Najer Tops Field In Jerusalem But Khismatullin Steals The Show

GM Evgeny Najer leads alone at the European Championship in Jerusalem, where the final round will be played on Sunday. GM Denis Khismatullin was absolutely brilliant today.

Evgeny Najer, the sole leader after round 10

The European Championship has reached its decisive phase, and the time has come for the top players to find their very best form. Some of them can still hope for the title, while a few dozen are still playing for a spot in the next World Cup.

In the eighth round GM Ian Nepomniachtchi grabbed the lead with a convincing win over GM David Howell. The very next day it was Nepomniachtchi's turn to get outplayed as Black.

GM David Navara played a really nice game that “Bent Larsen would have been proud of,” as GM Dejan Bojkov writes in his annotations. For the opening lovers there was a novelty on move seven, but this encounter was more about “using the whole board.”

Analysis by GM Dejan Bojkov

And so Navara was back in first place, together with two more players. One of them was GM Anton Korobov, who topped the standings earlier on.

The Ukrainain defeated local hero GM Ilia Smirin in the latter's favorite King's Indian. The theme of this game was “run Forest, run” as White was basically winning thanks to his a-pawn.

Below is the game, and Korobov's explanation together with GM Alon Greenfeld taken from the live broadcast produced by Chess.com:

One player who cannot remain unmentioned is Ilia Iljiushenok. For his IM title only some paperwork is needed, but officially he's still untitled. The 21-year-old Russian player scored a GM norm over nine rounds after drawing with GM Denis Khismatullin (from a winning position):

The third player to reach first place in the standings was GM Evgeny Najer. The 37-year-old Russian grandmaster outplayed GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu as White in a Petroff. He gave his opponent one chance, but that was overlooked by both players.

On Friday the penultimate round was played. Whereas lots of quick draws were seen in previous rounds, this time only one game ended quickly that way. Everybody else was in a fighting mood!

At the end of the day the tournament saw a new leader: the aforementioned GM Evgeny Najer. He got the white pieces again, and his opponent GM Anton Korobov played the Nimzowitsch-Rubinstein system 2...Nf6 in the Sicilian. A risky choice.

Najer chose a solid setup where White gets a safe plus, and slowly but surely increased his advantage. Korobov was surprisingly helpless in this game.

That was nice, but what happened on board three was even nicer. If not, brilliant.

If you'd like to try and solve a terribly difficult puzzle, then go ahead and answer the question: can White play for a win in the position below?

The answer is provided in the game viewer below!

Analysis by GM Dejan Bojkov

Khismatullin now shares second place with GM David Navara, who drew with GM Sanan Sjugirov. (The Czech number one is now the 14th player in the world in the live ratings.)

Saturday is a rest day, when many players will join an excursion to the Old City of Jerusalem. For many this day alone might have been enough reason to participate in the European Championship this year.

On Sunday the round will start at 1pm local time. The top pairings are:

Khismatullin (7½) - Najer (8)
Navara (7½) - Cheparinov (7)
Bartel (7) - Nepomniachtchi (7)
Matlakov (7) - Rodshtein (7)
Korobov (7) - Volokitin (7)
Popov (7) - Sjugirov (7)
Laznicka (7) - Y.Vovk  (7)
Sargissian (7) - Can (7)
Motylev (7) - Iljiushenok (7)

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.

Like the previous rounds, the final round will be covered live on Chess.com/TV with video commentary by GM Alon Greenfeld and GM Ronen Har-Zvi. The show starts at 1pm local time (noon CET, 6am New York, 3am Los Angeles, 10pm Sydney).

2015 European Championship | Round 10 Standings (Top 30)

(Full standings here.)

The top 23 players qualify for the World Cup in September in Baku, Azerbaijan. Note that the following participants in Jerusalem have already qualified: Nikita Vitiugov, David Navara, Pavel Eljanov, Hrant Melkumyan, Ivan Cheparinov, Sergei Zhigalko, Gabriel Sargissian, Alexander Motylev, Ivan Saric, Ilia Smirin, Constantin Lupulescu, Viorel Iordachescu, Dragan Solak and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan.