Comments by Mišo Cebalo
Tie-break
Looking all the day at these games which were full of turn over, blunders and even losses on time in a winning position, I cannot avoid raising again a question about the regularity of such a system. According to myself there are few things that are highly controversial. First of all, why somebody should win one more tournament to confirm his victory after 11 rounds. What is even worse, that second tournament is played with completely different rules (knock-out system, rate of play). Especially arguable is the rate of play which has nothing to do with the tournament one. It is quite clear that such games offer a spectacle (today there will be probably much more enters on the official website), but a portion of additional stress suffered by the players after 11 days of tough battles makes much more damage comparing to the profit. The problem is that all these strange ideas are coming from the amateurs who never found themselves in such situations, while on the other side chess players are inert and not organized at all in order to be able to have some influence in such cases and to bring through their own ideas. I used to be a FIDE delegate for 4 years (1991-1995), long enough to know how things are going on in that organization.Luckily, here we had a sole winner after 11 rounds, so at least there the tie-break couldn't make damage.However, there is one good news but a bad one as well, as in jokes. The good one is that it seems that tie-break will be abolished after this Championship, so the next EC, which will take place in Aix-les-Bains (France), will be played with old rules. The bad one, at least for a lot of players, is that women will play again in a different place (in Turkey). It seems that most of the girls are of the same opinion.In the meantime Jobava won the tie-break for the second place with 1,5:0,5, which means that silver goes to Georgia, and bronze to Russia.After three rounds of tie-break we got a winner of the medal of bronze. It is Socko (POL) who defeated in the final Sebag (FRA) with 2:0. Since she was from the beginning of the tournament always on the top, we can say that this time tie-break caused much less damage than last year in Budva.The last dilemain that tournament is solved as well. Three remaining places (out of 14) which lead to the World CUP were won by Kovalevska (RUS), Zezulkina (BLR) and Rajlich (POL). A definite sensation of this tournament is 15 years old Zezulkina who came here with the lowest international title (WFM) and miserable rating (2188), while she will come home with the higher title, 75 elo points more and the right to participate in the next World Cup! Men were fighting for the remaining 13 places out of 23 which lead to the World Cup. After two rounds of tie-break they went to: : Mamedov (AZE) ,Movsesian (SVK), Drozdovsky (RUS), Babula (CZE), Vorobiov (RUS), Zviagincev (RUS), Berkes (HUN), Potkin (RUS), Halkias (GRE), Nisipeanu (ROM), Alekseev (RUS), Grachev (RUS) and Socko (POL). This puts the final touch to the success of the family Socko.
Instead of anecdote:
To play chess nowadays became really very difficult. You are late a couple of seconds for the beginning-you lose the game, your mobile phone rings-you lose the game, you make a wrong move-you lose the game. Maybe it's time to start to think about poker?
Best wishes to all the fans of our beautiful game!
M.Cebalo
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Eleventh round
What seemed to be impossible, to have a winner without tie-break, just happened by men. Nepomniashtchi scored one more win, this time with white against Akopian (ARM) and became a new European Champion with 9,0 points, quite deservedly I would say. He played quickly and very confidently, realizing a fantastic finish with 3,5 points out of last 4 games, where a decisive victory was that one against Jobava(GEO) who finished with 8,5 points, tying with Timofeev (RUS) for second place. Tomorrow in tie-break they will decide the color of their medals.The most important results of the last round are: Jobava (GEO)-Khismatullin (RUS) 1:0, Timofeev (RUS)-Mamedov (AZE) 1:0, Lysij (RUS)-Efimenko (UKR) remi, Sokolov (BiH)-Almasi (HUN) 0:1, Tomashevsky (RUS)-Khairullin (RUS) 1:0.A tie for the fourth place includes 7 players with 8,0 points, and these are: Efimenko (UKR), Lysij (RUS), Almasi (HUN), Tomashevsky (RUS), Rodshtein (ISR), Salgado Lopez (ESP), the only player on the top with less than 2600 elo points, and Pashikian (ARM). Behind them there is a group of 30 players with 7,5 points who will fight tomorrow for the remaining 12 places which lead to the World Cup.Big fights for top places were seen by women as well. In the most important game which was supposed to decide the name of the Champion, Cramling (SWE), playing white, managed to defeat Cmilyte (LTU) and with 9,0 points became the new European Champion. It was an interesting game where in the middle game the position was more or less equal, but then Cmilyte took the wrong way end entered the difficult endgame which she didn't manage to save.Other important results on the top were: Socko (POL)-Sebag (FRA) draw, n Stefanova (BLG)-Skripchenko (FRA) draw, A.Muzychuk (SLO)-Ushenina (RUS) draw, T.Kosintseva (RUS)-Savina (RUS 1:0, Zawadzka (POL)-Zhukova (UKR) 0:1 and Moser (AUT)-Dembo (GRE) 0:1. This means that the silver medal goes to Cmilyte (LTU) who is second with 8,5 points, while a group of 5 players with 8,0 points will fight tomorrow for the medal of bronze. Another group of 10 players with 7,5 points will decide tomorrow who will take the remaining 5 tickets for the World Cup. Among them there is a sensation of the tournament, 15 years old WFM Zezulkina (BLR) with only 2188 elo points. Her result brought her another 75 points!Tomorrow there will be a tie-break for all critical places.
Anecdote:
Two Knights Defense
One day a young chess amateur without talent asked Wilhelm Steinitz to explain him how Black should play in Two Knights Defense. The first official World Champion tried very hard to give all necessary explanations, including plans and ideas for both sides, but in one moment the ambitious youngster interrupted him:” Excuse me Grandmaster, but it seems to me that things are not as simple as that. You see, I play often with Mr. Blackburn and he is giving me a two knight’s handicap, but I don’t manage to defend myself with my extra knights”.
M.Cebalo
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Tenth round
Today’s round gave us answers to some of the most interesting questions. In both tournaments leaders kept their positions, and while by men an eventual tie for the first place is still possible, by women such an end is theoretically impossible anymore.Let’s start with the most important result in men’s tournament: Khismatullin (RUS)-Nepomniashtchi (RUS), Mamedov (AZE)-Jobava (GEO), Akopian (ARM)-Sokolov (BiH), Efimenko (UKR)-Timofeev (RUS), Sutovsky (ISR)-Movsesian (SVK), Alekseev (RUS)-Macieja (POL), Fressinet (FRA)-Potkin (RUS) i Salgado Lopez (ESP)-Berkes (HUN) all draw, Inarkiev (RUS)-Lysij (RUS) 0:1.Some of eight games finished in a draw were played, some not exactly. It happens in such situations where a defeat takes away more than an eventual win brings.Nepomniashtchi (RUS) is still a sole leader with 8,0 points, followed by the group of eight players with 7,5 points composed by: Jobava (GEO), Efimenko (UKR), Mamedov (AZE), Sokolov (BiH), Timofeev (RUS), Khismatullin (RUS), Akopian (ARM) and Lysij (RUS).The pairings on the top for the last round are: Nepomniashtchi (RUS)-Akopian (ARM), Jobava (GEO)-Khismatullin (RUS), Timofeev (RUS)-Mamedov (AZE), Lysij (RUS)- Efimenko (UKR) i Sokolov (BiH)-Almasi (HUN). Keeping in mind everything we said above it could happen that all the games will finish in a draw. In that case we would have a sole winner after 11 rounds which is a real curiosity given the huge number of participants.In other tournament where the fighting spirit usually predominates calculations both games on the top were decided: Cmilyte (LTU)-A.Muzychuk (SLO) 1.0 and Cramling (SWE)-Stefanova (BLG) 1:0. On board number one the game started as an English opening, but very soon transposed to the Maroczy system. After exchange of queens Cmilyte managed with a break in the centre to win a piece for two pawns. The game finished when White transposed into a theoreticaly winning rook endgame. On board number two Stefanova played the opening – Chebanenko system in Slav Defense- in a somewhat extravagant way, remained without the right to castle and with isolated d pawn which was lost very soon. During the transposition into an endgame she lost one more and the rest of the game was just an agony.In the group with 6,5 points two players scored a full point, Socko (POL) and Sebag (FRA) which gives now the following situation on the top: Cmilyte (LTU) 8,5, Cramling (SWE) 8,0 te Socko (POL) and Sebag (FRA) 7,5 points. Since the pairings in the last round are Cramling (SWE)-Cmilyte (LTU) and Socko (POL)-Sebag (FRA), it is clear that the winner will be decided on board number one. Two of three results suits Cmilyte, while Cramling must win but she has white. Chances to enter on the first 12 places which means to qualify for the World Cup has still a group of 10 players with 7,0 points. Since we slowly approach to the end of our socializing, it's time to touch a subject which interests especially people who entered in so called third age – where I belong as well, by the way- and that is senior chess.In this Championship I've seen a couple of seniors, who I meet regularly in senior tournaments, here is for instance Butnorius (LTU), Senior World Champion in 2007, our Josip Rukavina, Bo Jakobsen (DEN), Onoprienko (RUS), and also Per Ofstad (NOR) who is a FIDE officer for senior chess. I met Mr.Ofstad for the first time in the beginning of nineties when we used to be FIDE delegates representing our countries. Although I am not anymore in that society for a long time, we maintained our contacts and a kind of friendly relation. Each time we met his first question is: “How comes that the countries from your region with such a long chess tradition never send their teams to the European team championship?” a kind of question which is not easy to answer and which puts me regularly in trouble. By the way, one month ago in S(enior)E(uropean)T(eam)C(hampionship in Dresden there were 78 teams!I wouldn't know how the things are going on by our neighbors, but I'm afraid that it is more or less the same situation as in our country, in other words a complete ignorance of senior chess. It is not so easy to explain such an attitude in our country, since it is exactly in this category that most of our medals have been won: gold (IM V.Bukal) and bronze from the EC, and gold, silver (IM S.Kosanski) and bronze from the WC. Three medals were there is no name behind belong to yours truly. According to certain logic our national team would be also a candidate for medals in ETC, but it seems that our Chess Federation doesn't want to invest some money which would be clearly inferior to that one invested in other players who, in their categories are even below the average. One might think that our Federation is not interested in our medals, but then why they put our results in their annual report as successes of their own?Be it as it is, after this Championship-successfully organized I will dare to say- according to some information Rijeka will start to organize senior championships, and then we will see what will be the reaction of our Federation, although it would be to much to expect some significant change in attitude from the people who recently proclaim for the best player of 2009 the champion of Croatia. In such a way they clearly demonstrated that for them that title is worth more than that one of the World Champion. It is not surprising therefore that my WC title didn't attract some special attention of our media, and, what is even worse, of our Olympic Committee, in spite of the fact that, as far as I know, Croatia in last year didn't have any other World Champion at all. What is surprising is that there were far more reactions from abroad. I will demonstrate it to you with information which is not anymore a secret since it was already published on Internet. Mr.Leo Battesti, a well known chess enthusiast from the island of Corsica, will organize on the 11th of May a match of two rapid games between the J(unior)WC (Vachier Lagrave from France) and S(enior)WC (yours truly). Something of this kind could have been organized in our country as well, but for such a thing you need people with ideas, capable of there realization.All this reminds me irresistibly on that old Latin sentence:“ Nemo prophaeta in patria“, or in other words: “Nobody is a prophet in its own country.“Now we change the subject. If I would ask you what happened yesterday, on the 15th of March, exactly 2054 years ago, I am not sure that I would receive a lot of correct answers. However, on that day in the year 44 before Christ, a famous Roman army leader and politician, Gaius Iulius Cesar, was killed by the group of fanatic republicans who were afraid that he will become a tsar with an absolute power in Rome.How much steps forward humanity has made from that day? Well, I would say so much that in our days these things are made in a more sophistical way.
Anecdote:
During one blindfold simultaneous Alekhine wanted to light his cigarette and started nervously to look for matches in his pockets. Finally he gave up, looked around and then asked one of the spectators to light his cigarette with following words: “Please excuse me, I forgot to take matches with me. It is unbelievable how weak is my memory“.
M.Cebalo
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Ninth round
Todays round was full of suspense and brought changes on the top, so that now we have sole leaders in both tournaments. Let's start with men, as usually, and see the most interesting results: Nepomniashtchi (RUS)-Jobava (GEO) 1:0, Sokolov (BiH)-Efimenko (UKR) 0,5-0,5, Akopian (ARM)-Vuckovic (SRB) 1:0, Khismatullin (RUS)-Popov (RUS) 1:0, Timofeev (RUS)-Melkumyan (ARM) 1:0 and Rodshtein (ISR)-Mamedov (AZE) 0:1. Nepomniashtchi played again very quickly, managed to push Jobava in defence and scored a full point in 31 moves. It was a bad day for Georgian grandmaster. By the way, in that rook endgame from yesterday in Jobava-Almasi, Black could offer more resistance but without chance to save half a point.
Sokolov tried very hard to convert his edge in a knight endgame with better structure, but Efimenko defended well and managed to save the game. That means that the situation on the top is now like this: Nepomniashtchi (RUS) 7,5 points,followed by a group of 7 players with 7,0 points: Efimenko (UKR), Jobava (GEO), Sokolov (BiH), Mamedov (AZE), Timofeev (RUS), Khismatullin (RUS) and Akopian (ARM).
The pairings for tomorrow are: Khismatullin (RUS)-Nepomniashtchi (RUS), Mamedov (AZE)-Jobava (GEO), Akopian (ARM)-Sokolov (BiH) and Efimenko (UKR)-Timofeev (RUS). Eventual winners in these games will become serious candidates for the title.
In other tournament we saw a derby between two leaders. Where Cmilyte (LTU) playing Black, managed to outplay completely Socko (POL), to organize a furious attack against white king, to conclude the game with a couple of nice tactics and to take a sole lead in the tournament. In the group of 8 players who were half a point behind them, there was just one draw and other 3 games ended with following results: Stefanova (BLG)-Zhukova (RUS) 1:0, Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN)-A.Muzychuk (SLO) 0:1 and Khurtsidze (GEO)-Cramling (SWE) 0:1.
The standing on the top is now: Cmilyte (LTU) 7,5 points, A.Muzychuk (SLO), Stefanova (BLG) and Cramling (SWE) 7,0 points. It is not so difficult to predict that we must look for the champion among these 4 players. Two first pairings are: Cmilyte (LTU)-A.Muzychuk and Cramling (SWE)-Stefanova (BLG).
While all the players used their rest day for relaxing, analyzing what happened in their games and preparing themselves for what is going to happen in finish, ECU delegates were busy to absolve the Extraordinary Assemblee with just one issue on agenda – the change of the Statute. Since a general consensus was achieved even before the beginning, the Assemblee was just a formality.
The same evening there was a cocktail in hotel „Milenij“ offered by Mr. Silvio Danailov, bulgarian grandmaster not very active anymore, but well known in the chess world as a very successfull Topalov's manager. The reason was the announcement of his candidacy for the ECU president.
Since one day before a special guest of this championship, former world champion Anatoly Karpov, announced his candidacy for the FIDE president, it's an opportunity to compare their presentations. While Karpov, quite logically, put the accent on his chess career, world champion title and his numerous activities as a chess dyplomat and promotor after his retreat from the tournament arena, Danailov described himself as a successfull manager who proved to know how and can provide financial means which are necessary to push forward our game.
Another difference was the way in which they treated their opponents. Karpov was very energetic in criticizing actual president, Kirsan Iljumzhinov and his team, promissing that in the case of his victory he will do a systematic cleaning of all corrupted persons and introduce order in FIDE.
On the other hand, Danailov expressed his gratitude to both presidents who were ruling ECU up to now, Austrian professor Kurt Jungwirth, who was the first president, and Boris Kutin from Slovenia who is just finishing his second mandate, for everything they have done for European chess. Instead of any critics he just explained that the time has come for new people with new ideas, who will follow attentively the development of economic world map and know how to find necessary financial resources. As a moto of his campain he took the syntagma „I know“, while for Karpov's campain I would suggest something like, let's say „Law and Order“.
Personally, I was specially touched by Danailov's compliments to prof. Jungwirth, since he is the person who helped me a lot in my diplomatic fight to introduce Croatian Chess Federation in FIDE, and to obtain the privilege to participate in Manilla Olympiad in 1992, while the war in my country was still going on.
Anecdote:
It is well known that Mikhail Tal had problems with his kidnies already from the early youth. From time to time he had attacks suffering such pains that doctors were obliged to give him injections of morphin. One day, one of his passionate fans asked him:” Please tell me, grandmaster, is it true that You became a morphynoman?” “No, I am chigorinoman” answered Tal.
M.Cebalo
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Eighth round
It took eight rounds to get a sole leader in men’s tournament. His name is Baadur Jobava (GEO) who, playing again White against the highest rated player Almasi (HUN), after having long term initiative for a sacrificed pawn, managed to win a better rook endgame. Maybe Black missed a chance to survive in that rook endgame in some paradoxical way, but this idea should be carefully checked. In any case we will give you the definite answer tomorrow. Since the game Efimenko (UKR)-Akopian (ARM) finished in a premature draw, just in the moment when the position started to warm up, Ukrainian GM was joined by two winners in the group below. These are Nepomniashtchi (RUS) who defeated with White Inarkiev (RUS) and Sokolov (BiH) who won with Black against Riazantsev (RUS) after lot of tactics. That trio has 6,5 points and behind them there is a group of 13 players with half a point less. Tomorrow in round nine two most interesting games will be Nepomniashtchi (RUS)-Jobava (GEO) and Sokolov (BiH)-Efimenko (UKR).
In other tournament we have now two leaders. Socko (POL) playing White, made draw against Cramling (SWE) and allowed to be joined by Cmilyte (LTU) who won against Arakhamia-Grant (SCO). These two players have 6,5 points and behind them there is a group of 8 players with half a point less, which means that tomorrow we will witness very interesting fights on first five boards: Socko (POL)-Cmilyte (LTU), Stefanova (BLG)-Zhukova (RUS), Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN)-A.Muzychuk (SLO), T.Kosintseva-Dembo (GRE) i Khurtsidze (GEO)-Cramling (SWE).
This Championship will be remembered not only because of the highest number of participants and number of internet visitors which is greater than in any other sport event organized by now in Croatia, but also thanks to one peculiarity. Here we have for the first time in the chess (and sport in general) history one priest participating in an official sport event, representing (but only unofficially) the State of Vatican. Unofficially because Vatican doesn't have an own chess federation and is not a FIDE member yet. The name of the priest is Don Valerio Piro, he comes from a small village near Naples and he got permission for this adventure by the Cardinal Sepe.
Don Piro is a master candidate, officially registered in Italian Chess Federation, his rating is 2069 points, and his presence gave the Championship besides its usual intellectual dimension, a spiritual one as well. In spite of being rather pessimistic about his chances obviously impressed by the strength of this event, with 2,5 points after seven rounds he can be satisfied not only with the result, but also with his play.
We asked him a bit about his chess activities at home. He told us that he is a member of the club called Torre del Greco which participates in Italian team championship. Finally we would like to quote some of his words which we find to be the most interesting ones: “There are a lot of connections between spiritual and chess. This game helps me to question myself repeatedly, because its philosophy is very simple. You are constantly obliged to make decisions and when you make a move you cannot take it back, while each move has its consequences. In chess you cannot cheat and when you analyze the game you have played, it is possible to make a lot of conclusions thus improving yourself not only as a chess player, but as a person in general.“
Since by now there have been no official championships for priests, such an initiative has been recently made. It would be just the first step toward a foundation of the Vatican Chess Federation while the second one would be its affiliation to FIDE, and finally, why not, maybe one day we will see a Vatican team composed of priests in one of the next Olympiads.
If this seems somewhat strange to some of you, there were many priests who have been good chess players, among them Ruy Lopez (with a famous opening named after him) and William Lombardy, assistant of Bobby Fischer.
Anecdote:
Mikhail Tal was always true to his agressive style and ready to sacrifice material in fight for initiative. Thus he was frequently criticised that his sacrifices were not correct. In such occasions he used to answer:“Yes, you are right. There are two types of sacrifices, those correct and those...mines.“
M.Cebalo
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Seventh round
In today's round, the last one before the rest day, we saw all draws on first eight boards, six fighting and two tactical ones. That was enough for the leaders to keep their position intact. On table number one, Jobava (GEO) playing white against Riazantsev (RUS), was in one moment clearly better, so that even Anatoly Karpov, who came today in visit, evaluated his position as technically won. Somehow, things went wrong and when the players found themselves in an equal rook endgame a draw was agreed. On table number two the position was equal all the time, although a draw was agreed only in the endgame. A group behind the leaders has grown up from 5 to 9 players after four victories scored all with white by Akopian (ARM) against Sjugirov (RUS), Sokolov (BiH) Caruane (ITA), Inarkiev (RUS) against Lupulescu (ROM) and Khismatullin (RUS) against Škoberne (SLO).
As we already mentioned, tomorrow is a rest day which will be certainly used by all players not only to relax from tough and stressful games, but also to analyze their play, to see where they made mistakes and why, and, of course, to prepare themselves for the eighth round which is on the schedule on Sunday. The pairings on the top will be: Jobava (GEO)-Almasi (HUN), Efimenko (UKR)-Akopian (ARM), Nepomniashtchi (RUS)-Inarkiev (RUS), Riazantsev (RUS)-Sokolov (BiH), Mamedov (AZE)-Khismatullin (RUS) and Vallejo Pons (ESP)-Vučković (SRB).
In other tournament Socko (POL) maintained the sole lead. Playing Black she drew against Galojan (ARM), although it seems that White was clearly better in the final position when a draw was agreed. Our impression is that she is much more dangerous when playing White, while with Black pieces she has some problems. The group behind her with half a point less has grown up from 3 to 6 players. Dembo (GRE) and Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) playing Black, and Cramling (SWE) playing White, after their victories joined Galojan (ARM), Stefanova (BLG)and Cmilyte (LTU).
The most interesting games of round eight will be: Socko (POL)-Cramling (SWE), Dembo (GRE)-Stefanova (BLG), Cmilyte (LTU)-Arakhamia-Grant te A.Muzychuk (SLO)-Galojan (ARM).
Since a lot of interesting things happened today, we will give you some fresh informations. Tomorrow there will be ECU Assemble in the chess club “Rijeka”, where the only issue in agenda should be the change of the Statute, but we are somehow pretty sure that some other things will be discussed as well. We will keep you informed in our next comment after round eight. The delegates from all countries, ECU members, started to arrive already two days ago probably well informed about the beauties of Opatija, some others are here from the very beginning since they took part in the Championship and today we had a pleasure to host an illustrious guest, ex-World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The reason of his visit was his intention to announce his candidacy for the Fide President in the next elections during the Olympiad in Khanty-Mansisk (RUS) and he did it on the press conference held in the VIP Lounge of the tournament hall, immediately after his arrival. We have here also Mr.Silvio Danailov, well known as Topalov’s very successful manager, who will announce tomorrow evening during the cocktail in hotel “Milenij” his candidacy for the ECU President in the next elections which will take place in 6 months.
During the round, we took profit of the presence of Mr. Georgios Makropoulos, FIDE Deputy President to ask him a couple of questions. Above all we wanted to hear his opinion about the organization of this Championship, since a couple of days ago an article with very negative intonation appeared on the official web site of the Russian Chess Federation. He was really very surprised to hear that, since, based on his rich experience, he considers this Championship to be the best organized ever. The reasons? Well, three most important things – high class hotels, good food and excellent playing conditions – are offered in Rijeka, without speaking about the highest prize fund ever given. How to explain the critics then? Well, it could be either jealousy or perhaps fear from competition for the organization of future Championships. Anyway, after such a statement from the person who were present in hundreds of tournaments of this kind the organizers can sleep quietly.
Tomorrow is a rest day and on Sunday round eight.
Anecdote:
In one of the USA Championships, Bisguier and Fischer were in lead before the last round in which they met each other. During that game in one moment, with only 30 minutes left on the clock, Fischer began to doze. After the game, Bisguier answering the question about how he lost the game said: “In that very moment I made a decisive mistake. I woke up Fischer.“
M.Cebalo
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Sixth round
Two players who were in lead after round four (Jobava (GEO) and Efimenko (UKR) are again in the same position after their wins against Timofeev (RUS) and respectively Nisipeanu (ROM). It was like a message to their opponents:“look guys, it's nothing personal, but we feel better alone than in your company.“Jobava played again in a classical positional style, this time with black, against the isolated pawn. He used his better pawn structure in a very instructive way, first exchanging pieces and then converting in full point his advantage in an endgame Bishop versus Knight quicklyand efficiently. In other game, the scenario was quite different. Ukrainian grandmaster played from the very beginning in a very aggressive way against the Alekhine Defense. He managed to organize an attack against Black’s king and finished the game in 33 moves. In the group of 23 players who were behind the leaders, only five players scored a full point. They were: Almasi (HUN) against Sutovsky (ISR) and Vuckovic (SRB) against Naiditsch (GER) both playing black, and Mamedov (AZE) against Areshchenko (UKR), Riazantsev (RUS) against Ter-Sahakyan (ARM) and Nepomniashtchi (RUS) against Melkumyana (ARM), all playing white.In other tournament the same scenario. Monika Socko (POL) is again the sole leader after her win against T.Kosintseva, while on the second board Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) lost to Stefanova (BLG). Other two winners in the group behind the leaders were Cmilyte (LTU) playing white against Matveevea (RUS) and Galojan (ARM) playing black against Ushenina (UKR).These three winners are now behind the leader with half a point less.The issue we were discussing in our previous comments, namely a demonstrated displeasure of lot of players against the zero tolerance, culminated with a written letter sent to ECU officials,in which they proposed that this rule should be modified to allow the players to be late up to 30 minutes. The letter was signed by 110 participants. We spoke to Mr. Vrhovnik, the President of the Organizing Committee, who told us that the organizers are willing to do everything to offer best possible playing conditions to all the players which means even to support their demand, but that the final decision should be made by ECU.If the proposed change of an absurd rule were accepted, it would have been a good message to the players that only being united they can change any decision which is damaging their interests made by incompetent persons and on the other hand to FIDE officials, who unfortunately are in position to decide the destiny of professionals, to listen and respect what professional players have to say about their ideas.In the meantime, before the beginning of the round, the players were informed that there proposition cannot be accepted because such a change cannot be done in the middle of the tournament. The argument that some players maybe have come just because of the application of zero tolerance and that in that case they would have been damaged is so ridiculous that doesn’t deserve any comment at all.
Anecdote:
After Fischer's win with the perfect score (6:0) in his match against Taimanov, his next opponent, Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen, in one of his interviews made such a statement: „It will be a very tough and unclear match. It might even happen that I lose it, but never with 6.0, no way.“ I suppose that you all know how the match finished.
M.Cebalo
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First round
11th European Championship started today with a lot of interesting games and surprising results, a fact which promises a spectacular fight for the title.
As usually, according to the tournament rules, in the first round better rated players meet much less rated opponents, playing the role of favorites in such games. However, once more it has been proved that such a status one must confirm over the board.
Two best rated players in both competitions, Almasi (HUN) and Stefanova (BLG) didn't manage to do it. Playing black they both conceded half a point to their opponents Ortega (ITA) and Arabidze (GEO). The same thing happened to the defending Champion, Russian GM Tomashevsky, who didn’t manage to start with a full point playing white against Petrosian Davit G.,one of the numerous Armenian players with the name of the former World Champion. This may be some kind of announcement that the tradition which speaks against title defenders might be maintained. Other relatively surprising draws were: Motylev (RUS)-Maiwald (GER), Sargissian (ARM)-Womacka (GER), Korobov (UKR)-Bošković (SRB), Azaladze (GEO)-Meier (GER), Beliavsky (SLO)-Caspi (ISR), Piscopo (ITA)-Roiz (ISR) and Rasulov (AZE)-Volokitin (UKR). However, two of the so called favorites were even defeated playing black. This happened in Smirnov (RUS)-Najer (RUS) and Potapov (RUS)-Laznicka (CZE).
For Your information these statistic data were taken from the first 50 which are transmitted directly on the internet.
There was considerably less surprising results by women, where first 25 boards can be seen on the internet. We already mentioned that half a point conceded by Stefanova, and other two surprising draws were: Guramishvili (GEO)-Zhukova (RUS) and Przezdziezka (POL)-Dembo (GRE), while the only defeat of a favourite was seen in the game Worek (POL)-Khotenashvili (GEO).
Since it seems to me that young generations don’t know very much about the chess history, I came up to the idea to make them know a bit closer some of the famous chess personalities through anecdotes. I will start with one about Tal:
After his defeat in the second match against Botvinik he was asked by a journalist what was the comment of his sun. Tal answered: “Thanks God, he didn’t learn dirty words yet.”
The second round is on the schedule tomorrow.
M.Cebalo
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Fourth round
We have two leaders after round four. Both of them won their games playing Black, Jobava (GEO) defeated Krasenkow (POL) and Efimenko (UKR) won against Naiditsch (GER). I suggest to all of you to take a closer look at Jobava's game which finished with a couple of spectacular tactics. In that game Georgian GM had a worse position after having treated Maroczy system in an overexperimental wayand on move 20 entered in a dubious tactical adventure. However, he was lucky enough to receive a gift of his opponent and to take a profit in the best possible way. It is confirmed one more time that the luck goes together with brave hearts, or “fortes fortuna iuvat”, as used to say old Romans.Otherwise, this round was rather peaceful, at least considering 16 draws on first 20 boards. Now behind two leaders there is a group of 15 players with 3,5 points, where there is still young Slovenian IM Skoberne, but also Israeli Nabaty, a player without international title!Tomorrow there will be a big fight between two leaders, but also on the next 8 boards where eventual winners will have a chance to catch the leader(s).In other tournament we have now a sole leader, it’s Monika Socko (POL) who’s husband is playing in men’s competition. Playing White she defeated Chelushkina (SRB). Behind the leader there are seven players with 3,5 points, so the pairings on the top tomorrow will be: A.Muzuchuk (SLO)-Socko (POL), T.Kosintseva (RUS)-Skripchenko (FRA), Cramling (SWE)-Arakhamia-Grant (SCO) and Galojan (ARM)-Cmilyte (LTU).Since eight of March is a day well known as Women's day, it was quite logical to look for a short chat with somebody from women's tournament. I was very lucky that two among the most interesting personalities, Pia Cramling (SWE) and Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG), finished their games successfully and rather quickly and accepted to answer a couple of questions. While Swedish GM is constantly among world top players in the last let's say 20 years, Stefanova is a relatively new star, but with lot of trophes already, European Champion 2002 and World Champion 2004 are only two most important ones. She is also number one in this tournament according to her rating.Both of them are delighted with the beauty of Opatija, very satisfied with accommodation in high class hotels and perfect playing conditions in the tournament hall. What they dislike is that really controversial rule of „zero tolerance“ which obliges players to be seated on their places in the moment of the beginning of the round. This rule, one of those imposed to professionals by FIDE burocrats, was criticized by all the players I have spoken with. It seems that for the first time chess players think the same thing about an issue.At the end of our conversation Pia Cramling told me a nice story. It happened that exactly 20 years ago on the Women's day she played a game against Tal, in a close GM tournament in Tel Aviv. Before the beginning of the game Tal gave her a chocolate as a present for that special day. If you are interested, that game finished in a draw after 33 moves, Pia had Black. By the way, we must compliment the organizers who put roses on the tables as a gift to all the participants.
Anecdote:
On one occasion, an Icelandic journalist for some reason remindedFischer that he became World Champion in Iceland and he got such an answer: ”In fact, it didn’t happen in Iceland, I was World Champion already a long time before.”
M.Cebalo
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Third round
As we expected, a number of players with perfect score is getting reduced quickly, after this round there are only 13. Among them, as a most pleasant surprise, especially for chess fans in Croatia and Slovenia, are two young international masters, Martinovic (CRO) and Skoberne (SLO). From 5 players who received yesterday my compliments for they play, Navara (CZE) lost, Adams (ENG) drew, while other three Vallejo Pons (ESP), Jobava (GEO) and Naiditsch (GER) kept their positions as the only survivorsfrom ten best rated players.
Today we saw for the first time a quick catastrophe, it happened on board number 36, where Stefansson (ISL) playing Black overlooked a piece and lost the game against Bareev (RUS) in only 18 moves after 1 hour of play. As an excuse we can say that a trap he fell in was a rather sophisticated one.
The most interesting encounters in round four will be: Vallejo Pons (ESP)-Timofeev (RUS), Krasenkow (POL)-Jobava (GEO), Naiditsch (GER)-Efimenko (UKR), Pelletier (SUI)-Inarkiev (RUS), Skoberne (SLO)-Nisipeanu (ROM), Nepomniashtchi (RUS)-Maiorov (BLR) and last but not least Adams (ENG)-Martinovic (CRO).
In other tournament there were just four decided games, so that now we have four leaders with perfect score: T.Kosintseva (RUS), as the only survivor from ten best rated players, while the other three Socko (POL), Arakhamia (SCO) and Chelushkina (SRB) have starting numbers 17,24 i 61! This confirms that there are no big differences in playing strength between the players from let's say first half of the tournament, or if you like, it confirms a certain relativness of the rating (this will please our GM Lalich, I'm sure).
In this tournament as well a quick catastrophe was seen in the game Molchanova (RUS)-Cramling (SWE), where White blundered a piece in a rather banal way, and lost the game in 18 moves.
Tomorrow we will see two clashes on the top, Arakhamia (SCO)-T.Kosintseva (RUS) i Socko (POL)-Chelushkina (SRB).
In order to avoid a pure tecnicalnature of our comments, we will try each time to present you an interesting personality, a task which shouldn’t be difficult given such a huge number of participants. Yesterday we had a short chat with Hungarian grandmaster Zoltan Almasi, a player with the highest rating in this Championship. He is a regular guest in Croatia since he started to play for clubs in our team championships already in mid nineties. However, he was never in Opatija, our famous tourist resort, and he remained delighted by its beauty. He is also very satisfied with the high class hotels and the playing conditions in the tournament hall. The only thing which spoils his general impression is his start in the tournament, since already in the first round he was obliged to concede half a point against a much lower rated opponent. From now on he will be thus obliged to fight very hard to catch up his direct rivals for top places in the final standing.
Anecdote:
During the Olympics in Varna 1962, in one occasion Tal asked Fischer: “Bobby, according to you, who is the best player in the world in this moment…?” and when he saw a perplexed expression on Bobby’s face he quickly added: “…I mean after you, of course.” Turned calm, Fischer started to fix Tal for a couple of moments and then said:” You are not so bad either.”
M. Cebalo
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Second round
If it was logical to expect that the first round will be an easy business for the favorites , today’s round was quite a different story. Winners from yesterday met each other on first 86 tables where 33 games ended in a draw, but we have seen also some surprising defeats of the higher rated players, ex.: Iotov (BLG)-Bologan (MDA), Grigoryan (ARM)-Georgiev Kiril (BLG) and Cheparinov (BLG)-Lopez Martinez (ESP). From the first ten best rated players for the moment the most convincing play are demonstrating: Navara (CZE), Vallejo Pons (ESP), Adams (ENG), Jobava (GEO) and Naiditsch (GER). After two rounds there are still 53 players with perfect score.
The same scenario was seen by women as well, where the winners from yesterday met each other on first 30 tables. After tough battles 12 games finished in a draw while some favorites (you should always take this expression with a certain reserve, especially by women) lost their games. It happened in encounters Mkrtchian (ARM)-Sedina (ITA), Chelushkina (SRB)-Javakashvili (GEO) and Schneider (HUN)-Paehtz (GER). Only three out of ten best rated women are still in the leading group: sisters Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS) and Muzychuk (SLO).
In our first commentary we already gave some statistic data which show that this Championship set some new records not only in the number of participants, but also in the number of present grandmasters as well as in the number of countries which sent their players to this competition. It is interesting, however, to analyze how much do participate our neighbors all together. Here are the numbers: Italy 22+5=27, Hungary 17+3=20, Serbia 12+5=17, Austria 11+2=13, Slovenia 8+1=9, Montenegro 3+1=4, BiH 4 and Macedonia 2. Some of you will find immediately three intruders among the quoted countries, so I'll give an explanation immediately. While with Italy we have so called "liquid" border on the Adriatic sea, with Austria and Macedonia we were sharing the same destiny in common countries during our history. These numbers didn't come up as a result of chess strength and tradition, but merely as a consequence of financial capabilities. Therefore it is not so surprising that most numerous are Italian players who are objectively weaker in first two cryterions. On the other hand, a very modest presence of the players coming from Macedonia, Montenegro and BiH is a consequence of the serious economic crises in our region. It is true that we were expecting also some more players from Slovenia which is so close to Rijeka, which means that only Serbs fulfilled at least partially our expectations.
Anecdote:
Mikhail Tal became World Champion at the age of 23, but lost his title already one year later. Afterwords, whenever somebody presented him a young talent his comment was: "But in your age I was already ex World Champion."
Tomorrow the third round is on the schedule.
M.Cebalo
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First round
11th European Championship started today with a lot of interesting games and surprising results, a fact which promises a spectacular fight for the title.
As usually, according to the tournament rules, in the first round better rated players meet much less rated opponents, playing the role of favorites in such games. However, once more it has been proved that such a status one must confirm over the board.
Two best rated players in both competitions, Almasi (HUN) and Stefanova (BLG) didn't manage to do it. Playing black they both conceded half a point to their opponents Ortega (ITA) and Arabidze (GEO). The same thing happened to the defending Champion, Russian GM Tomashevsky, who didn’t manage to start with a full point playing white against Petrosian Davit G.,one of the numerous Armenian players with the name of the former World Champion. This may be some kind of announcement that the tradition which speaks against title defenders might be maintained. Other relatively surprising draws were: Motylev (RUS)-Maiwald (GER), Sargissian (ARM)-Womacka (GER), Korobov (UKR)-Bošković (SRB), Azaladze (GEO)-Meier (GER), Beliavsky (SLO)-Caspi (ISR), Piscopo (ITA)-Roiz (ISR) and Rasulov (AZE)-Volokitin (UKR). However, two of the so called favorites were even defeated playing black. This happened in Smirnov (RUS)-Najer (RUS) and Potapov (RUS)-Laznicka (CZE).
For Your information these statistic data were taken from the first 50 which are transmitted directly on the internet.
There was considerably less surprising results by women, where first 25 boards can be seen on the internet. We already mentioned that half a point conceded by Stefanova, and other two surprising draws were: Guramishvili (GEO)-Zhukova (RUS) and Przezdziezka (POL)-Dembo (GRE), while the only defeat of a favourite was seen in the game Worek (POL)-Khotenashvili (GEO).
Since it seems to me that young generations don’t know very much about the chess history, I came up to the idea to make them know a bit closer some of the famous chess personalities through anecdotes. I will start with one about Tal:
After his defeat in the second match against Botvinik he was asked by a journalist what was the comment of his sun. Tal answered: "Thanks God, he didn’t learn dirty words yet."
The second round is on the schedule tomorrow.
M.Cebalo
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05.06.2010.
A Dream Came True
The opening ceremony of the 11th European Championship for men and women woke up in my mind for a certain reason a memory of the speech pronounced by the famous fighter for human rights of the black people in USA, Martin Luther King. During his speech, as older generations probably remember, he repeated a couple of times: "I have a dream!"
I am sure that all the members of the Organizing Committee headed by Mr.Vrhovnik, a "spiritus movens" of the whole operation, also did have a dream and it was to bring to Rijeka such a high class chess competition. Tonight their dream came true!
In the usual speeches it was stressed that with 425 participants in men's competition and 165 by women, as well as with 246 grandmasters, all the records are beaten, which creates a serious challenge for all the future organizers. The rating leaders in both competitions are Zoltan Almasi (HUN) and Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG).
Croatian chess is proud of its tradition in organizing a highclass chess events, such as 1950 Olympycs in Dubrovnik, one part of the 1959 Candidates tournament in Zagreb, 1963 Women Olympycs in Split and 1997 European Team Championship in Pula. The 11th European Championship will continue this tradition successfully, I'll dare to say, because the city of Rijeka in the last couple of years took over the lead as the strongest and best organized chess centre in Croatia. It is no need therefore, to be a chess expert to predict that in the next two weeks Rijeka will be the capital of the chess world.
The Championship was symbolically opened by the City Mayor, Mr. Obersnel who made the first move on the big chess board.
Let the games begin!
M.Cebalo