Economist-SGSEU 1 & Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo new European Champions

Economist-SGSEU 1 from Russia successfully defended their European club title in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In the women section Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo edged out St.Petersburg Chess Club on tiebreak.

With top boards Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo won the 15th European Club Cup for Women

General info

The European Club Cup for Men and Women took place October 16-23 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Both the Open and the Women section played seven rounds Swiss.

Rounds 6-7

Economist-SGSEU-1 achieved the desired result in the last round of the 26th European Club Cup and won their second consecutive title. After a crucial 3½-2½ victory over Mika Yerevan (with Dmitry Andreikin beating Arman Pashikian), in the last round the Saratov team tied Yugra 3-3 in a match that was fiercely fought despite the deceiving look of six draws.

Top-seeded SOCAR Azerbaijan and ShSM-64 Moscow also played 3-3 on Saturday, with Mamedyarov beating Gelfand on the first board and Riazantsev equalizing by defeating Shirov. German champion Baden-Baden OSG and A DAN DZO & PGMB Chernigiv caught up with the other teams on the shared second place by winning their final matches.

And so Economist-SGSEU 1 ended convincingly first with 13 match points, 2 full points ahead of the rest of the field. A cluster of four teams follow, sharing second place with 11 points each. Yugra and A DAN DZO & PGMB Chernigiv had the best sum of individual scores and entered into medal distribution. Ultimately, Yugra counted on better third tiebreak to grab the silver, while the 10th-seeded Chernigiv took bronze.

Ten players scored a rating performance above 2800 in Plovdiv: 1. Safarli, Eltaj (SOCAR Azerbaijan) 3/3, 3115 2 Hammer Jon Ludvig (Oslo Schakselskap) 3.5/4, 2942 3 Aronian Levon (Mika Yerevan) 4,5/6, 2884 4 Grischuk Alexander (SOCAR Azerbaijan) 5/6, 2880 5 Andreikin Dmitry (Economist-SGSEU 1) 5/6, 2855 6 Dreev Alexey (Ural) 6/7, 2848 7 Malakhov Vladimir (Yugra) 5.5/7, 2829 8 Korobov Anton (A DAN DZO & PGMB - Chernigiv) 5.5/7, 2827 9 Moiseenko Alexander (Economist-SGSEU 1) 5.5/7, 2809 10 Roiz Michael (Economist-SGSEU 1) 3,5/4, 2808

The 15th European Club Cup for Women saw a dramatic finish as three teams were in competition for the prestigious trophy before the last round. In the end, both matches on the top two tables ended in 2-2 ties.

Cercle d’Echecs de Monte Carlo played AVS, who appeared to be without chances for the first place because of their low sum of individual scores. Nevertheless, the Russian team tried their best to defeat their opponents. WGM Anastasia Savina scored against IM Almira Skripchenko, but Hou Yifan struck back and won against Natalia Pogonina. The other two games were drawn.

St.Petersburg Chess Club and Giprorechtrans also signed a victory each and so Cercle d’Echecs de Monte Carlo and St.Petersburg Chess Club shared first place with 10 match points each. Monte Carlo had slightly better individual scores and were awarded the winners’ trophy.

Mika Yerevan beat the young Lokomotiv 2000 with a crushing 3.5-0.5, which was just enough to equalise Giprorechtrans’ match and individual points. Only on the third tiebreak criteria Mika edged out the opposition and claimed the bronze medal.

European Club Cup 2010 | Open | Round 7 (Final) Standings (top 30)


European Club Cup 2010 | Women | Round 7 (Final) Standings

Selection of games rounds 6-7

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Many thanks to ECC Press Chief Boyko Hristov | Photos © Vladimir Jagr courtesy of the official website

Links

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