ECCC Eilat: Socar overtakes Saint-Petersburg, wins Gold

by ChessBase
10/18/2012 – It was a dramatic final round: the rating favorite Socar Azerbaijan was trailing Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation significantly in tiebreak points, but they were able to overcome this by trouncing the very strong Tomsk-400 team to win the gold medal in the 28th European Club Cup 2012. Women's gold had been decided by Monte-Carlo one round before the end. Final report.

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The 28th European Club Cup 2012 is taking place in Eilat, Israel, as a seven-round Swiss from October 11 to 18 (no free day). The rounds starts at 15:00 local time. The time controls are 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The zero tolerance rule (6.6a of the FIDE Laws of Chess) will be applied: any player who arrives at the chessboard after the start of the session loses the game.

Round seven report


SOCAR Azerbaijan with (l.-r.) Teimour Radjabov, Shakhriya Mamedyarov, Veselin
Topalov, Alexander Grischuk facing Alexander Areshchenko and Ernesto Inarkiev

After a dramatic final round we have a new winner of the ECC. At the beginning of the round, the rating favorite SOCAR Azerbaijan was trailing Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation significantly in Sonnenborn-Berger tiebreaks. Therefore Socar made every effort not only to beat Tomsk-400, but to achieve the highest possible margin. They got wins from Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Topalov and Sutovsky for an incredible final scoreline of 5:1.

It turned out that they needed every one of those wins, as St. Petersburg managed to defeat the surprising Israeli team of Ashdod. On the top three boards Ashdod's Ukrainian trio achieved good positions, but Svidler, Dominguez and Vitiugov defended well, and then Efimenko and Matlakov scored the decisive points on boards 5-6. However, it was not enough. Both SOCAR and Saint-Petersburg scored 12/14 match points, but the Azeri team's tiebreak was just a little better: 673.8 to 665.5, and they won the direct meeting with St. Petersburg so their victory seems justified.


The winners SOCAR Azerbaijan, with Alexander Grischuk, Eltaj Safarli, Gata Kamsky,
team captain Vladimir Tukmakov, Shakhriya Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov

SHSM-64 took advantage of the losses of Tomsk and Ashdod to capture Bronze after a 4.5:1.5 against the Spanish team Gros Xake Taldea. Economist, Ugra, Ashdod and Tomsk took places four to seven with ten match points each.


Silver for Saint-Petersburg, who lost Gold by just 665.5 to 673.8 tiebreak points


Bronze for SHSM-64, who scored 11/14 match points

In the last game to finish, Hikaru Nakamura drew after 127 moves with Israeli junior Danny Raznikov, rated 321 points lower than him. Another promising Israeli junior who also drew with the American earlier, Gil Popilski, won his final game, thus crossing the 2500 barrier and ensuring the GM title after having already all the norms. Another great personal achievement was the individual gold medal at the top board which went to French GM Romain Eduard, who played for the lowly team of Geneve.

Top pairing results from round seven

Bo. 7 Tomsk-400 Rtg
1:5
1 SOCAR Azerbaijan Rtg
1.1 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan 2735
0-1
GM Radjabov, Teimour 2792
1.2 GM Areshchenko, Alexander 2710
0-1
GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2748
1.3 GM Bologan, Viktor 2695
0-1
GM Topalov, Veselin 2751
1.4 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto 2683
½-½
GM Grischuk, Alexander 2752
1.5 GM Motylev, Alexander 2655
½-½
GM Kamsky, Gata 2755
1.6 GM Khismatullin, Denis 2638
0-1
GM Sutovsky, Emil 2685
Bo. 9 Ashdod Rtg
2:4
4 Saint-Petersburg CF Rtg
2.1 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily 2771
½-½
GM Svidler, Peter 2747
2.2 GM Volokitin, Andrei 2724
½-½
GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2734
2.3 GM Eljanov, Pavel 2681
½-½
GM Vitiugov, Nikita 2691
2.4 GM Smirin, Ilia 2638
½-½
GM Movsesian, Sergei 2699
2.5 GM Romanov, Evgeny 2611
0-1
GM Efimenko, Zahar 2689
2.6 GM Avrukh, Boris 2585
0-1
GM Matlakov, Maxim 2665
Bo. 2 SHSM-64 Rtg
4½:1½
12 Gros Xake Taldea Rtg
3.1 GM Gelfand, Boris 2736
½-½
GM Van Wely, Loek 2688
3.2 GM Leko, Peter 2734
½-½
GM Bauer, Christian 2664
3.3 GM Giri, Anish 2730
½-½
GM Landa, Konstantin 2641
3.4 GM Riazantsev, Alexander 2712
1-0
IM Franco Alonso, Alejandro 2479
3.5 GM Grachev, Boris 2672
1-0
IM Gonzalez De La Torre, Santiago 2442
3.6 GM Najer, Evgeniy 2664
1-0
IM Argandona Riveiro, Inigo 2402
Bo. 3 Economist-SGSEU Saratov Rtg
4½:1½
17 Vesnianka Gran Rtg
4.1 GM Andreikin, Dmitry 2718
½-½
GM Zhigalko, Andrey 2582
4.2 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2704
½-½
GM Teterev, Vitaly 2529
4.3 GM Alekseev, Evgeny 2683
1-0
IM Kovalev, Vladislav 2473
4.4 GM Morozevich, Alexander 2758
½-½
IM Gorovets, Andrey 2459
4.5 GM Moiseenko, Alexander 2700
1-0
IM Mochalov, Evgeny V 2403
4.6 GM Lysyj, Igor 2628
1-0
Oblamski, Vladimir 2114
Bo. 5 Ugra Rtg
3½:2½
8 G-Team Novy Bor Rtg
5.1 GM Jakovenko, Dmitry 2732
½-½
GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2733
5.2 GM Shirov, Alexei 2718
½-½
GM Navara, David 2722
5.3 GM Malakhov, Vladimir 2713
½-½
GM Laznicka, Viktor 2678
5.4 GM Korobov, Anton 2705
1-0
GM Sasikiran, Krishnan 2680
5.5 GM Rublevsky, Sergei 2693
½-½
GM Bartel, Mateusz 2635
5.6 GM Dreev, Aleksey 2677
½-½
GM Hracek, Zbynek 2612
Bo. 6 OSG Baden-Baden e.V. Rtg
5½: ½
26 Tammer-Shakki Rtg
6.1 GM Adams, Michael 2720
1-0
IM Karttunen, Mika 2445
6.2 GM Bacrot, Etienne 2705
1-0
IM Maki, Veijo 2383
6.3 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 2704
1-0
Koykka, Pekka 2242
6.4 GM Kasimdzhanov, Rustam 2690
1-0
FM Kytoniemi, Jyrki 2283
6.5 GM Nielsen, Peter Heine 2662
½-½
FM Penttinen, Jarkko 2258
6.6 GM Gustafsson, Jan 2622
1-0
Natri, Antero 2219

Final rankings

Rk.
SNo
Team
Gms
 –
 TB1 
 TB2 
 TB3 
1
1
SOCAR Azerbaijan
7
6
0
1
12
673.8
32.0
2
4
Saint-Petersburg CF
7
6
0
1
12
665.5
29.5
3
2
SHSM-64
7
5
1
1
11
590.5
28.0
4
3
Economist Saratov
7
5
0
2
10
653.0
26.5
5
5
Ugra
7
5
0
2
10
607.3
24.0
6
9
Ashdod
7
5
0
2
10
595.8
23.0
7
7
Tomsk-400
7
5
0
2
10
572.5
28.0
8
6
OSG Baden-Baden
7
4
1
2
9
571.3
28.0
9
14
Siroki Brijeg
7
4
1
2
9
478.3
25.5
10
8
G-Team Novy Bor
7
4
0
3
8
553.5
25.5
11
17
Vesnianka Gran
7
4
0
3
8
487.0
24.0
12
10
Beer Sheba
7
4
0
3
8
460.3
23.0
13
12
Gros Xake Taldea
7
4
0
3
8
449.0
20.0
14
13
Rishon Le-Zion
7
4
0
3
8
440.0
23.0
15
11
Obiettive Risarcimento
7
4
0
3
8
438.3
24.5
16
16
Eynatten
7
4
0
3
8
407.5
23.0

Selection of games

Women's section

The gold medal in the women's event had been decided at the end of round six, but the winners, Monte-Carlo, played the final round with their top lineup, beating the Russian team Ugra 3:1. As a result, Ugra dropped from second to third place, and the silver medal went to the Armenian team Mika.

Bo. 4 Ashdod Rtg
½:3½
8 SHSM-Nashe Nasledie Rtg
1.1 IM Klinova, Masha 2324
0-1
IM Gunina, Valentina 2514
1.2 IM Borsuk, Angela 2260
0-1
IM Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 2405
1.3 WIM Vasiliev, Olga 2240
0-1
WGM Kashlinskaya, Alina 2368
1.4 WIM Tsifanskaya, Ludmila A 2087
½-½
IM Savina, Anastasia 2303
Bo. 5 Chigorin Club Rtg
½:3½
3 Mika Rtg
2.1 IM Bodnaruk, Anastasia 2425
0-1
GM Danielian, Elina 2476
2.2 WIM Bronnikova, Elizaveta 2244
0-1
GM Harika, Dronavalli 2512
2.3 WIM Ivkina, Olga 2266
½-½
IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 2456
2.4 Ivanova-Skripova, Tatiana 2173
0-1
IM Javakhishvili, Lela 2444
Bo. 6 Rishon Le-Zion Rtg
0:4
2 AVS Rtg
3.1 WIM Efroimski, Marsel 2162
0-1
GM Lahno, Kateryna 2551
3.2 Reprun, Nadejda 2143
0-1
GM Cmilyte, Viktorija 2528
3.3 Vardi, Shlomit 2010
0-1
WGM Pogonina, Natalija 2476
3.4 Federovski, Adi 1829
0-1
IM Muzychuk, Mariya 2474
Bo. 7 Ugra Rtg
1:3
1 Cercle d'Echecs Monte-Carlo Rtg
4.1 WGM Kovanova, Baira 2408
0-1
GM Hou, Yifan 2605
4.2 WGM Girya, Olga 2454
½-½
GM Koneru, Humpy 2607
4.3 IM Romanko, Marina 2365
0-1
GM Muzychuk, Anna 2587
4.4 WGM Shadrina, Tatiana 2361
½-½
GM Cramling, Pia 2514

Final rankings

Rk. Team
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
 TB1 
 TB2 
 TB3 
1 Cercle d'Echecs Monte-Carlo
 * 
3
4
4
14
261.0
22.0
2 Mika
 * 
3
3
10
225.0
18.5
3 Ugra
1
 * 
1
2
9
184.3
15.0
4 SHSM-Nashe Nasledie
1
3
 * 
2
2
8
196.0
16.5
5 AVS
2
 * 
4
4
7
199.8
18.0
6 Ashdod
0
½
2
½
½
 * 
3
5
91.0
9.0
7 Chigorin Club
½
½
2
0
 * 
3
3
101.3
9.0
8 Rishon Le-Zion
0
1
½
½
0
1
1
 * 
0
52.3
4.0


The winning team of Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, with Anna Muyzchuk, Almira
Skripchenko (playing team captain), Hou Yifan, Pia Cramling and Humpy Koneru


Silver for Mika, with Lilit Mkrtchian, Lela Javakhishvili, Anna Hairapetian, Harika
Dronavalli, Elina Danielian with their team captain Anahit Vardapetyan


Bronze for Ugra, with Marina Romanko, Baira Kovanova, Olga Girya, Maria
Bezgodova, Tatiana Shadrina and team captain Pavel Lobach

All pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich

Selection of games

Watch the final round broadcast with commentary here:

Video coverage of all rounds can be found here


Links

The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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