European Club Cup: Perfect Score For Globus, Odlar Yurdu

Top favorite Globus and sixth seed Odlar Yurdu started with four wins and will face each other in round five of the European Club Cup in Göynük/Antalya, Turkey. This report covers rounds two, three and four.

Round 2

After the usual big wins on the first day, the first big upset came as early as round two. Second seed Alkaloid of Macedonia lost to Moscow's SHSM Legacy Square Capital in a match with only one decisive result. Evgeniy Najer, who eliminated Fabiano Caruana from the World Cup last month, beat Pavel Eljanov as Black in a mere 23 moves.

The Ukrainian GM clear didn't have his day on the tactical front.

Not a great day at the office for Pavel Eljanov. | Photo: ECC/David Llada.

This was good news for Globus, who saw one of its main rivals drop points while gaining the two match points itself. CSM Baia Mare from Romania was defeated 4.5-1.5, still without Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Grischuk playing. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won a spectacular game on board one vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu:

When Mamedyarov is in an attacking mood you'd better hide. | Photo: ECC/David Llada.

Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova lost the sponsor that could sign up players such as Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in recent years. With only Italian players they were almost held to 3-3 by Šk Dunajská Streda of Hungary, until Daniele Vocaturo managed to win after 141 moves:

Meanwhile the local organizers were having fun with a drone, which shows the beautiful resort where the tournament takes place.

Round 3

Vladimir Kramnik finally made his first appearance for Globus in round three. He played Radek Wojtaszek of Novy Bor. Each game Kramnik plays until December has the extra story line of the rating qualification to the Candidates', so Fabiana Caruana and Wesley So might have kept a close watch here.

Kramnik only played one game in Antalya so far. | Photo: ECC/David Llada.

There was a bit of tension before the game ended in a perpetual just before the time control. 

Kramnik on playing or not playing: "It's our captain who is deciding. I was ready to play all games; I am ready to play any day but it's always our common decision with the captain."

All games except for one ended in draws in this match. Sergey Karjakin won a fine (end)game vs Markus Ragger, which secured the next two match points for Globus.

A very enjoyable game in this match was the battle between Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Mateusz Bartel—who doesn't like the occasional king walk (in this game the black monarch ending up on e1)?

Mateusz Bartel. | Photo: ECC/David Llada.

Round 4

With Legacy Square Capital (Inarkiev, Najer etc.) and Mednyi Vsadnik (Svidler, Matlakov etc.) playing 3-3 in the third round, the Swiss pairing system produced some mismatches on the top boards on Wednesday. Globus defeated Gambit Asseco See (Macedonia) 5.5-0.5, and on a table nearby Odlar Yurdu of Azerbaijan beat LSG Leiden (Netherlands) 5-1.

Kramnik again sat out, but Alexander Grischuk was more than capable on top board. He won a nice game:

Alexander Grischuk. | Photo: ECC/David Llada.

Speaking of domination, Anish Giri must have enjoyed finishing off his game by letting his king join the party:

It's easy to see that Globus will play Odlar Yurdu on Thursday, but at the time of writing the individual board pairings aren't known yet. The other big clashes are Novy Bor vs SHSM Legacy Square Capital and Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova vs Alkaloid. The Dutch players from Leiden will have another tough battle as they play Mednyi Vsadnik (Bronze Horseman) from St. Petersburg.

2017 European Club Cup | Round 4 Standings

Games from TWIC.

You can follow a selection of top games every day in live chess. A live broadcast provided by the organizers, with commentary by GM Bartlomiej Heberla & IM Can Arduman, can be found at Chess.com/TV during the rounds.

The tournament can also be found on social media on Twitter (hashtag #ECC2017), Facebook and Instagram. 

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