report by John Lee Shaw

The 7th European Chess Championships are about to be staged in Kusadasi, Turkey. As this story goes live, 81 GM's, 26 WGM's; 55 IM's, 22 WIM's; 5 FM's, and 10 WFM's, make up the very strong field which promises a high standard of chess.

Ukrainian Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk is top seed for the men's event. This being said, however, he will find tough competition showing up to keep him honest. The likes of Baadur Jobava of Georgia, for example, who won the strong Aeroflot Open, in February. Dortmund 2005 winner, Arkadij Naiditsch enters as 4th seed. Topalov's second, Ivan Cheparinov is also among the top players, as is Tiemour Radjabov -- who of course handed the afore-mentioned Topalov one of his few defeats since becomming World Champion, during this year's Linares-Morelia tournament. Having kept a rather low profile recently, he has certainly lost none of his ability to produce dazzling chess, and is one to watch for sure.

In the women's tournament, top seed is also a Ukranian, in the form of IM Katerina Lahno. The 17-year-old would probably be the first to admit, however, that she has been somewhat out of sorts so far this year. She had quite a disappointing Wijk aan Zee (playing in GM-B, and finishing last on 2½ points). Most recently, she had quite an early exit from the Women's World Championship last month, in which she was one of the favourites for the title. One should add, though, that most of the other 'favourites' fell before the tournament had progressed very far, also. IM Yelena Dembo of Greece is Lahno's nearest rival on paper.

The Championship is being organised by the Turkish Chess Federation, and its President, Ali Nihat Yazici (Bessel Kok's Deputy in his campaign for the FIDE Presidency), said of it:'We want to test the highest quality of an organisation! We want to break upper limits for the quality! We have organised many tournaments in the past. European Championships will be the best we hope with organisation quality, venue and prize fund for this level.'

Kusadasi itself is located on the beautiful West side of Turkey. It has grown immensely over recent years, from a population of around 6000 to one of around 50,000 currently. Reason for this, is probably largely due to the tourist industry; many cruise ships stop off in its port, due to its closeness to, Priene, Didyma, and Selcuk. Selcuk, of course, is famed for being host to the World Wonder, Ephesus.

The Championship will be played over 11 rounds, (Swiss system), taking place April 4th to 15th. Rest day on the 11th. Time Control: 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. Total prize fund for the event is 48.000 Euro's, including Amateurs and professional. 16 Men and 12 women will be qualified for the next chain of the World Cup.

Chess Gateway will post the results of each round as soon as they are all in and made available to us, with a more detailed report following soon after. We wish all competitors a fine tournament!


Round one Report

In group 1, Baadur Jobava (pictured below with his Mother) got off to a flying start, scoring a point as White against Croatian IM Jankovic. It was an English opening (something which Jobava tends to bring out quite often), and turned symmetrical. Black adopted a Botvinnik-type setup, but to be honest did not seem to offer much resistance. White won a pawn on move 17, and the Black position seemed to collapse not very long after. A full point also went to local favourite Suat Atalik (winner of Corus Group-C in January of course). He played a beautiful positional game against Sulskis, and demonstrated just what a piece the knight can be if given the holes to hop in to. Full points also went to Sakaev, Delchev (with a miniature over Narciso Dublan), and Izora. The rest of the games in this section were drawn, including top seed Ivanchuk, in a rather uneventful game against Ctivan. Dortmund 2005 Winner, Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany played a nice game against his opponent, Brkic, but after a sequence of forced exchanges there was not much left to do but declare peace and share the point. You can see Jobava's game against Jankovic, below.


Jobava, B -- Jankovic, A
European Championships, 2006 (Group 1 Round 1)

1. c4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Nf3 e5 4. g3 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. d3 Nge7 7. a3 O-O 8. O-O d6 9. Rb1 a5 10. Bd2 h6 11. Ne1 Be6 12. Nc2 d5 13. cxd5 Nxd5 14. Ne3 Nce7 15. Qc1 b6 16. Nexd5 Nxd5 17. Bxh6 f5 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. b4 cxb4 20. axb4 a4 21. Nxa4 Rxa4 22. Qc6 Rxb4 23. Qxe6 Rxb1 24. Rxb1 Nc3 25. Rxb6 Nxe2+ 26. Kf1 Nf4 27. Qxe5+ 1-0


Unfortunately, as yet I have only managed to acquire the pgn for the group 1 games, and so can not really go in the other groups in much detail, my apologies. In Group 2, though, 'decisive' seems to be the word of the day, as only 1 of the 9 games produced a draw. Luther, Graf, Macieja, and Lotov all took wins with White, while Kikolic, Azarov, Nijbeor, were spoilers as Black. Nevednichy v Steingrimsson being the draw. In Group 3, there were mainly draws in contrast to its predecessor, as you can see in the results, below.

In the women's section, Katerina Lahno, whom I reported as being the top seed for the tournament in my look 'ahead report', does not seem to be competing. Former Women's World Champion Stefanova, though, does. She seems to have been a late entry (unless my eyes deceive me, as I am sure she was not in the list in late March). Anyway, she had a nice start, winning against Maksimovic. Paehtz of Germany also won, as did Arakhamia-Grant, and Khurtsidze, from Georgia.


Round 2 Report

Round 1 victor, Baadur Jobava of Georgia, was held to a draw by his opponent, Grandmaster Bartel of Poland. Vassilly Ivanchuk seems a bit out of sorts, with a 22-move draw in his game against Brkic. I wonder if 'Chucky' is suffering a bit of burn-out, playing this tournament so soon after the taxing Blindfold/Rapid Amber Tournament. He also did not do too well at that tournament by his standards, so maybe there is also a confidence issue. Time will tell, of course, it is only round 2 of the tournament, but if the first two games are any sign of things, then Ivanchuk is going to struggle I think.

In the womens section, Klinova played a very nice game to claim the scalp of Georgian GM Arakhamia-Grant. The Sicilian of their game involved an early queen exchange, which did not really seem to work for Black. Things boiled down to black's King + Bishop v the King + Knight of White, with White having 2 extra pawns. Klinova converted the advantage, and her opponent capitulated in 65. Stefanova drew uneventfully in 23 against Bosboom-Lanchava, and Paehtz must be conserving her pen ink as she only went 13 deep in her game against Zielinska. Possibly, yesterday was a good TV day in Turkey, and I have not been informed of it. I am one who says that people should not tamper with the wonderful game that is chess, but I must say, there is no justification in my mind for 13 move draws at a high level such as Master chess should be. Perhaps tournament organisers should consider prohibiting draws under a certain number of moves, or having them made through the arbiter (as is already the case in some), or a combination of both. Ok, that's me off my soap box...for now.


Round 3 Report

The 2006 European Championships are currently underway in Kusadasi, Turkey. In round 3, the tournament leader emerged, in the form of Dutch Grandmaster Erwin L'Ami, who is the only player on full score (3/3). He is closely followed by a whole bunch of players on 2¹/₂ points, though, so it is very much up to him to keep up his good run if he is not going to get englufed by a stampede. This will not be easy, and especially as he meets Baadur Jobava of Georgia in the next round. Jobava, (recently winning the strong Aeroflot Open in Russia), is also having quite a good tournament, and seems very much in form. Nyback was his victim this round. Playing confidently with the White pieces, he sacrificed his Queen on c7, picking up rook and piece, with initiative, in return. Not very long later, he'd picked up the point.

According to my meagre database, Jobava and L'Ami have played twice before. Jobava has the upper hand, with a victory in 2004. Their most recent meeting, (this year's Corus group-B), was drawn. Other high-profile victors of round 3 were Arkadij Naiditsch, who continues to perform well so far in this tournament, and top seed Vassily Ivanchuk also opened his plus account, with a win against Kurnosov. Turkish GM Suat Atalik notched up another point, and is in amongst the hoardes at L'Ami's heels on 2¹/₂.

In the Women's section, there was another draw for top seed Stefanova, who seems to be not in the best of form. Her nearest rival on paper, Dembo of Greece, is not having a good tournament so far. In round 3 she lost to Zielinska. Arakhamia-Grant recovered from her defeat of the previous round, to win her round against Tsiganova. Zhukova also won. The section is led by Dworakowska and Muzychuk, on full scores.


Round 4 Report

Leader after round 3, Edwin L'Ami, will be bitterly disappointed to have lost his game against Baadur Jobava. L'Ami seemed to be well on top out of the opening, but his 22. Qg3 was inaccurate (Qh3 or Rae1 would have kept up the pressure). Jobava, it has to be said, did not seem to make the most of this, playing 22...Ne7, when ...Nd4 would perhaps have been better. But he effected some exchanges in the centre, and upon his 24...Bb5, things were dead level. L'Ami found his isolated pawn blockaded, and one could say that his move of 26.Qc3 was not the most positive. However, his 27. Nc4? was a serious error, and Jobava did not need inviting twice. He pounced with 27. Rxe1+ and from here the advantage was with Black. He grabbed a pawn with 28...Qxf4, and L'Ami misjudged the safeness of being able to re-coup it by 29. Nxb6. It allowed the strong 29...Re7, followed by ...Qd4, instantly winning. L'Ami resigned the game, and with it his perfect score and the lead of the tournament. He now finds himself in 6th place, while Jobava takes the lead of the tournament on 31/2 from 4 games, (with him on the same score are Dgebuadze and Anastasian, but Jobava has it on tiebreaks so far).

Arkadij Naiditsch gave the 3.Bb5+ Sicilian a whirl in his game against Tigran Petrosian. Not that I have any right to call the play of a Grandmaster in to question, I have to voice a little surprise at some of his opening play. Firstly, he seemed a little too eager to allow (or play in to) the exchange og his white-squared bishop, but also he then castled Queenside when he could perhaps have been more flexible. And on this subject, when taking on a position of opposite side castling, we are told that open lines towards the enemy king are everything. All the more surprising then, that Arkadij chose to castle to the side that his opponent has a semi-open file. There again, it is not the first time a Grandmaster breaks a rule of chess, there are always exceptions. White did not really seem to be goven very much, however, and black seemed to be doing quite well. That was until an error by Petrosian (13...unlucky for some...Qa6) allowed Naiditsch to seize the initiative with 14.Qxa6. After the b-pawn re-captures, white can take his pick of at least 3 very good ways to carry on. According to my slicone friend, White chose one of the best in 15. Nxc6. From here, both players to be fair played very precisely (though Black needed to as he was already with a clear disadvantage, so any further mistakes would probably be fatal). Petrosian went for activity, but this was probably unwise, the minor pieces were exchanged, and the result was a double rook endgame, with Black having a poor structure, and that was always going to be difficult to play. 30...Rc5?! (...Kf8 or ...Rc7 possibly were better) left White winning after Rxa4. A pair of rooks were exchanged, leaving White with a Q-side pawn majority of 3-1 and the Black king over on the other side of the board. Just here, Naiditsch erred by grabbing the lone black pawn, when more direct and to the point was b4, starting to march his majority and picking off the pawn at will. They say the hardest thing to do is to win a won game, and Naiditsch started to make things quite difficult for himself (I am curious as to what the time situation was around this stage). His 36. Ka2 was slow, Kc4 being much better, and though the game was never in danger, he certainly allowed Black to be somewhat more awkward than he should have. He wrapped it up in 50, and all in all can be very happy with his showing so far in this tournament on 3/4.

Top seed Ivanchuk can put another notch in his stick, deafeating GM Stefansson in 67. It was a slow, maneouvering game,  and all was equal until the White h-pawn edged slowly up the board to open things up a bit. This was always going to suit Ivanchuk's technique, and he slowly squeezed his opponent to take the point.

In the female tournament, former Women's World Champion Stefanova is having a bad time of it. She lost to WIM Joanna Majdan of Poland. It was a Ruy Lopez, and after early exchanges along the a-file, Stefanova had equalised at worst. Her 16...Bd8? however, was an inaccuracy, and White took the advantage with Na3. Stefanova recovered well though to regain the equalibrium. It was to be brief, however, as her 27...Kg7? was a serious blunder, allowing 28. Nc7 with the threat of Ne8+, winning the f6 bishop. Stefanova was in serious trouble, and soon was a piece and rook down, desperately trying with queen and knight for perpetual check or a blunder from her opponent. Niether came, and it is becomming a very bleak tournament for the Bulgarian.


Round 5 Report

It seemed to be pretty much a draw day, with Jobava, Naiditsch, L'Ami all getting half points. Ivanchuk won his game with Black against Thomas Luther, and is now right up there in the top standings, as shown below. Local favourite Atalik lost his game, and is in 29th position on 3/5.

In the womens section, WGM Atalik (Wife of GM Suat Atalik) continues to peform well, and stands in 4th place on 4/5. GM Stefanova recovered from her defeat of the previous round, to take victory against Makropoulou. She is still in a rather disappointing 28th place though, (along with Paehtz of Germany, who drew her game against Jessica Nill), on a score of 3/5. Bosboom-Lanchava drew her game against Peptan, and Mariya Muzychuk won her game against Zawadzka, to take the lead by half a point.


Round 6 Report

In round 6, Baadur Jobava suffered his first defeat of the tournament at the hands of GM Nikolic. It was a Slav 4...f5, and we all know how Jobava can prepare (those who don't can ask GM Grischuk) so I wonder if Nikolic was feeling some apprehension at this time. I can certainly find no games of his in this line. However, nor can I find any of Jobava's, so in one way maybe Jobava was showing a slight apprehension himself, in wanting to steer away from theory and go relatively obscure. They followed Othman-Kalinitschew, Biel 1999, until Jobava deviated with 8...Qe7. Kalinitschew had played ...Ne4, and the game had been drawn in 29.

One thing I like about Jobava's play, is that he always seems to take the game to his opponent, in this round was no exception. He quickly exchanged on c4, and followed it up with ...e5, with pretty much equality. Shortly afterwards, there followed a sequence of exchanges (which included Queens) out of which black emerged certainly no inferior than his opponent. However, crunch time came on the 17th move, when the Georgian went wrong with ...a6, ...Bd5 was probably a more worthy move. Holding the advantage, White quickly aimed his pieces at the black king, but his 21. Be2 should probably have given way to Rd4, with the flexibility of doubling up on either d or b-files. Upon Jobava's 21...Nf6, there was not much in it again. On move 23, Jobava could possibly have at least secured the draw with, ...Rxd6. For example: 24. cxd6+ - Kxd6, 25. Rxb7 - Bg8, is given equality by Fritz, but with a minus score. Instead, Jobava chose ...Rd7, and soon his opponent had regained an edge. Black's 32...f4? seems to have been a very bad mistake, and infact both players played somewhat inaccurately over a few moves, so I am quite curious as to what the time situation was. Things certainly got scrappy, out of which Jabava emerged the worst. An exchange or two later, and he was fighting a strong White passed pawn. It was a valiant fight, but at the end, he had to taste his first defeat of the tournament -- and one that would end up dropping him from 1^st place to 10^th. After such a nice start to this game, that must have added to the bitter disappointment of its loss.

The new tournament leader, is Vassily Ivanchuk won again, and what a turn-around we are seeing! In the earlier rounds, Chucky was looking quite out of sorts, but certainly seems to have gotten himself in to gear and floored the throttle. His game as White against GM Turov followed Nielsen-Grischuk, Amber Rapid & Blindfold of this year. It was Ivanchuk who varied from it, with 12. Rac1 (Nielsen had played Rad1, and the game was drawn in 32 moves). Black took quite a passive stance, and his 14...Nfd7, not only cosmeticaly looks awful, but doesn't stand up numerically either. Fritz ups Ivanchuks slight advantage of +0.59 to a clear advantage of +0.72. Surprisingly, Chucky then seemed to squander it immediately with 15. Nf3 (=0.00) when Nd3 or e4 would have kept up the plus. When e4 did come, on the 19th, it was with advantage, and there followed some central exchanges which left White clearly with the best of things. On the 28th move, Black made his final mistake, an error of judgement of playing a check when he should have just taken White's d7 rook and tried for liquidation. From here, White dominated, and Turov let his Be7 go for nothing, thinking that he had a mate or draw by repetition, etc. Blunder of blunders was 36...Qe4.

Putting the Queen on a line with the rook, masked only by an opponents piece, is quite an elementary error, one must say. It allowed the powerful winning tactic, 37. Qxf8!! If ...Kxf8, then obviously the discovered check of Bc5 would regain the queen, and Black would be a rook and piece down for nothing in return. Turov played 38...Kh7, but after 39. Qxg7+ he resigned: ...Kxg7 being forced, and then Bh6+ regains the Queen and leave black dead and buried endgame-wise. A nice game from Ivanchuk, who now sits at the top of the leader board.

In the Women's section, Bosboom-Lanchava of Holland defeated Mariya Muzychuk to continue her excellent run so far in this tournament. It left her in number 2 position, on 5/6. IM Corina Peptan leads, (also on 5/6), after a nice win against Natalia Zdebskaja. Number 2 seed Yelena Dembo of Greece is only half-a-point behind, along with Atalik, Zhukova, Dworakowska, Muzychuk.


Round 7 Report

Most of the top contenders drew their games. This included German GM Arkadij Naiditsch and Maxim Turov, who played 12 moves of theory and drew on the 13th.

Moving swiftly on, Vassily Ivanchuk's tussle with Zdenko Kozul turned out to be quite a marathon. The Queens Indian 4.a3  followed theory until Ivanchuk varied with his 13...Nd7, which according to my information is new. To be honest, after Ivanchuk's 16...Qf4, both sides seemed to maneouver around aimlessly, and seemed as if they'd confused themselves as well as their opponents. Black's 20...Bf8?! seems to have been quite an inaccuracy, allowing White's 21.Be5. Perhaps Ivanchuk should have chosen 20...Bd6 instead, but Ivanchuk was possibly worried about his Queen feeling some heat after 21.Bc1 for example. However, 21...Qg4 appears to be sound enough, for equality at least. As things stood, after the ...Bf8 of the game, Black was in serious trouble...or should have been.

Things followed, 21.Be5 Qg4, 22. h3 Qh5, and here White erred with 23. Bxf6? and let Ivanchuk off the hook. Kozul will probably be kicking himself for missing 23. Qf1! with g4 to follow, and the Black Queen is on a tightrope. It was not to be.

And how things can change in chess, it is probably one of the most exciting aspects of our wonderful game. From being so close to claiming the Black Queen, (or other material in saving her), from a winning advantage, Kozul found himself inferior after 23...gxf6, and then 24.Bc2 (Rad1 probably held the balance, but maybe White had spotted his 23rd move mistake and had lost composure). Suddenly, Black was with the advantage. For some reason, Ivanchuk rejected the option of 24...exd5, with a discovered attack on the White Queen. Possibly things could continue: 25. Qd3 Rxe1+, 26. Rxe1 Qg6, 27. Qe2 f5, with an edge to Black. Could it be, that Ivanchuk's head was also spinning?

His 24...Re7 was only good enough for equality, but now, instead of the active Rad1, White did play Qf1, which Ivanchuk's ...f5 demonstrated as being not so dangerous at this stage of the game. There followed a scrappy period where advantage and equality yo-yo'd, and then pieces were exchanged which left Black holding the two bishops in the endgame, though White was a pawn up. Black regained it, and when White grabbed another, allowing his knight to be pinned down on a6, things were hotting up again. Advantage was with Black, especially when White got lumbered with doubled h-pawns and isolated f pawn. Once again, however, it seemed like the players were unclear on how to play, as more aimless maneouvering started again. Black's advantage lessened slowly but surely, until it was non existent. On the 88^th move, the players, probably quite demoralised, agreed a draw.

Also drawing, was 3rd place Predrag Nikolic (victor over Baadur Jobava in the previous round). His game against Laurent Fressinet was an advance French, and I believe Fressinet's 13. Bg5 to be new. Nikolic's 18...Nf5 seems to not have been the best, with better options of taking space on the K-side with ...h4 or castling. However, his allowing White's knight to get all the way to h7, should have landed him in serious trouble.

The Frenchman had choices of Qxh4 and Nf6+, with a pretty much winning attack. Why, then, Fressinet chose to play Qg5 instead is quite a mystery. Even when given a second chance to play Nf6, he opted for the retreat of his Queen to e3 instead. Nf6+ finally came a move later, with his Queen away from the action. Not that Nikolic took on f6, mind, side-stepping his king to h8 instead, at which point Fressinet's Queen went back to g5 -- do only I find this inexplicable? One can put it down to a human trait of the occasion, obviously, but this must have left Fressinet with a bitter taste in his mouth when analysing it later on. The game was drawn in 41.

Jobava-Macieja followed Sargissian-Bobras, Warsaw 2005, before Jobava varied with 13.h4. It seemed to work for him too, Black did not achieve very much out of the opening, and when rooks were exchanged on the 19^th and 20^th moves, White certainly held the best of things. His well placed knight on e5, as well as his central pawns on e4 and d4, certainly gave the Georgian the better prospects. He soon exchanged the knight for Black's bishop, and 10 or so moves later, he was clearly in a strong position with passed d-pawn, active king, and bishop v knight. It was not his day though, try as he might, and due equally to his opponent's defence as well as his own misplay in places, denied him the whole point. Draw was agreed upon Black's 81^st. Jobava will be quite disappointed, from leading the tournament a couple of rounds ago, he now finds himself in 14th place, though only a point behind Ivanchuk, who remains in the lead. (He, Nikolic, and Kozul all have 5½/7, but tiebreaks seperate them.)

As shown below, this leaves Vassily Ivanchuk still in 1st place, but interestingly, there is only 1 point seperating him from the 35th place Yannick Pelletier. Things are very much wide open going in to the last phase of the tournament.

Round 8 Report

After his great start to the tournament, Baadur Jobava finds himself in 33rd place. In round 8 he lost to Croatian GM Mladen Palac. Jobava resorted to the Caro Kann, and the game followed an earlier one of his against Emil Sutovsky, back in 2003. Jobava varied from it on his 15th move of ...Nbd5 (against Sutovsky he had played 15...h5, and the game had been drawn). Baadur played confidently and quickly, but maybe his 15...Nbd5 was not the best, and should have given way to moves such as ...h5 or ...Rhe8. When ...h5 did come (a move later) it seemed to be not so effective, and somewhat out of context. The game ebbed and flowed, as always in chess, with both sides playing good moves (but perhaps not playing the best ones at certain points). Then, on the verge of relative equality, Jobava played the slow 23...Kb8. Instead, ...Qf6 was probably the move to go for. White held the initiative, but after an exchange of rooks and some centralisation, Black was not looking too bad. Again, it was to be a quiet looking move that was to be Jobava's un-doing; his 27...a6 allowed the powerful 28.a4! from White, and Black was under some pressure. Then, instead of exchanging queens on the 31st, White exchanged bishop for knight, and Black seemed to gain some counterplay.

Things were niether here nor there, until Jobava blundered very badly on his 37th move. This result puts the Georgian in 33rd position, two points behind sole leader Kozul, (on 6.5/8) who in this round was victor over Nikolic. Their game left known territory rather early, 7...Qb6 apparently being a novelty. By move 20, there had only been 1 exchange, and the game took on a slow, manoeuvering nature. Niether side handled it very well, sharing inaccuracies until black sealed it on move 61.

Ivanchuk drew his game against GM Georgiev, unleashing a new move with 10.d4 in the closed Spanish. White seemed to have a slight edge, until Ivanchuk's decision on his 14th move to double his f-pawns. This certainly was not forced, as Qxf3 seemed quite viable, therefore one must conclude that this was a new idea. It didn't really work for him though, things seemed about equal. That was until Black started to advance his K-side pawns, and exchanges worked in Ivanchuk's favour, and upon 23.Qf3 a slight advantage was held by the Ukranian. His following move, however, (24. Ne2) was inaccurate, and there followed: 24...Bxb2, 25. Rae1 Rb4, 26. Bd3 (Bd5 was superior) d5. All of a sudden, Black was holding the edge. He did not take his opportunities, however, (quite possibly due to time issues), and a draw was agreed on move 41. This result, leaves Ivanchuk in 2nd place with 6.0/8, and Georgiev in 4th on 5.5/8.


In the female section, leader after round 7 Peptan was beaten by WGM Ekaterina Atalik. Atalik, playing the black side of the open Spanish, deviated from theory with 11...Bg4. There followed a relative equallibriam, however Atalik's 16...Qe7 could (and should) have landed her in trouble after 17.Bxd5! winning a pawn, for upon ...Bxd5 the discovery Nf5 looms. Peptan either missed this, or decided she was happy with things as they are. However, her 17. f4 certainly did not do very much for her. White held varying levels of advantage, right up until her 33rd move. Peptan had choices. Qxd6, Kf3, for example, would all maintain a slight advantage for White. What Peptan chose was 34. Qf3?! and a blunder. Here, Atalik played strongly, 34...Rc2, and the game proceeded,  35. Ree2 Rxe7, at which point things were probably about equal. However, Peptan played 36. Rxc2, where Rxe7 was probably more precise.

After Atalik's 36...bxc2, there came 37. Rxc2 Qd4+, with a clear advantage to Black. Queens were soon exchanged, which left Atalik a pawn up in the rook endgame. The extra pawn was very telling, as is often the case, and Atalik scored a very nice point. This result takes her to the top of the leader board, along with Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, who also won from Elina Danielian. The two will meet in round 9. You will join me then, I hope!

Round 9 Report

After his loss in the previous round, and as the tournament reaches its climax, it looks like Baadur Jobava has decided that he does not want to fight for it anymore. In round 9, he joined the quick draw club, with a 13-mover against Mamedof. With just two more rounds to go, I think this pretty much rules him out of contention now. Also drawing, was Vassily Ivanchuk, against Ernesto Inarkiev. It was quite an uneventful game, and peace was declared in 20 moves.

The round saw Nikolic winning. His game against Minasian left theory on move 8, but not a terribly good deviation. White lost a pawn straight away (if it was gambitted, then it is not very easy to see what was gained in return, as Black soon had an edge.) Queens were exchanged on move 22, and Black was dominating.  Nikolic was clinical in converting the advantage, increasing it little by little with each move. It was game over on move 32.

Kozul-Naiditsch followed a game that the former had played against Bogdan Lalic in 1989, also as white. Kozul deviated from the game on his 18th move, playing dxe5 and this was apparently new. In the game against Lalic, he had played 18.Qxe5 and the won the game in 27 moves. The new move did not bring about a different result in this game, infact, Naiditsch was in trouble soon on. His 19...g6 was quite a weakening around his castled King, and allowed his opponent's queen in to h6. There-after, Black grabbed a pawn, and White did not look back. The activity of his pieces more than compensated, and after making a few feeble mate threats of his own, Naiditsch could offer no further resistance, and resigned.

Georgiev claimed the scalp of Mladen Palac, in what was a marathon game. Palac varied in the Nimzo-Indian, on his 10th move, ...Na5. I am not sure what Black was up to, however, and he seemed to get nothing from the opening. At move 20, White had beautifully developed pieces, centralised rooks, active bishops, in contrast to Black, who had yet to bring the c8-bishop in to play. If you believe the computer's though (which I do maybe 50% of the time) then Black was doing rather better than things seemed, and had the advantage on his 20...Qg6. His decision to enter the endgame on move 23, however, seems erroneous, and it does seem strange to me to exchange down when attacking. There then followed a scrappy phase, with mistakes from both sides, but it was Black who missed the powerful 25...Na2! which would win a rook. Palac chose to exchange knight for c2-bishop instead, which was only good enough for equality. It was short-lived equality, however, as due to some mis-play from white, black had advantage again a few moves later. The inaccuracies continued, though, and Palac will be very disappointed that the point ended up going the Georgiev. In the next round he faces 5th place Nikolic.


Rounds 10 Report

Round 10 saw Vassily Ivanchuk winning. His game v Berescu followed a game played between Aruthian - Cvek, in 2005. It was Berescu who varied, (from 12...Nc6), with 12...d6. To put it simply, Black already had a bit of catching up to do, and was positionally outplayed, as Ivanchuk demonstrated his endgame technique. Black's 30...f5 was far too bold, and left his position with too many weaknesses. A few moves later, Ivanchuk had the point.

Naiditsch played a nice game against Minasian. Black was doing pretty good (possibly with a slight edge infact) until his erroneous 15...Bxe2?! Perhaps he could have done better with the natural ...0-0 or ...Bxc3.  To Minasian's 16...Qb6, Naiditsch could possibly have played more powerfully with 17. Nf4 or c3. The Kh1 that was played was just a little too lenient, as was his 19. c4 (Nf4, heading to e6 would have been more to the point). However, Black's ...Nde4 was not the best, and infact led to some trouble over the next few moves. Exchanges took place and White won a pawn, and held the initiative. Naiditsch confidently sacrificed the exchange, and upon the exchange of queens, was left with 2 bishops, rook, and 4 pawns, vs black's 2 rooks and 4 pawns. The German GM never wavered, and emerged victorious in 47.

Belov-Kozul was a rather tame exchange Spanish that was drawn in 15. Nijboer v Fressinet followed Lutz-Adams 1999, did not emerge from theory, and was drawn in 20. Nikolic-Georgiev was a 13-mover, and drawn way inside theory. As if to make up for things, Palac-Atalik, was a fighting example of GM chess. Atalik, as usual, showed no backwardness in coming forwards, but this in reflection probably did him no favours, White probably had the best of things, though only marginally. Atalik's mistake, was probably not occupying the b-file with 29...Qb7, opting for ...Qg4 instead, which did not offer him much. He will really kick himself, though, for his 34^th move.

Atalik played 34...Qh7, however, it seems that he refused the chance of a free pawn with ...Qxe5! Black possibly worried about the response, 35. f4 from White, but this seems quite harmless, after 35...Qe1+! 36. Rxe1 Rxe1+, 37. Qg1 Rxg1+, 38. Kxg1 Rg4. Here, Black seems pretty good. I am curious as to the time situation at this point in the game, because it is not something that I would expect a GM of Atalik's calibre to miss under normal circumstances.

Anyway, from here it was White showing the aggression, and his K-side pawns advanced with gusto. Black was certainly under some pressure, and White arguably had winning chances at certain points, but some inaccuracies from Palac, coupled with pure determination and spirit from Atalik meant they shared the spoils.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Atalik had a somewhat more sucessful day at the office. Not that I would ever take a WGM or (any master for that matter) lightly, but Ekaterina's play during this tournament has greatly impressed me. In round 10 her victim was Zawadzka. This being said, it was not a great game by Ekaterina, her new move of 8...d5, gave her relative equality, and White seemed far too eager to exchange off pieces in my humble opinion. This being said, though, It was Zawadzka who had an edge until some less than ideal moves towards the end spoiled things for her. Chess can be a cruel game sometimes, as she went from being very much dominating, to very much getting mated (in 9, from the final position, Mr. Fritz tells me). A point is a point, and this one result put Atalik in sole lead, half a point ahead of Bosboom-Lanchava.

Round 11 & Final Report

The 2006 European Championships have concluded in Kusadasi, Turkey. The General event has been won by Zdenko Kozul on a final score of 8½ points. The 40-year-old Croatian Grandmaster lost no games on his way to the title, drawing with Ivanchuk, and defeating the likes of Nikolic, and Naiditsch. In the final game, he drew rather quickly (8 moves) against Izoria.

Round 11 saw Ivanchuk take the silver medal, after drawing with Belov, and Kiril Georgiev took the bronze after being victorious in the tie-break play-off. There were wins for Jobava, who will be disappointed with his placing of 11^th place I would think. Naiditsch also won his last round game, and finished in 8^th place, only a point behind Kozul. A nice performance from him.

Turkish WGM Ekaterina Atalik delighted her home crowd by winning the Women's section, also on 8½ points. Ekaterina (Wife of GM Suat Atalik) put in a very fine performance during this tournament, and in my opinion has shown herself as a serious contender for future events. She also did not lose a game, and as well as drawing to the likes of bronze medal winner Zhukova (in round 11), and Bosboom-Lanchava (who takes the silver medal), she defeated Mariya Muzychuk, Peptan, and Zawadzka in amongst her 6 wins.

Other results in round 11 were draws for Dembo, Bosboom-Lanchava, Mkrtchian, and wins for Stefanova, and Sebag who defeated Mariya Muzychuk.

Chess Gateway congratulates the champions and medal winners, as well as all the competitors for a fine tournament!