 The first round of 2017 European Club Cup and 2017 European Club Cup for Women is over. It was mainly a day of David vs Goliath battles with the giants not having too much trouble with lesser mortals.
Open
The first round in such an uneven field promised many high scores and that was exactly what happened. The rating favourites, Globus from Russia, rested Kramnik today to the disappointment of chess fans who want to see the ex-champion to struggle for desperately needed rating points for qualification to Candidates, but with a line-up such as Russians it was still not a very fair battle for Icelandic warriors from Fjölnir Chess Club. The first win for the Russian club was a 13-moves miniature, soon to be followed by five other wins resulting in a complete whitewash:
Denis Khismatullin – Jon Arni Halldorsson
European Club Cup (1.6), 08.10.2017
Match: Globus-Fjölnir Chess Club
13.Nxd5! [A nice little tactic, perhaps easy for a player of Khismatullin's caliber but still pretty. After 13.Nxd5 exd5 14.Qxd5+– b8 knight needs to move somewhere to save the a8–rook but wherever it goes black loses a knight leaving him two pawns behind with a hopeless position. Having lost a pawn in an already bad position the player from Iceland decided to call it a day.]
Mednyi Vsadnik, another heavyweight from Russia and AVE Novy Bor from Czech Republic both applied the same tariff as Globus to their opponents and moved on to second round without any accidents.
The reigning champions Alkaloid also have beaten their opponents Augusta Persia from Italy but conceded 1,5 points on first and last boards. The game between the 2017 World Cup Runner-up Ding Liren and the young Italian IM Lorenzo Lodici on first board was probably the game of the day and saw a good preparation and strong follow-up from the Italian against the Chinese star. You can find it with analysis here:
Other favourites such as Legacy Square Capital, Odlar Yurdu, Csm Baia Mare and Beer Sheva Chess Club also won their matches pretty easily.
The only match point achieved by an underdog on the first day was in the match between the local Karaman Belediyesi Spor Kulübü and Oslo Schakselkap. The Turkish players are known to be in general underrated and they once again showed that to everyone by surprising the heavy favourites from Norway. Of course the contribution of their Azeri top board, IM Sadikhov was very crucial too as he managed to hold GM Hammer to a draw. A great result for the Turkish team!
Women
There were also no surprises in terms of match scores in women section but some individual upsets. The French WFM Cecile Haussernot was one of the biggest sensations of the round as she took full advantage of a careless blunder by WGM Olga Girya on 42. move and mated her opponent despite an ELO difference of more than 300 points.
The other two sensational results of the day belonged to hosts. 13 years old WFM Sıla Çağlar managed to make a draw against her experienced and strong opponent IM Kovalevskaya. Ebru Kaplan, rated 2001 ELO, was in control of the position and could win against IM Elisabeth Paehtz (2453) if she had found 32.Qg5!, but Paehtz, once the coach of Turkish girls, survived the scare and held the draw.
The only closely contested match of the day was between the favourites Batumi Chess Club Nona and the strongest Turkish team Anatolia, which basically consists of the national Turkish team. The only win of Georgians came from third board and it was IM Khotenashvili who saved the day with a win against Isgandarova. A scary start for Georgians but they must be relieved to go to second round without any significant damage.
The second round of the tournament will start on Monday at 3 pm local time. As the matchups getting tougher much more excitement is awaiting chess fans, don’t miss to follow the games and live commentary by GM Heberla & IM Arduman.
News: Tarık Selbes / Photos: David Llada
 The Presidents of the TCF and ECU, Mrs Gülkız Tulay and Mr Zurab Azmaiparashvili, made the first move in the R1 of the #ECC2017
Fjolnir Chess Club - Globus
 GM Vahap Şanal
GM Heberla & IM Arduman
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