The mighty Euro Club Cup is well underway in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey. Here's the fine official site. The full list of teams and players is here. TWIC has speedy results and games. ChessBase just put up a report with lots of photos. There are plenty of stars in action, including Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Kamsky, Grischuk, Akopian, Radjabov, Shirov, Morozevich, Mamedyarov, Adams, and even new world champion Vishy Anand, who appeared in round five for Baden-Baden to draw his first game as champ with Murtas Kazhgaleyev of the Cannes team. (There's a trivia quest for you. Results of champions' first games as title holder.)
Three big powers are tied for first with nine match points after five rounds, with two more rounds to play. Kamsky has lost twice on board one for the Linex Magic team, but his teammates have picked him up. Adams and Cheparinov have 4/5 and Rublevsky and Sargissian have 3.5/5. But it's their 6th board Perez Candelario who is really rocking, with 4.5. Shirov has 4.5/5 for Ural Sverdlovskaya. Ivanchuk has turned in 4/5 for Bosna. Continuing our recent opening survey, 1..e5 is still beating the Sicilian two-to-one. Kudos to the Basque club Gros Xake Taldea for fielding this marvelously diverse squad: Netherlands, China, Switzerland, Morocco, France, Romania and two Spanish reserves. Baden-Baden has two players from the same country as well -- India.
As always seems to happen in these big team events there are some glitches with the scores. Try this gem, listed as Sutovsky-Vaganian from round 4: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 Bb4+ 3. Nc3 Bxc3+ 4. bxc3 Nc6 5. Bd2 f6 6. a4 a6 7. g3 Na7 8. Nf3 Qe7 9. Ke2 0-1
Seems that Sutovsky is really living up to his reputation for creativity: his game this round with white against Carlsen is currently on the website as 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nd4 Nxe4 5.Nxe4 Bd6 6.c4 Kf8 7.Nxe6 fxe6 Understandably enough, White is now in the middle of a long think.
Good relay on the whole, though, and an absolutely terrific event. So many great players.
Doesn't IM Ben Finegold play for a European Club? If so, could someone provide his available games? Thanks.
Ben Voller
I've been talking for years about how the French Defense refutes 1.e4. If the Sutovsky-Vaganian game doesn't prove that, I don't know what will.
another website gives it as :
GM Sutovsky,Emil(ISR) (2656) - GM Vaganian,Rafael A(ARM) (2594)
European Club Cup Antalya/Kemer (4), 06.10.2007
1.e4 e6 2.d4 Bb4+ 3.Nc3 B:c3+ 4.b:c3 Nc6 5.Bd2 f6 6.Qb1
and
Sutovsky Emil (Ashdod City Club) - Rublevsky Sergei (Linex Magic - Merida)
1.e4 e6 2.Nc3 a6 3.Bd3 Nf6 4.Qf3 Be7 5.Qg3 0-0 6.Na4 Ne8 7.c4 d6 8.b3 Nd7 9.f4 f6 10.Qg4 c6 1/2-1/2
The correct Sutovsky score is up now both on TWIC and the official site. They're a bit behind with the full bulletin but they seem to be pretty OK when they get there. I get the games from the live feed which do contain errors but they're better than nothing for a start.
Anyone know why Sutovsky, Gelfand and indeed the entire Israeli players aren't in the latest full October list download? Its almost always fees to FIDE but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere.
Will anand and kamsky meet on board ?
Anybody know what happened to Topalov? I saw him on a provisional team list for this event but I just realized he doesn't seem to have turned up...
Anand registers nice positional squeeze against Pelletier. First win as world champion!
Considering his high rating and not-so-highly-rated opponents does Anand lose rating points for his 2/3 in Euro Cup?
Not Ivanchuk's day.... Later this month he will have the chance to get it back he will play the teams championship with Topalov and Shirov http://www.chessdom.com/european-team-chess-championship/top-players
Anand's opponents average rating was around 2650 I think, so he might drop below the 28mark again.
I believe after this one Anand goes to 2799.
I don't think he will be playing more until corus so Jan List will not have anand over 2800.
Mig, do you know how much time Gata Kamsky is dedicating to chess these days? Full-time? What are his plans in that regard?
Anand lost 2 pts ... so He is 2799 now
Do I see the result Short 1/2 - Briscoe 1/2 (Chris Briscoe being a UK club player of about 2100 strength).
Good effort by Chris B, but even so - ho ho!
Perhaps his mind was on the fact that he'll be playing in the 'B' section of Corus next year?
According to an interview in a German magazine a couple of months ago, Kamsky's current goal is to work on his openings and gain as many rating points as possible. He also has a young family, which is important to him.
Like everyone else, he wants to be champion, but is frustrated by FIDE's constant fiddling with the system.
(Apologies for any misunderstandings - my German isn't really up to skimming through lengthy articles).