Carlsen Sacs 2 Pawns, Scores Pretty Win
GM Magnus Carlsen won a lovely game in the second round of the European Club Cup in Austria, sacrificing two pawns in the endgame in return for a strong attack. He won't play in Wednesday's third round, but GM Viswanathan Anand will be back at the board.
Open tournament
Carlsen's club Offerspill also won their second match by conceding just one draw, this time against Schachgesellschaft Solingen. They are among the 16 teams that have started with two victories, and they have a relatively favorable pairing for round three: Schachgesellschaft Riehen from Switzerland.
The world champion has taken a day off, so he will have plenty of time to read Chess.com's report. Meanwhile, on Tuesday he played a wonderful game from a Scotch Opening which included a double pawn sacrifice.
CSU ASE Superbet, the top seed in the event, won 5-1 without Anand and instead debuted the new number-one of Romanian chess: GM Richard Rapport. Currently the world number-11, Rapport started with an interesting opening as well, but his (former?) compatriot GM Miklos Nemeth of Hungary responded in a solid manner, and the game was only decided late in the endgame:
GM Gukesh D. won convincingly with the white pieces in a variation of the Scandinavian that recalls one of Anand's most famous games, included in the annotations:
2022 European Club Cup | Round 2 Standings (Top 20)
| Rk. | SNo | FED | Team | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 6 | Schachclub Viernheim 1934e.V. | 4 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 10 | |
| 2 | 14 | Kfar Saba Chess Club | 4 | 12 | 9.5 | 13 | 13 | |
| 3 | 7 | Offerspill Chess Club | 4 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | |
| 4 | 1 | CSU ASE Superbet | 4 | 11 | 10.5 | 10 | 10 | |
| 5 | 8 | Silla - València Origin of Chess | 4 | 11 | 10.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | |
| 6 | 2 | Novy Bor Chess club | 4 | 11 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | |
| 7-8 | 9 | Vugar Gashimov | 4 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
| 7-8 | 10 | Beer Sheva Chess Club | 4 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
| 9 | 11 | Sentimento Ajka BSK | 4 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 9 | |
| 10 | 4 | TAJFUN - SK Ljubljana | 4 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 8 | |
| 11 | 5 | Clichy-Echecs-92 | 4 | 10 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | |
| 12 | 13 | Gokturk Satranc Spor Kulubu | 4 | 10 | 9.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 | |
| 13 | 3 | Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier | 4 | 9 | 10.5 | 8.5 | 8.5 | |
| 14 | 12 | FC Bayern München | 4 | 9 | 8,5 | 13.5 | 13.5 | |
| 15 | 15 | Schachgesellschaft Riehen | 4 | 7 | 8 | 11.5 | 11.5 | |
| 16 | 36 | De Sprènger Echternach | 4 | 7 | 7.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | |
| 17 | 51 | Denizsu Aquamatch | 3 | 7 | 6.5 | 13 | 10 | |
| 18 | 22 | SK Rockaden | 3 | 4 | 7 | 9.5 | 7.3 | |
| 19 | 34 | De Pluspion Wachtebeke | 2 | 10 | 8.5 | 11 | 1.5 | |
| 20 | 35 | Fjolnir | 2 | 10 | 8 | 12.5 | 4.5 |
Women's tournament
Also in the women's tournament, there were no big upsets yet but from now on, the favorites will start to face each other. After two rounds, four teams won both of their matches: ASVOe Pamhagen, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, Odlar Yurdu, and CSU ASE Superbet.
CSU ASE Superbet defeated SK Erste Bank Baden of Austria, but only with 2.5-1.5. The up-and-coming Dutch player Eline Roebers, already rated 2352 at age 16, held a tough endgame to a draw when IM Dinara Saduakassova chose the wrong plan:
2022 European Women's Club Cup | Round 2 Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Team | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 3 | ASVOe Pamhagen | 4 | 7 | 6.5. | 9 | 9 | |
| 2 | 1 | Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo | 4 | 6 | 5.5 | 9.5 | 9.5 | |
| 3 | 4 | Odlar Yurdu | 4 | 6 | 5.5 | 8 | 8 | |
| 4 | 2 | CSU ASE Superbet | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5.5 | 5.5 | |
| 5 | 9 | TAJFUN - SK Ljubljana | 2 | 6 | 5.5 | 7.5 | 2 | |
| 6 | 12 | Philidor Mulhouse | 2 | 6 | 4.5 | 7 | 1.5 | |
| 7 | 6 | SK Erste Bank Baden | 2 | 6 | 4 | 7.5 | 1.5 | |
| 8 | 7 | Wood Green | 2 | 4 | 4.5 | 8 | 1.5 | |
| 9 | 5 | BGK KS Gwiazda Bydgoszcz | 2 | 4 | 4 | 9.5 | 4 | |
| 10 | 8 | Blue & Yellow | 2 | 4 | 3.5 | 9 | 3.5 | |
| 11 | 11 | Gambit Asseco See | 2 | 2 | 4.5 | 8 | 1.5 | |
| 12 | 13 | Haifa-Nesher | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5.5 | 1.5 | |
| 13 | 16 | Rishon Lezion Chess Club | 1 | 3 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 0 | |
| 14 | 17 | Schachzentrum Seeblick e.V. | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5.5 | 0 | |
| 15 | 14 | SK Zell/Zillertal | 0 | 3 | 1.5 | 8.5 | 0 | |
| 16 | 10 | Sirmium | 0 | 2 | 1.5 | 10 | 0 | |
| 17 | 15 | Garðabaer Chessclub | 0 | 2 | 1.5 | 9 | 0 |
The 37th European Club Cup and the 26th European Women’s Chess Club Cup take place October 3-9, 2022 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Both events are a seven-round Swiss with teams of six players in the open section and teams of four in the women's section. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
Previous coverage:
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. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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