Carlsen Wins, Mamedyarov Beaten As Top Seeds Crash To Defeat

GM Mads Andersen took down Super-GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov as 2023 European Team Chess Championship favorites Azerbaijan lost to 20th-seed Denmark. World number-one Magnus Carlsen started the event in Budva, Montenegro, with a smooth win over GM Jergus Pechac, but his team Norway was held to a draw by Slovakia.

England won, but GM David Howell described an incident with the arbiter at the end of his game with Georgian GM Baadur Jobava as "one of the most unpleasant experiences" of his career.

Round two starts on Sunday, November 12, at 9:15 a.m. ET/15:15 CET/7:45 p.m. IST.

The European Team Championship, held every two years, is arguably the most anticipated national team event after the Olympiad. This year, 38 teams in the Open section and 32 in the Women's are competing over nine rounds of chess, with each match played over four boards.

Five-time World Champion Carlsen is playing for the first time in eight years and has already gone some way to exorcise the memory of his last event, in Reykjavik in 2015, that began with two losses in three games.

What's also evident, however, is who's missing. 

• The Missing—Russia, Ukraine, And Firouzja & Co.
• Round 1 Open: Azerbaijan Beaten As Top Seeds Struggle
• Carlsen Starts Fast, Norway Not So Much
• Howell Hits Out At "Harassment" From Arbiter
• Round 1 Women: Georgia Favorites, Anna Cramling With Upset Win

The Missing—Russia, Ukraine, And Firouzja & Co.

This is the first European Team Championship since Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, and the Russian team is doubly ineligible to play. They're still banned from official FIDE team events, but the Russian Chess Federation also chose to switch from Europe to the Asian Chess Federation, ending an era in European events.

It's clear at a glance how big an impact that's had, since the Russian teams were almost always the favorites to win. The women converted that superiority on paper into an incredible seven titles in eight tournaments. 

For five of those gold medals, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk was on the team, but this year she'll be playing for Switzerland, as one of the players who took advantage of the chance to switch to a European chess federation without paying a fee. Serbia has become a dark horse to win in Budva with the addition of GMs Alexey Sarana and Alexandr Predke, GM Vladimir Fedoseev now plays for Slovenia, while England has former Russian Champion GM Nikita Vitiugov on the top board.

When it comes to Ukraine, however, things are more puzzling. The women's team, despite missing GMs Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, is still competitive and seeded fourth, but in the Open section Ukraine, the defending champion (they didn't lose a single game in 2021), has chosen not to field a team at all. The federation explained the decision in a Facebook post on November 3 that also noted GM Alexander Beliavsky had been appointed as the new team coach.

The reasons were as follows:

"The burden of participating in a number of large international tournament, which take place one after another in October-November this year, will be so gruelling that it will prevent them from approaching the European competition in the best form.

"Some of the candidates for our top team serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and courageously defend our freedom at the front. We will meet them with honor and joy after the Victory.

"There are also objective circumstances related to health and personal plans."

Exhaustion is very much a thing, as GM Hikaru Nakamura elaborated upon during the first round on his stream...

"Everyone's trying to play too many tournaments!" says Nakamura of Caruana saying he was very tired at the end of the #FIDEGrandSwiss. Hikaru puts some of his own success down to picking only a few events pic.twitter.com/ZbKRBfu2wX

— chess24.com (@chess24com) November 11, 2023

... but all the teams are in the same position, while just one likely team member, GM Igor Kovalenko, is known to be serving in the army.

Ukrainian GM Mikhail Golubev ran a poll on what he called a "scandalous" decision, where the options for the reason for not playing were: "1. The Ukrainian Chess Federation is dysfunctional, 2. The players are boycotting the UCF, 3. There's no money for prizes, 4. A wise, patriotic decision."

The federation vows to focus on the 2024 Olympiad instead.

Other players are absent for simpler reasons. The Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz starts on Tuesday, November 14, so that, for instance, GM Anish Giri was traveling to the U.S. rather than playing for the Netherlands. 

Sorry, @KLM, where is chess?🤨 pic.twitter.com/0QffcwdG6p

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) November 11, 2023

The same applies to the French team's two biggest stars, GMs Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who in 2021 led France to silver medals, the smallest of margins behind Ukraine. That is the tournament in which the then 18-year-old Firouzja became the youngest player ever to cross 2800.

Poland will also struggle to repeat their bronze medals from 2021, since GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda is not playing, leaving the podium wide open to a number of teams, including three-time champion Azerbaijan.

Round 1 Open: Azerbaijan Beaten As Top Seeds Struggle

The first round of a Swiss tournament such as the European Team Championship sees big favorites in all the top matchups, so that slipups are unusual. On this occasion, however, top-seed Azerbaijan was put to the sword by the team ranked 20th, Denmark. 

In hindsight, the decision to take three relatively quick draws against much lower-rated Danish opposition was a mistake, but when Mamedyarov launched a powerful sacrificial attack on the remaining board, it looked as though it would pay off. Andersen didn't collapse, however, and when Mamedyarov picked the wrong path, the tables soon turned until there was nothing left for him to do but resign.  

That's our Game of the Day, with annotations by GM Rafael Leitao below.

Azerbaijan wasn't alone in its suffering, with the second-best team on paper only managing to scrape a 2-2 draw. Romania has found the sponsorship to attract star names such as GMs Richard Rapport (from Hungary) and Kirill Shevchenko (from Ukraine), while GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu has returned from a period when he represented Germany. In round one, however, Rapport was rested and GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac needed to dig deep to rescue a 97-move draw against Austrian GM Valentin Dragnev.

Carlsen Starts Fast, Norway Not So Much

In 2015 Carlsen sat out the first two rounds, but this time it seems he correctly guessed that his team, eighth-seed Norway, would need his help against 27th-seed Slovakia. There was also some unfinished business, since in last year's FIDE Chess Olympiad, Carlsen had faced the same young opponent, Pechac, and spoiled a good position out of the opening so that he was forced to make a draw in the end. 

This time there was no mistake, with some help from Pechac willingly rushing into trouble when he grabbed a pawn on b2.

That was only enough for a disappointing draw for Norway, however, since GM Aryan Tari was beaten by 21-year-old GM Viktor Gazik on board two. 

Howell Hits Out At "Harassment" From Arbiter

The other favorites found a way to win, though the next three matchups were won by the smallest of margins. Germany had an 83-move win by GM Alexander Donchenko to thank for beating Sweden, while Armenia's victory over host Montenegro felt ominous—three rock-solid draws and a win for a player who seems to perform 100 rating points better in team events, GM Gabriel Sargissian. Can Armenia follow up silver in the 2022 Olympiad by winning its first European Team Championship since 1999?

Another team with potential is England, since as well as Vitiugov it has World Senior 50+ Champion GM Michael Adams waiting in the wings. In round one, however, the focus was on Howell, who had teased his location in the run-up to the event. 

Guess where? #GeoGuessr pic.twitter.com/KYXuHixK6i

— David Howell (@DavidHowellGM) November 9, 2023

Round one would turn out to be no fun at all for the Englishman. His Georgian opponent, Jobava, did Jobava things, but Howell, playing with the black pieces, navigated all the complications and emerged with a better position and an advantage on the clock. Then in time trouble, he spotted the winning tactical jab 26...e6! only to take a draw at the end when it turned out there was a path to victory.

That was far from all for the game, however, since Howell felt the conduct of the arbiter at his board had been both incompetent and potentially harassment. 

Today was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my career. Not only did the arbiter not know the laws of chess, but he patted me on my bum while trying to usher me out of the playing hall. Surely this is harassment? @ECUonline

— David Howell (@DavidHowellGM) November 11, 2023

Few details have yet emerged, though it appears Jobava had tried to claim a draw by repetition without following the correct procedure for indicating his intended move. Howell was down to just seconds when he made his final moves.

There was a happy ending for England, at least on the chessboard, as GM Luke McShane managed to grind out a win in what had seemed destined to be a drawn endgame against GM Nikolozi Kacharava. That gave England a 2.5-1.5 victory and a full two match points.   

Round 1 Women: Georgia Favorites, Anna Cramling With Upset Win

The Women's event was much more what we expected in round one, with the favorites winning on all the top boards except for third-seed Germany being held to four draws by 19th-seed Greece. Georgia, the reigning Women's World Team Champions, finished runner-up to Russia in the last three European Team Championships. They'll now be looking to go one better, and they started relatively smoothly with a 3-1 win over Israel. 

One of the feel-good stories was 60-year-old GM Pia Cramling leading the team on which her 21-year-old daughter, WFM Anna Cramling, also plays. In round one Poland scored a 2.5-1.5 victory, thanks to wins for IM Oliwia Kiolbasa and WIM Michalina Rudzinska, but Anna pulled off a dramatic win over a player rated over 200 points above her.

I’m in Montenegro representing Sweden in the European Team Chess Championship!!!!! Wish me luck!!!!! (Also I won my first game today and I’m so so happy) 🥹🥹

Recaps coming on yt every day! pic.twitter.com/p0Q2EzcANL

— Anna Cramling (@AnnaCramling) November 11, 2023

The big turning point came with the move 33.g4!?.

After the first round, 16 teams in the Women's and 20 in the Open have 2/2 but if they want to stay perfect, they'll have to beat another team on the same score in round two. 

The 2023 European Team Chess Championship is a nine-round team tournament taking place in Budva, Montenegro, during November 11-20. All the European chess federations can field a team in the Open and Women's sections; matches are played on four boards. The time control is classical with 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes to the end of the game, and a 30-second increment from move one.