Today there were many tough matches in both women and open sections, putting some of world’s best players against each other. True, sometimes when both players belong to the elite the games might tend to be dry but today was definitely not one of those days. Witnessing such games as played in this round of European Club Cup your love for chess might be rejuvenated, especially if you think the computers made the game a bit boring. Anyway let’s have a quick look at what happened today.
Open
The match of the day was undoubtedly AVE Novy Bor vs. Globus. It was clear that today would be a laborious day for Russians but even the most pessimist player among them probably couldn’t have imagined the shaky start to the round Globus had today. Especially not when Kramnik and Grischuk were finally playing for the first time today. But the show belonged rather to the other players as both stars made quiet draws against Wojtaszek and Navara respectively!
Let’s start with the most nailbiting. Ian Nepomniachtchi played with a creativeness which probably got the captain and manager of Globus stressed like hell. After sacrificing a full piece, it was objectively doubtful that white had full compensation for his material deficiency. Just have a look at this position:
Nepomniachtchi-Bartel
Nepomniachtchi played 17.Nf4 and now Bartel answered with cautious 17…Bg7? After many adventures which has seen black king go to e1 square when queens, a pair of knights and rooks were still on board mutual mistakes led to a draw in the end. Instead 17…Bxd5 18. Nxd5 Qd8! 19. Rad1 Bd6! was correct and although it looks to be dangerous black has avoided all the threats now and could look for ways to realize his material advantage.
The adventures also didn’t end up there. Another enterprising player, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Globus played ambitiously but ended up with this endgame after correct play by his Indian opponent:
Mamedyarov-Harikrishna
The position after Mamedyarov’s 38. Kh2. It should be drawish anyway but instead of 38…Re4 38…Rb3 with the plan 39…Kf4 seemed more dangerous and it seemed likelier for Mamedyarov to go wrong in that case. Still it was a nice fortress by the Azeri and a crucial save for Globus.
The hero of the day for Globus was Sergey Karjakin. The Russian ex-candidate scored the only win in the match after a positional squeeze of finest caliber against Markus Ragger. Certainly a game worth analyzing, especially if you want to improve your positional chess!
The matchup between third seeds Mednyi Vsadnik and fifth seeds Legacy Square Capital was also very hard-fought. In an all Russian duel there was no winner in the end as both clubs exchanged wins on second and third boards. The rook endgame Malakhov won against Fedoseev was extremely interesting and complicated but here we would like to show the excellent game Matlakov-Najer instead:
Odlar Yurdu from Azerbaijan won against Italian Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova with the smallest of margins: 3,5-2,5. Rauf Mamedov’s win against Alberto David after the latter missed an obvious move and Abasov’s win against Valsecchi sealed the deal for Azeris as Odlar Yurdu moved to a perfect score of 6 points.
Speaking of perfect points we also see Gambit Asseco from Macedonia and LSG Leiden from Netherlands with 6 points before fourth round as they haven’t played with top seeds yet. Next round will be a tough test for both clubs: Macedonians are paired against the “monsters” Globus and the Dutch against Odlar Yurdu.
After the surprising loss yesterday Alkaloid is back to winning track with a 6-0 and started their comeback campaign. Will it be enough for becoming champion, that remains to be seen.
Women
Although both clubs had lost match points and weren’t leading the standings the match-up between top two seeds Batumi Chess Club Nona-Ugra Chess Club was the one that was most awaited.
It looked a bit troublesome for Georgians as Marina Nechaeva from Ugra, whom some people might know with her maiden surname as Marina Guseva, played a near-perfect game after Khotenashvili made an erroneous decision on move 13 leaving white with a stable edge due to better pawn formation and c7 weakness of the black. While Nechaeva’s win was a matter of time, all the top boards seemed to level the games so it seemed like another heavy blow to the ambitions of Batumi Chess Club Nona will be dealt by Ugra Chess Club. However both Dzagnidze and Batsiashvili managed to confuse their opponents in tricky endgames to claim the victory for first seeds in a very saddening turn of events for Russians. Thus the Georgians can relax a bit and continue of dreaming of another European title.
Bossa Nova from Belarus is the only team left with perfect score after today’s win against Odlar Yurdu. Fataliyeva’s good play against Badelka brought to Azeris a full point from second board but losses of Mamedjarova -after a horrible opening- and Mammadova -losing the nice control she had over the position- In the other important match of the day Legacy Square Capital and Cs Studentesc Medicina Timisoara shared the points. Paehtz mated Kashlinskaya on first board for the Romanian team but Kovalevskaya played a beautiful endgame against Sandu on second board in which she proved the power of the knight! The real tragedy of the match was Dragomirescu’s epic failure against Savina. On 70th move Rf5 followed by g5 would be enough for a simple win in a rook endgame with connected passers on f and g files. Instead Dragomirescu chose 70. Rd3?? allowing 70…Kf4! with an immediate draw. A game that could be in the new editions of “Endgame Manual” by Dvoretsky, had the legendary trainer and author lived.
The locals “Anatolia” scored a second win today against Mulhouse Philidor from France with a clean score: 3,5-0,5. Let’s see what hosts will do in the next round against fellow Azeris Odlar Yurdu.
The fourth round will start at 3 pm on Wednesday. Don’t miss the commentary by GM Heberla & IM Arduman and the new addition to the team WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili of Georgia who certainly makes the live commentary more attractive for everyone!
Report by: FM Tarik Selbes Photos by: David Llada
Alexander Grischuk
 Vladimir Kramnik
Anna Zhukova - Zeinab Mamedjarova
Aryan Tari - Ding Liren
Ekaterina Atalık
Sergey Karjakin
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