Goran Dizdar shocked Mikhail Kobalia on the last board. The 6th team with the perfect score after three rounds is the last-year champion Linex Magic who won 4.5-1.5 against the talented team of Werder Bremen.

Alexei Shirov and Gata Kamsky on top boards for URAL Sverdlovskaya

Azerbaijani derby on the first board in Alkaloid - Ashod Illit ended in a draw

Panevezys Chess Club

Merida Patrimonio de la Humanidad and Iretza Gros

GM Ni Hua

Harikrishna

Womens Section

After the third round of the European Club Cup, the top two seeds Monte Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo and Spartak Vidnoe are alone at the top both have won all their games so far.  The latest addition to the Monte Carlo squad, Dzagnidze scored a crucial win to lead her club to victory against Finek St.Peterburg while Spartak defeated Radnicki Rudovci. Details below.

Spartak Vidnoe had Stefanova, Zhao and Kosintseva sisters in their yesterday

In the meeting of the two of the three leaders before round three, Spartak Vidnoe defeated Radnicki Rudovci, the Serbia champions with a clear 3.5-0.5 score with the only draw conceded by one of the new arriving players of the team from Beijing, GM Zhao Xue against IM Foisor. GM Stefanova,  grabbed a pawn in the middlegame and went on to win while 2007 European Champion Tatiana Kosintseva utilized the c4 outpost and the c file effectively to score the win for her team as did her sister IM Nadezhda Kosintseva in a game she dominated on both sides of the board. IM Foisor defended well against GM Zhao Xue to score the only individual half point of her team. Spartak Vidnoe will face the defending champions Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo and probably 14-year old world championship finalist WGM Hou Yifan will also join their squad.

IM Nana Dzagnidze won the decisive game of the match against Finek. St Petersburg.

The defending champions won their third round game to join Spartak on top, narrowly against Finek St.Petersburg with 2.5-1.5 with the help of their new star IM Nana Dzagnidze who just passed the 2500 mark. IM Ekaterina Korbut decided to sacrifice an exchange against Koneru Humpy for a very strong bishop in the centre which were enough for white to force a draw. White was the side who was looking for exploiting black’s weaknesses but black managed to hold in Cmilyte-Cramling game.  The young Georgian star of the Monaco team IM Dzagnidze scored a vital win against WGM Zhukova in a 4 vs. 3 pawns rook endgame with the pawns on the same side. IMs Socko and Turova also made a draw.

EPAM with a narrow but important 2.5-1.5 victory against MIKA Yerevan.

EPAM was another side to score an important win against MIKA Yerevan, one of the most successful teams of the ECC recent years thanks to the individual victories of Atalık and Zatonskih. GMs Hoang and Chiburdanidze made an early draw. IM Matveeva played à la Fischer played against Spassky in the first game of the Reykjavik 1972 match since she captured the h2 pawn with her bishop which was trapped few moves later. However, the Belorussian team made the comeback with IM Atalık’s nice victory against Lahno in a complex Grunfeld position with the assault of her rooks on f file. IM Zatonskih gave her team the important win by winning the endgame with opposite colored bishops and one pair of rooks with the decisive mating net in the end.

The tactical complications ended up with a strong c pawn and a winning endgame for black in the game between IMs Peptan and Muzychuk. While WGM Cosma and IM Maric made a quiet draw the game between WGM Motoc and IM Gaponenko would have an elegant finish if the Ukraninan star would have played the queen sacrifice 31…Qg2 and invaded the second rank with her rooks. Nevertheless, Kovalevskaya gained a piece and later on the full point. Hence, the Montenegrin team won 3-1 against Iasi.

Aspopirgos of the capital of the home country pleased the hosts by scoring a 3-1 win against Rudar Ugljevik with WI Cherenkova, WFM Fakhretdinova and Iordanidou’s wins. The Lithuanian Panevezys Chess Club won the 2 points after winning 3-1 against Vandoeuvre Echecs while sixth seed Economist Saratov , the struggling strong Russian side won their first match with 4-0 against Gross-Lehna with IM Harika Dronavalli making her debut in Kallithea. Madatech Chess Club won narrowly against Bishwiller while the Israeli club Herzliya also scored their first win against the home side Galaxias Thessaloniki.

Source: Chessdom