Evgeny Najer Wins European Championship In Jerusalem

GM Evgeny Najer only needed a draw to clinch the European Championship title on Sunday. The Russian grandmaster finished on 8.5/11.

Najer was close to winning against GM Denis Khismatullin, but could comfortably accept a draw offer with the knowledge that on board two GM David Navara was a pawn down in a rook ending.

After the second rest day, on which many players enjoyed an excursion through Jerusalem's Old City, the all-decisive final round of the European Championship was played on Sunday. GM Evegeny Najer was defending a half-point lead over GM David Navara and GM Denis Khismatullin.

For Najer, who played his compatriot Khismatullin as Black, it was important to stay half a point ahead of Navara, who had the best tiebreak of all. Still he seemed happy with a draw if you look at the opening moves.

It was Khismatullin, who had played so brilliantly on Friday, who avoided the move repetition — he even sacrificed a pawn and an exchange! Najer only took the pawn, and he could win one more in the final position where he accepted his opponent's draw offer, after checking the position in Navara's game!

You can watch an interview with the new European Champion below, starting from 3 hour, 56 minutes and 13 seconds:

Navara's game was very interesting actually. He won a piece for two pawns against GM Ivan Cheparinov, who got good compensation. Navara missed a thing or two and ended up in a worse ending, but managed to hold it.

On boards four through nine, all games were drawn, and all these players qualified for the World Cup in Septeber in Baku. On board three, a draw was the most likely result as well, but GM Ian Nepomniachtchi took too much risk against GM Mateusz Bartel, who won a nice game.

GM Pavel Eljanov, who was on the losing side of that amazing game on Friday, recovered well and finished his tournament with a win:

The tournament saw a lot of upsets by local players, but one wasn't mentioned here yet: Ohad Kraus, rated 2190. He managed to score not an IM, but a GM norm! He drew with GM Tal Baron, beat IM Sergei Chekhov and GM Hrant Melkumyan, drew with GM Robin van Kampen and beat GM Victor Mikhalevski and GM Vladimir Potkin!

2015 European Championship | Final Standings (Top 30)

(World Cup qualifiers in bold — full standings here.)

*The top 23 players qualified for the World Cup in September in Baku, Azerbaijan. However, five of them had already qualified from last year's tournament: David Navara, Pavel Eljanov, Ivan Cheparinov, Alexander Motylev, and Ilia Smirin.

The 2015 European Championship took place February 24-March 8 in Jerusalem, Israel. It was a big, 11-round Swiss with 248 participants, including more than 100 GMs.