Korobov Tops Field After 4 Rounds At European Championship
GM Anton Korobov is the only player left with a perfect score at the European Championship in Jerusalem. The two-time Ukrainian Champion leads with 4.0/4.
A group of eight players is half a point behind the leader: GM Evgeny Najer, GM Yuri Vovk, top seed GM David Navara, GM Karen Grigoryan, reigning champion GM Alexander Motylev, GM Ilia Smirin, GM Emil Sutovsky and GM Robert Kempinski.
It's easy to forget that the European Championship is held in such a special place as Jerusalem. The city is basically one big museum, with a huge number of historical locations, artifacts, and buildings.
One example is the Israel Museum, which happens to be only 1.5 km away from the venue. Among other things you can find the Dead Sea Scrolls there, the second oldest manuscript of works later included in the Bible.
The rounds start at 3 p.m., except for the two rounds on Fridays, which start at 11a.m. Therefore the players do have some time for sightseeing, but most of them will prefer to prepare for their opponent in the morning. However, on the rest days the organizers have arranged two excursions: one to the Dead Sea, and one to Jerusalem's Old City.
The second round saw many “small upsets” as 17 of the top 27 boards ended in draws. Top seed GM David Navara had a nice and quick win. He developed a strong initiative out of the opening, and won material after his Romanian opponent didn't find the best defense.
A spectacular game was GM Alexander Riazantsev vs GM Daniele Vocaturo. The Russian grandmaster played a fantastic game from the start, but couldn't deliver the decisive blow. It must have been a bitter disappointment to even lose this game!
GM Nikita Vitiugov's victory in round three over GM Aleksej Alexandrov was an nice example of king activity. Simply picking up that pawn on d5 with 19.Kd4! and 20.Kxd5! was just awesome!
GM Alexander Moiseenko, who won the tournament two years ago, could finish his game against GM Alexander Huzman with a pretty combination. Can you spot it?
During the third round, GM Boris Gelfand (who lives in Rishon LeZion, Israel) paid a visit to the tournament. Below is an interview with him taken from the Chess.com live show:
Only five players were on 3.0/3: David Navara of Czech Republic, Anton Korobov of Ukraine, Evgeny Najer of Russia, Yuri Vovk of Ukraine and Constantin Lupulescu of Romania.
In round four, on Friday, Navara dropped his first half-point as he drew with Najer. Vovk lost to Vitiugov, and so Korobov, who defeated Lupulescu, remained the only player with a perfect score.
Another puzzle: how did GM Karen Grigoryan beat GM Viktor Laznicka from the following position?
And why not, let's finish with one more puzzle for this report. In the game GM Ilia Smirin vs GM Nils Grandelius, the following position was reached after 34.Qf4.
Black cannot take on a7 yet because of 34...Rdxa7 35.Rxa7 Rxa7 36.Bxe6! and wins. So he played 34...d3, so that he could take back with the queen on a7 with check. What was wrong with that idea?
The 2015 European Championship takes place February 24-March 8 in Jerusalem, Israel. It's a big, 11-round Swiss with 248 participants, including more than 100 GMs.
The tournament is covered live every day on Chess.com/TV with video commentary by GM Alon Greenfeld and GM Ronen Har-Zvi, except on rest days (Saturday 28 February and Saturday 7 March).
2015 European Championship | Round 4 Standings (Top 30)
| Rk. | Title | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | GM | Korobov Anton | UKR | 2687 | 4 | 2601 | 8 | 9,5 |
| 2 | GM | Najer Evgeniy | RUS | 2634 | 3,5 | 2624 | 7,5 | 9,5 |
| 3 | GM | Vovk Yuri | UKR | 2588 | 3,5 | 2614 | 8,5 | 9,5 |
| 4 | GM | Navara David | CZE | 2735 | 3,5 | 2604 | 9,5 | 11,5 |
| 5 | GM | Grigoryan Karen H. | ARM | 2596 | 3,5 | 2594 | 8,5 | 9,5 |
| 6 | GM | Motylev Alexander | RUS | 2665 | 3,5 | 2592 | 7,5 | 9,5 |
| 7 | GM | Smirin Ilia | ISR | 2650 | 3,5 | 2573 | 6 | 7,5 |
| 8 | GM | Sutovsky Emil | ISR | 2626 | 3,5 | 2553 | 6,5 | 8 |
| 9 | GM | Kempinski Robert | POL | 2625 | 3,5 | 2488 | 7 | 8,5 |
| 10 | GM | Stefansson Hannes | ISL | 2573 | 3 | 2666 | 8 | 8 |
| 11 | GM | Vocaturo Daniele | ITA | 2579 | 3 | 2650 | 8 | 9 |
| 12 | GM | Godena Michele | ITA | 2502 | 3 | 2622 | 7,5 | 8,5 |
| 13 | GM | Rombaldoni Axel | ITA | 2488 | 3 | 2619 | 8 | 9 |
| 14 | GM | Ipatov Alexander | TUR | 2592 | 3 | 2614 | 8 | 9 |
| 15 | GM | Beliavsky Alexander G | SLO | 2623 | 3 | 2610 | 8 | 9,5 |
| 16 | GM | Goganov Aleksey | RUS | 2605 | 3 | 2602 | 7,5 | 9,5 |
| 17 | GM | Eljanov Pavel | UKR | 2727 | 3 | 2599 | 9 | 11 |
| 18 | GM | Lupulescu Constantin | ROU | 2626 | 3 | 2596 | 8 | 9,5 |
| 19 | GM | Bukavshin Ivan | RUS | 2622 | 3 | 2594 | 8 | 10 |
| 20 | GM | Moiseenko Alexander | UKR | 2695 | 3 | 2592 | 8 | 9,5 |
| 21 | GM | Vitiugov Nikita | RUS | 2735 | 3 | 2591 | 9 | 11 |
| 22 | GM | Duda Jan-Krzysztof | POL | 2591 | 3 | 2589 | 9 | 11,5 |
| 23 | GM | Inarkiev Ernesto | RUS | 2675 | 3 | 2587 | 8,5 | 11 |
| 24 | GM | Matlakov Maxim | RUS | 2695 | 3 | 2585 | 6,5 | 8,5 |
| 25 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2714 | 3 | 2581 | 7 | 9 |
| 26 | GM | Volokitin Andrei | UKR | 2646 | 3 | 2579 | 8,5 | 10,5 |
| 27 | GM | Sargissian Gabriel | ARM | 2668 | 3 | 2563 | 6,5 | 8,5 |
| 28 | GM | Shimanov Aleksandr | RUS | 2594 | 3 | 2555 | 8,5 | 9,5 |
| 29 | GM | Popov Ivan | RUS | 2639 | 3 | 2554 | 7,5 | 8,5 |
| 30 | GM | Gajewski Grzegorz | POL | 2646 | 3 | 2553 | 8 | 10 |
Previous report:
- Opening & round 1: Several Upsets As European Championship Takes Off In Jerusalem
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