ETC: France Still in the Lead, Two More Rounds
France mantained their lead in the open section of the European Team Championship in Warsaw, Poland. After seven rounds the team has 12 match points and is one point ahead of Azerbaijan and Armenia. Ukraine still tops the women's section; also there Armenia is in seconds place.
Photos courtesy of the ETC
The French team, consisting of Etienne Bacrot, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Romain Edouard, Vladislav Tkachiev and Hicham Hamdouchi, are still topping the standings in Warsaw. This weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, everything will be decided in the Polish capital.
In the sixth round it was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who brought victory for his team. He was helped by his opponent, who apparently completely missed a checkmate on move... 20! Quite rare at this level.
Pre-tournament favourites Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia all moved up in the standings with victories against Georgia, Hungary and Romania respectively. Georgia's Baadur Jobava keeps on playing off-beat openings, which is awesome, but it's not always working against the big guys...
Netherlands-Czech Republic was a 2-2 with four decisive games! Dutch GM Ivan Sokolov is doing very well in Warsaw with a 5.5/6 score. In this match he won an instructive fight of bishop vs. knight:
The top boards in round 7 saw a 2-2 between Azerbaijan and France. On board three Mamedov beat Edouard in a wild French/King's Indian Attack:
Vlad Tkachiev levelled the score:
Armenia has been performing well in many team events in recent years, and they're doing it again. On Friday they defeated top seed Russia with three draws and a win on board 4:
From the match Slovenia-Netherlands (0.5-3.5) here's another game by Sokolov, who playing with such power:
European Team Championship 2013 | Round 7 Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Team | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 |
| 1 | 3 | FRANCE | 5 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 137 | 17 | 111 |
| 2 | 6 | AZERBAIJAN | 4 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 129 | 16,5 | 111 |
| 3 | 2 | ARMENIA | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 106,5 | 16 | 101,5 |
| 4 | 15 | GREECE | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 128 | 17 | 108,5 |
| 5 | 9 | CZECH REPUBLIC | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 122 | 16,5 | 111 |
| 6 | 7 | HUNGARY | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 119,5 | 16,5 | 104,5 |
| 7 | 4 | UKRAINE | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 115 | 15,5 | 108,5 |
| 8 | 1 | RUSSIA | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 109,5 | 17,5 | 103,5 |
| 9 | 14 | GEORGIA | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 106,5 | 15,5 | 106,5 |
| 10 | 5 | ENGLAND | 3 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 103,5 | 16 | 102 |
| 11 | 17 | BELARUS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 98,5 | 15,5 | 103 |
| 12 | 8 | NETHERLANDS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 87,5 | 18,5 | 78 |
| 13 | 18 | TURKEY | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 91,5 | 15 | 101,5 |
| 14 | 12 | POLAND | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 91 | 15,5 | 98 |
| 15 | 16 | CROATIA | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 84,5 | 14,5 | 99,5 |
| 16 | 13 | ITALY | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 83,5 | 14,5 | 105,5 |
| 17 | 20 | SERBIA | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 101 | 16 | 101 |
| 18 | 21 | BULGARIA | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 93,5 | 15,5 | 96,5 |
| 19 | 22 | SLOVENIA | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 90,5 | 13,5 | 104 |
| 20 | 19 | ROMANIA | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 87 | 16 | 88 |
| 21 | 31 | SWITZERLAND | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 78,5 | 13 | 100 |
| 22 | 29 | ISRAEL | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 77 | 13,5 | 99 |
| 23 | 25 | SWEDEN | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 75,5 | 14,5 | 93,5 |
| 24 | 30 | MONTENEGRO | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 64,5 | 13 | 93 |
| 25 | 11 | SPAIN | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 82,5 | 13,5 | 100,5 |
| 26 | 10 | GERMANY | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 76,5 | 13 | 103 |
| 27 | 23 | POLAND FUTURES | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 57 | 13,5 | 93 |
| 28 | 28 | ICELAND | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 68,5 | 13,5 | 94,5 |
| 29 | 27 | AUSTRIA | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 63,5 | 10 | 110 |
| 30 | 34 | LITHUANIA | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 58 | 14 | 91,5 |
| 31 | 26 | DENMARK | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 57 | 13 | 101,5 |
| 32 | 33 | BELGIUM | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 51,5 | 14 | 79,5 |
| 33 | 32 | FINLAND | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 44,5 | 13 | 78 |
| 34 | 24 | POLAND GOLDIES | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 54 | 10,5 | 104,5 |
| 35 | 37 | SCOTLAND | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 41,5 | 10,5 | 87 |
| 36 | 36 | NORWAY | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 34 | 9,5 | 80,5 |
| 37 | 35 | FYR MACEDONIA | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 39 | 10,5 | 80 |
| 38 | 38 | WALES | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 92 |
xxx
Playing with Kateryna Lagno, Anna Ushenina, Mariya Muzychuk, Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko, Ukraine is getting closer and closer to gold. Before the penultimate round, they're two points ahead of Armenia and three ahead of Georgia, Russia and Poland. Here's an interesting game from round 6, where Muzychuk beat Khotenashvili.
European Team Championship 2013 | Women | Round 7 Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Team | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 1 | Ukraine | 6 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 137,5 | 20 |
| 2 | 6 | Armenia | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 140,5 | 21 |
| 3 | 3 | Georgia | 3 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 144 | 18 |
| 4 | 2 | Russia | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 141 | 19 |
| 5 | 4 | Poland | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 115 | 16 |
| 6 | 11 | Bulgaria | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 99,5 | 15,5 |
| 7 | 16 | Lithuania | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 98,5 | 17 |
| 8 | 13 | Poland III | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 94,5 | 15 |
| 9 | 18 | Czech Republic | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 90,5 | 17 |
| 10 | 10 | Romania | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 98 | 17,5 |
| 11 | 25 | Poland Futures | 4 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 88 | 15 |
| 12 | 8 | Hungary | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 81,5 | 15 |
| 13 | 14 | Netherlands | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 78,5 | 15,5 |
| 14 | 15 | Israel | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 102,5 | 15,5 |
| 15 | 5 | Germany | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 89 | 15 |
| 16 | 9 | Spain | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 84,5 | 13 |
| 17 | 12 | Serbia | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 82,5 | 14 |
| 18 | 24 | Belarus | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 71 | 13 |
| 19 | 19 | Austria | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 63 | 11 |
| 20 | 17 | Azerbaijan | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 70,5 | 13 |
| 21 | 21 | Greece | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 67 | 12 |
| 22 | 30 | Belgium | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 55,5 | 10,5 |
| 23 | 23 | England | 3 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 22,5 | 8 |
| 24 | 7 | France | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 79,5 | 13,5 |
| 25 | 27 | Slovenia | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 68,5 | 12,5 |
| 26 | 20 | Italy | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 63,5 | 14 |
| 27 | 26 | Switzerland | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 39 | 12,5 |
| 28 | 29 | Norway | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 38 | 9 |
| 29 | 28 | Turkey | 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 66,5 | 13,5 |
| 30 | 32 | Iceland | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 47 | 10 |
| 31 | 22 | Croatia | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 36 | 8 |
| 32 | 31 | Finland | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 34,5 | 8,5 |
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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