Top Seeds Suffer In Euro Champs
After five rounds of at the 2012 European Individual Championships, the competition has shown no respect to reputations, as the great strength in depth of the field takes its toll on the supposed favourites.
Top seed Fabiano Caruana started brightly with two wins, but three successive draws have held back his progress since. The second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has struggled even more, drawing every single one of his games against much lower rated opposition.
However these mishaps are eclipsed by Anish Giri's disastrous tournament so far. All seemed well after an opening round victory, but a comprehensive loss to 15 year-old Illya Nyzhnyk in round two set the scene for his following two draws and a loss against much lower rated opponents. Giri now finds himself in 223rd place out of 350 players with only a 2/5 score!
So who is winning? Well after four rounds there was just one player on a maximum 4 points - England's Gawain Jones. He had to settle for a draw against Nikita Vitiugov in round five, but remains joint leader with Frenchman Laurent Fressinet and Ukrainian Yuriy Kuzubov.
A special mention also for IM Shota Azaladze from Georgia who has beaten 3 GMs to stand in fourth place.
The leading scores after 5 rounds:
| Name | Nat | Elo | Pts | ||
| 1 | GM | Fressinet Laurent | FRA | 2693 | 4.5 |
| 2 | GM | Kuzubov Yuriy | UKR | 2615 | 4.5 |
| 3 | GM | Jones Gawain C B | ENG | 2635 | 4.5 |
| 4 | IM | Azaladze Shota | GEO | 2419 | 4.0 |
| 5 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2709 | 4.0 |
| 6 | GM | Movsesian Sergei | ARM | 2702 | 4.0 |
| 7 | GM | Naiditsch Arkadij | GER | 2702 | 4.0 |
| 8 | GM | Radulski Julian | BUL | 2552 | 4.0 |
| 9 | GM | Melkumyan Hrant | ARM | 2628 | 4.0 |
| 10 | GM | Esen Baris | TUR | 2555 | 4.0 |
| 11 | GM | Andreikin Dmitry | RUS | 2689 | 4.0 |
| 12 | GM | Lenic Luka | SLO | 2637 | 4.0 |
| 13 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2679 | 4.0 |
| 14 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2695 | 4.0 |
| 15 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2682 | 4.0 |
| 16 | GM | Kobalia Mikhail | RUS | 2666 | 4.0 |
| 17 | GM | Berkes Ferenc | HUN | 2682 | 4.0 |
| 18 | GM | Malakhov Vladimir | RUS | 2705 | 4.0 |
| 19 | GM | Cheparinov Ivan | BUL | 2664 | 4.0 |
| 20 | GM | Vallejo Pons Francisco | ESP | 2693 | 4.0 |
| 21 | GM | Sjugirov Sanan | RUS | 2610 | 4.0 |
| 22 | GM | Jobava Baadur | GEO | 2706 | 4.0 |
| 23 | GM | Khismatullin Denis | RUS | 2656 | 4.0 |
| 24 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2632 | 4.0 |
| 25 | GM | Sokolov Ivan | NED | 2653 | 4.0 |
| 26 | GM | Kulaots Kaido | EST | 2585 | 4.0 |
| 27 | GM | Azarov Sergei | BLR | 2667 | 4.0 |
| 28 | GM | Ragger Markus | AUT | 2654 | 4.0 |
| 29 | GM | Rodshtein Maxim | ISR | 2652 | 4.0 |
Illya Nyzhnyk defeated Anish Giri in round 2
The championship is an 11-round Swiss competition with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to a finish with a 30 second increment from the start.
The total prize fund is €100,000, with the winner receiving €14,000. The competition runs from 20-31 March, with one rest day on 26 March. All rounds start at 15:00 local time (13:00 UTC) except the last round which is 2 hours earlier.
Nearly 100 players are rated over 2600 Elo and 15 players are 2700+ Elo.
Photo from the official website.
