Azerbaijan Lead Euro Team Champs
Azerbaijan took the lead after three rounds of the European Team Chess Championships, thanks to a 3-1 win over hosts Greece.
Radjabov and Gashimov were held to draws, but Mamedyarov and Safarli won their games to clinch their third match victory.
The only other team to have won all three of their matches so far is Spain. Alexei Shirov's win helped Spain defeat early leaders Romania 3-1 in the third round.
Recent reports have confirmed that Shirov is set to switch chess federations back to his native Latvia from 2012, so this is probably one of his last appearances representing Spain.
Alexei "Fire on Board" Shirov will be playing for Latvia again from next year
Hosts Greece (pictured) fell to Azerbaijan
Ukraine moved up to third place by beating Croatia 3-1 thanks to wins from Ponomariov and Efimenko, despite their talismanic top board Ivanchuk failing to win any of his games so far.
Ruslan Ponomariov (right) won on board two for Ukraine
The top seeded Russians dropped to fourth place after being held to a draw by the Netherlands.
The Netherlands team (right to left: Giri, Van Wely, Smeets, Stellwagen) held Russia
All the results and more games are available at the official website.
The Open standings after three rounds:
Rk | SNo | Team | W | D | L | MP | BP |
1 | 3 | Azerbaijan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8.5 |
2 | 13 | Spain | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 8.0 |
3 | 2 | Ukraine | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8.5 |
4 | 1 | Russia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8.0 |
5 | 6 | France | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8.0 |
6 | 10 | Germany | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7.5 |
7 | 7 | Bulgaria | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7.0 |
8 | 18 | Serbia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9.5 |
9 | 15 | Georgia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9.0 |
10 | 20 | Moldova | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8.5 |
11 | 17 | Romania | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8.0 |
12 | 19 | Greece | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7.5 |
13 | 9 | Netherlands | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6.5 |
14 | 14 | Poland | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7.5 |
15 | 22 | Italy | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7.0 |
16 | 11 | Israel | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
17 | 5 | Hungary | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
18 | 4 | Armenia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
19 | 27 | Latvia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
20 | 24 | Denmark | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
21 | 8 | England | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 |
22 | 16 | Croatia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 |
23 | 25 | Sweden | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 |
24 | 12 | Czech Rep. | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 |
25 | 21 | Slovenia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5.5 |
26 | 33 | Lithuania | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5.5 |
27 | 30 | FYROM | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6.5 |
28 | 32 | Iceland | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.5 |
29 | 23 | Austria | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.5 |
30 | 29 | Montenegro | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4.5 |
31 | 34 | Turkey | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.5 |
32 | 26 | Switzerland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4.5 |
33 | 35 | Scotland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.5 |
34 | 28 | Finland | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.5 |
35 | 31 | Norway | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.0 |
36 | 37 | Luxembourg | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1.0 |
37 | 36 | Wales | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.5 |
38 | 38 | Cyprus | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.0 |
In the women's competition, the Russian team took the lead after thrashing Romania 4-0 in the third round. Ukraine and Georgia also have 100% match records so far.
Tatiana Kosintseva won on board two as Russia shut-out Romania 4-0
The women's standings after three rounds:
Rk | SNo | Team | W | D | L | MP | BP |
1 | 1 | Russia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 10.0 |
2 | 2 | Ukraine | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 9.0 |
3 | 3 | Georgia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7.5 |
4 | 4 | Armenia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 7.0 |
5 | 14 | Serbia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 9.0 |
6 | 10 | Spain | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8.5 |
7 | 11 | Slovenia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8.5 |
8 | 5 | Poland | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 8.0 |
9 | 8 | Bulgaria | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7.0 |
10 | 12 | France | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7.0 |
11 | 18 | Czech Rep. | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6.5 |
12 | 9 | Romania | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5.5 |
13 | 7 | Germany | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7.0 |
14 | 16 | Greece | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.5 |
15 | 27 | Turkey | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 |
16 | 6 | Hungary | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5.5 |
17 | 13 | Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5.0 |
18 | 20 | Latvia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6.5 |
19 | 19 | Croatia | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.5 |
20 | 24 | Montenegro | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.0 |
21 | 15 | Israel | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.0 |
22 | 22 | England | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5.0 |
23 | 25 | Switzerland | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.5 |
24 | 26 | Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4.0 |
25 | 17 | Azerbaijan | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3.5 |
26 | 23 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.5 |
27 | 21 | Austria | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2.5 |
28 | 28 | Norway | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.5 |
Pictures from the official website.
The European Team Chess Championships run from 3-11 November 2011 in Halkidiki, Greece.
This is the 18th edition of the championships, with 30 players rated over 2700 Elo taking part. There are 38 national teams in the Open event, and 28 in the separate women's event. Each team consists of 4 players and a reserve.
The format for both the Open and women's competitions is a 9-round Swiss, with time controls of 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes to finish, with a 30 second increment from the start of the game. The rounds start each day at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC) except the final round which is 2 hours earlier. Live games are available at the official website.