European Championship: Potkin and Savchenko on 4/4

At the European Championship in Aix les Bains, France Vladimir Potkin and Boris Savchenko are the only two players left with a 100% score. Judit Polgar is one of the 19 players on 3.5 points while top seed Peter Svidler has half a point less as he was held to a draw by two IMs.

The start of round 4 in Aix les Bans | Photo courtesy of the official website, more here

The 12th European Individual Chess Championship for Men is being held from March 21 till April 3rd, 2011 in Aix les Bain, France. The thermal city in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France has already hosted four big chess events: two individual French Championships (2003 and 2007) and two youth French Championships (2006 and 2009).




The Championship is a Swiss system of 11 rounds. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes to finish the game, plus 30 seconds per move starting with the first move. The games start every day at 15:00 CET (live here) while Tuesday, March 29th is a rest day.

A total of 407 participants (172 GMs!) are fighting for the European title or a more modest, personal goal. Beside, there are 23 qualification spots for the World Cup 2011 which will take place in August-September, again in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia).

The list of stars includes top seed Peter Svidler; the strongest woman of all time, Judit Polgar; the young Italian-American prodigy, Fabiano Caruana, the present French Champion, Laurent Fressinet and many others. Seven of the eleven former European Champions will attempt the feat of becoming two-time Champions, including the 2007 Champion Vlad Tkachiev or the Russian, Pavel Tregubov, 1st European Champion. Ian Nepomniachtchi is defending his title.

Another notable participant is Sebastien Feller. Last week the Disciplinary Commission of the French Chess Federation suspended him for “violation of sporting ethics”. However, the 20-year-old Feller has decided to appeal against this and therefore claimed the right to play. (Incidentally, he also has the right to receive the hotel fees for 2600+ players from the federation).

After four rounds Russian GMs Vladimir Potkin and Boris Savchenko are the only two players left with a 100% score. The first round already saw some big surprises. Several strong players had to be content with a draw against much lower rated players, including top seed GM Peter Svidler (2730) who played the talented IM Helgi Dam Ziska (2432) of the Faroe Islands.

Dmitry Jakovenko (2718) did even worse: he lost to IM Artem Smirnov (2425). David Navara escaped with a draw against French IM Vincent Colin.

Navara-Colin Aix les Bains 2011 After a passive opening, Black seizes the initiative convincingly. 28... g5! 29. exf6 Qxf6 Risky. 29...Bxf6 was a bit better. 30. Bxg5 Qg6 31. Ng4 e5 32. c5 exf4 33. Bxf4 h5 34. Bc4+ Kh7 35. Kh1 bxc5 36. bxc5 e3 37. Bxe3? 37.c6 Bxc6 38.Bd3 was more or less forced. 37... Bxg2+! In mutual time trouble, Black finds a simple but nice way to blow up his opponent’s position. 38. Kxg2 Qe4+ 39. Kg3 h4+? 39...Be5+ was totally winning: 40.Nxe5 (40.Kh4 Nf3+) 40...Qxe5+ 41.Kg2 Qe4+ 42.Kh2 Nf3+. 40. Kxh4 Nf3+ 41. Kg3 Nxe1 42. Rxe1 Colin was still winning, but Navara showed some class in defending this difficult position, making his opponent fall into a well-known fortress with R+P vs Q. [Notes from the tournament bulletin.]

There are 19 players with 3.5/4 - 17 GMs and two IMs, both from France and both named Anthony: Wirig and Bellaiche. Judit Polgar started with a draw but then won her three subsequent games. Here are two more fragments from rounds 1-4.

Rublevsky-Zude Aix les Bains 2011 Black's last move was 14...Nc6?, where he should have included 14...b4. 15. Nd5! Bd8 16. Nf5! exf5 17. exf5 Ne5 18. Rxe5 dxe5 19. f6 g6 20. Ne7+ 1-0

Polgar-Edouard Aix les Bains 2011 Polgar refutes the last move 35... h6? nicely: 36. h5! Rg8 37. Rd7 Rg7 38. Bf7! 1-0

Selection of games

Game viewer by ChessTempo


European Individual Championship 2011 | Aix les Bains | Round 4 Standings (Top 100)

Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Potkin Vladimir	GM	RUS	2653	4.0	3354	5.5	10.0
2	Savchenko Boris	GM	RUS	2616	4.0	3312	4.5	9.0
3	Wirig Anthony	IM	FRA	2480	3.5	3420	5.0	9.0
4	Moiseenko Alexander	GM	UKR	2673	3.5	3368	5.0	10.5
5	Grachev Boris	GM	RUS	2675	3.5	3366	5.0	10.0
6	Kobalia Mikhail	GM	RUS	2672	3.5	3363	5.0	9.5
7	Guseinov Gadir	GM	AZE	2584	3.5	3358	5.0	10.0
8	Ragger Markus	GM	AUT	2614	3.5	3285	5.0	10.5
9	Vaisser Anatoly	GM	FRA	2522	3.5	2804	5.0	9.5
10	Bellaiche Anthony	IM	FRA	2472	3.5	2800	5.0	8.0
11	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	GM	ROU	2598	3.5	2761	5.0	10.5
12	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	GM	ROU	2673	3.5	2759	4.5	10.0
13	Sutovsky Emil	GM	ISR	2692	3.5	2750	4.0	8.0
14	Kotronias Vasilios	GM	GRE	2583	3.5	2749	4.5	9.0
15	Volokitin Andrei	GM	UKR	2677	3.5	2744	5.0	9.5
16	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	GM	GRE	2584	3.5	2735	4.0	8.5
17	Iordachescu Viorel	GM	MDA	2626	3.5	2734	5.5	11.0
18	Korobov Anton	GM	UKR	2647	3.5	2711	5.0	10.0
19	Polgar Judit	GM	HUN	2686	3.5	2674	3.5	7.5
20	Reinderman Dimitri	GM	NED	2601	3.5	2670	4.5	9.0
21	Zhigalko Andrey	GM	BLR	2571	3.5	2663	5.0	9.5
22	Navara David	GM	CZE	2722	3.0	3346	4.0	8.0
23	Nielsen Peter Heine	GM	DEN	2670	3.0	3335	4.5	10.0
24	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	GM	ARM	2575	3.0	3328	5.5	11.0
25	Vallejo Pons Francisco	GM	ESP	2707	3.0	3304	4.5	9.5
26	Hracek Zbynek	GM	CZE	2631	3.0	3301	4.0	8.5
27	Lupulescu Constantin	GM	ROU	2626	3.0	3286	4.0	9.0
28	Zhigalko Sergei	GM	BLR	2680	3.0	3275	4.5	9.0
29	Riazantsev Alexander	GM	RUS	2679	3.0	3274	4.0	8.5
30	Nyback Tomi	GM	FIN	2656	3.0	3263	4.5	9.0
31	Smirin Ilia	GM	ISR	2658	3.0	3249	4.0	7.0
32	Gharamian Tigran	GM	FRA	2650	3.0	3240	4.0	7.5
33	Pantsulaia Levan	GM	GEO	2595	3.0	3238	4.5	10.5
34	Zude Erik Dr	IM	GER	2409	3.0	3190	4.0	7.5
35	Popov Valerij	GM	RUS	2565	3.0	3143	4.0	8.0
36	Jones Gawain C B	GM	ENG	2578	3.0	3123	4.0	9.0
37	Shimanov Aleksandr	GM	RUS	2550	3.0	3060	4.0	8.5
38	Vocaturo Daniele	GM	ITA	2564	3.0	3036	3.5	7.0
39	Wells Peter K	GM	ENG	2487	3.0	2823	4.5	8.0
40	Dubov Daniil	IM	RUS	2489	3.0	2805	5.5	9.5
41	Javakhishvili Lela	IM	GEO	2437	3.0	2789	5.0	9.0
42	Motylev Alexander	GM	RUS	2677	3.0	2765	6.0	11.0
43	Nikolic Predrag	GM	BIH	2596	3.0	2762	5.5	9.5
44	Melkumyan Hrant	GM	ARM	2593	3.0	2759	5.5	11.0
45	Naiditsch Arkadij	GM	GER	2684	3.0	2752	4.5	9.0
46	Khismatullin Denis	GM	RUS	2662	3.0	2744	5.0	9.5
47	Bartel Mateusz	GM	POL	2638	3.0	2736	5.5	11.0
48	Mamedov Rauf	GM	AZE	2667	3.0	2730	3.5	7.5
49	Halkias Stelios	GM	GRE	2579	3.0	2727	5.0	9.5
50	Cheparinov Ivan	GM	BUL	2664	3.0	2727	4.5	8.5
51	Sargissian Gabriel	GM	ARM	2676	3.0	2727	4.0	7.5
52	Khairullin Ildar	GM	RUS	2634	3.0	2723	5.5	10.5
53	Gustafsson Jan	GM	GER	2647	3.0	2722	4.0	9.0
54	Smeets Jan	GM	NED	2660	3.0	2718	4.0	8.5
55	Feller Sebastien	GM	FRA	2657	3.0	2712	4.0	7.5
56	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	GM	POL	2711	3.0	2700	4.5	9.5
57	Azarov Sergei	GM	BLR	2615	3.0	2698	5.0	10.0
58	Andriasian Zaven	GM	ARM	2645	3.0	2685	5.0	10.0
59	Vitiugov Nikita	GM	RUS	2720	3.0	2679	4.5	8.5
60	Zherebukh Yaroslav	GM	UKR	2560	3.0	2674	4.5	9.0
61	Stevic Hrvoje	GM	CRO	2611	3.0	2668	5.5	11.0
62	Matlakov Maxim	GM	RUS	2625	3.0	2665	4.0	9.0
63	Saric Ivan	GM	CRO	2626	3.0	2665	4.0	8.5
64	Macieja Bartlomiej	GM	POL	2619	3.0	2655	5.5	10.5
65	Hammer Jon Ludvig	GM	NOR	2606	3.0	2652	4.0	8.5
66	Romanov Evgeny	GM	RUS	2624	3.0	2651	4.0	8.5
67	Alsina Leal Daniel	GM	ESP	2538	3.0	2648	5.0	9.0
68	Rogozenco Dorian	GM	ROU	2553	3.0	2643	4.5	9.5
69	Ivanisevic Ivan	GM	SRB	2617	3.0	2643	4.5	9.0
70	Kozul Zdenko	GM	CRO	2568	3.0	2630	4.5	8.5
71	Maze Sebastien	GM	FRA	2559	3.0	2629	6.0	10.0
72	Gallagher Joseph G	GM	SUI	2500	3.0	2628	4.5	8.5
73	Kovchan Alexander	GM	UKR	2563	3.0	2618	5.0	10.0
74	Papin Vasily	GM	RUS	2569	3.0	2593	3.5	7.5
75	Balogh Csaba	GM	HUN	2601	3.0	2579	4.5	9.5
76	Papaioannou Ioannis	GM	GRE	2605	3.0	2538	3.5	7.5
77	Svidler Peter	GM	RUS	2730	3.0	2456	4.0	9.0
78	Shengelia David	GM	AUT	2573	3.0	2248	3.0	6.0
79	Terrieux Kevin	IM	FRA	2422	2.5	2873	4.0	8.5
80	Getz Nicolai	FM	NOR	2333	2.5	2772	3.5	8.0
81	Palac Mladen	GM	CRO	2586	2.5	2754	6.0	10.5
82	Rublevsky Sergei	GM	RUS	2678	2.5	2752	5.0	10.0
83	Mikhalevski Victor	GM	ISR	2584	2.5	2746	5.5	11.0
84	Inarkiev Ernesto	GM	RUS	2674	2.5	2740	4.5	10.0
85	Bologan Viktor	GM	MDA	2671	2.5	2739	4.0	9.0
86	Nepomniachtchi Ian	GM	RUS	2729	2.5	2719	6.0	11.0
87	Doros Radu-Marian		ROU	2278	2.5	2714	3.0	6.5
88	Deleva Michael		FRA	2236	2.5	2694	4.0	7.5
89	Prie Eric	GM	FRA	2508	2.5	2692	4.0	8.5
90	Djukic Nikola	GM	MNE	2494	2.5	2683	4.5	8.5
91	Caruana Fabiano	GM	ITA	2716	2.5	2676	5.0	10.0
92	Cornette Matthieu	GM	FRA	2548	2.5	2675	4.0	8.5
93	Houriez Clement	FM	FRA	2252	2.5	2673	3.5	7.0
94	Laznicka Viktor	GM	CZE	2688	2.5	2672	4.0	7.5
95	Pridorozhni Aleksei	GM	RUS	2542	2.5	2666	5.5	9.5
96	Beliavsky Alexander G	GM	SLO	2619	2.5	2665	5.0	10.0
97	Rapport Richard	GM	HUN	2540	2.5	2663	5.0	9.0
98	Brandenburg Daan	IM	NED	2527	2.5	2655	5.0	9.5
99	Zakhartsov Viacheslav V	GM	RUS	2608	2.5	2654	5.0	10.0
100	Godena Michele	GM	ITA	2526	2.5	2653	5.5	9.0

Links

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