RUSSIA ROCKS
By Malcolm Pein
Daily Telegraph/UK
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 08/11/2007
Russia celebrated the capturing the gold medals at the European Team
Championships with victory over Bulgaria in the final round. The
Russians conceded just one 2-2 draw in nine matches and were just
too strong on the top boards where Peter Svidler scored 6/7 on board
one and Alexander Morozevich 6/8 on board two. Svidler’s tournament
rating performance was 2989.
The minor medals went to the Caucasus as Armenia defeated Israel to
take silver and Azerbaijan overcame France to secure bronze.
England were hugely out-rated by Ukraine in their final match but
Michael Adams had one of his best results for some time and defeated
Vasily Ivanchuk, the latter’s third loss at the event. Ukraine won
on boards two and three and England finished 16th on 10/16 which
corresponded to their seeding but the performance was better than that.
English individual scores:
Michael Adams 5.5/8
Gawain Jones 3.5/8
Nick Pert 2/5
Mark Hebden 5/9
Stuart Conquest 3.5/6
Final standings:
1. Russia 17/18
2 Armenia 14
3 Azerbaijan 13
4-6 Poland, Ukraine, Israel 12
16 England 10
32 Scotland 7
37 Wales 5
T Nedev – G Gajewski European Team Ch Crete (9) Sicilian Najdorf
English Attack
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be7
8.Qd2 Be6 9.f3 0-0 10.0-0-0 a5 11.Qe1 (11.Bb5!?)
11…Qc8 (11…a4 12.Nc5!)
12.a4 (White decides to stop the a pawn but at the cost of weakening
his position)
12…Na6! 13.g4 Nb4 14.Kb1 d5!? (Exploiting the pin on the Nc3)
15.g5 Ne8 16.exd5 Bf5 17.Rd2 (Your computer might want to play 17.Na1
here but it is not a good move of course)
17…Nc7 18.Bc4 (Black threatens to take on d5 and if 18.d6 Bxd6
19.Rxd6 Bxc2+)
18…b5! 19.axb5 (19.Nxb5 Nxb5 20.Bxb5 Bxc2+)
19…Ne8! (19…a4 20.Nc5 but now a4 is strong and White has no play
on the other wing)
20.Qe2 a4 21.Nc1 Nd6 22.Bd3 Nxd3 23.Nxd3 Nc4 24.Rdd1 a3 25.Ne4 (25.b3
Nxe3 26.Qxe3 Qxc3)
25…Bxe4 26.fxe4 axb2 27.Nxb2 Na3+ 28.Kc1 Qc3! 0-1 INTO LIGHT A
lovely finish, White will be mated on a1 for example 28…Qc3 29.Rd3
Nc4! 30.Rxc3 Ra1 mate
Gajewski
Nedev
Position after 28…Qc3!
*************************************** *******
Black forgets about her knight and loses it.
A Muzychuk – E Paehtz European Team Ch Crete (9)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.g4 h5 8.g5
Ng4 9.Bc1 Nc6?? (9…Qb6 and if 10.f4 Nc6 11.Nce2 e5!)
10.Nxc6 bxc6 11.f4 (The knight is lost, h3 follows)
11…Qb6 12.Qd2 d5 13.h3 Nf6 14.gxf6 gxf6 15.Na4 Qc7 16.c4 dxe4 17.c5
Bb7 18.Qb4 f5 19.Be3 Rd8 20.Rg1 Bh6 21.Rd1 Ke7 22.Rd6 Rhg8 23.Rxg8
Rxg8 24.Nb6 Rg3 25.Bf2 1-0
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress