Potkin wins European Championship on tie-break

On Saturday Vladimir Potkin won the European Championship in Aix les Bains, France. In the last round the Russian grandmaster drew quickly with Judit Polgar, and eventually edged out Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Alexander Moiseenko and Polgar on tie-break. The tournament ended with much confusion among participants about the way the organizers dealt with the tie-breaks for the World Cup qualification spots.

Numbers 2, 1, 3: Wojtaszek, Potkin and Polgar | Photo © French Chess Federation

General info

The 12th European Individual Chess Championship was held from March 21 till April 3rd, 2011 in Aix les Bain, France. It was an 11-round Swiss system with a total of 407 participants (172 GMs). There were 23 qualification spots for the World Cup 2011 in August-September in Khanty-Mansiysk (Russia). More info here.

Report rounds 10-11

After four consecutive draws, on Friday Vladimir Potkin had saved up enough energy to beat Baadur Jobava with the black pieces.

Jobava-Potkin Aix les Bains 2011

The Georgian grandmaster now finds an original, but not very practical miniplan: 16. Rd6 O-O 17. Nd5 and now Potkin simply answered with 17... cxd5! 18. Rxb6 axb6



This position is just much more difficult to play for White because of the weakened king's position. It was over quickly: 19. a3 dxe4 20. axb4 exf3 21. bxc5 fxe2 22. c6 Nd4 23. Qd3 Nxc6 24. f3



24... Ra4 25. Qd7 Rxh4 26. Qxb7 Rd4 0-1

Judit Polgar won her fourth game in a row, again showing creative chess.

Polgar-Iordachescu Aix les Bains 2011

16. cxd5!? axb5 17. Rc1 Qb8 18. dxe6 fxe6 19. Qb3



19... Nf8 This seems too passive. 20. Qxb5+ Kf7 21. Rxc8 Qxc8 22. Rc1 Qb8 23. g4 Nh6 24. Qb4 Kg8 25. Bxh6 gxh6 26. Qe7 Qe8 27. Qxb7 Qa4 28. b4 Be8 29. Qe7 Qd7



30. Rc7! Qxe7 31. Rxe7 and Black's horrible kingside was no match for the white passed pawns.

In this 10th round Radowslaw Wojtaszek beat Ildar Khairullin from Russia to join Polgar and Potkin in the lead, with a score of 8/10. Peter Svidler reached 7.5/10 by defeating Mikhail Kobalia.

Svidler-Kobalia Aix les Bains 2011

About this position we can say something very similar to what we said about Polgar-Guseinov in an earlier report. The ending looks extremely drawish, but Svidler just kept on pressing and used lots of small, tactical nuances to eventually win at move 64. Enjoy it in the game viewer below.

A day later the grandmaster from St. Petersburg drew rather quickly with Radoslaw Wojtaszek. This way he must have had enough time to spend on more important things.

Update: We were told that in fact, Svidler stayed on the stage to watch his colleagues for quite some time (into the 4th hour) and missed the cricket final. He later explained this was partly by accident -- he just didn't feel like going back to his hotel -- but that he wasn't all that interested once England was eliminated.

Polgar and Potkin finished their game even quicker, and also split the point. Perhaps it would have been more of a fight with colours reversed; who knows.

This way Vallejo, who had White against Mamedov, suddenly had a serious chance to finish shared first, with probably the best tiebreak of all. However, as he explained on Facebook, somehow his opponent expected his Alapin and was well prepared for it. The game was drawn at move 19.

And so Potkin, Wojtaszek, Polgar shared first place with 8.5/11, together with Alexander Moiseenko who beat Luke McShane in the last round.

Moiseenko-McShane Aix les Bains 2011

26. Ra3! Re8? After 26... Kg7 it's not clear how exactly White should continue the attack. 27. Qxh5+ Kg7?! More resilient was 27... Kg8 28. Qf3 Bg7 29. Qxf7+ Kh8.



28. Raf3 Rh8 29. Rxf6 Rxh5 30. Rxd6 Bxa4 31. Rdf6 and White won.

Moiseenko, Polgar, Potkin and Wojtaszek ended on 8.5/11. Although the official regulations (in PDF here) don't mention it, we may assume that these four players shared the first four prizes of 20,000, 15,000, 11,000 and 8,000 Euro which comes down to 13,500 Euro each.

World Cup qualification

At the closing ceremony there was much confusion among the top finishing participants about the way the organizers dealt with the tie-breaks for the World Cup qualification spots. Unlike in previous years the European Championship didn't have play-off rapid matches for this. Instead, the following tie-break rules were used:

a) Performance Rating; b) Median-Buchholz 1, the highest number wins; c) Buchholz, the highest number wins; d) Number of wins, the highest number wins; In case of (a) the highest and the lowest rated opponent will be deleted and the maximum rating difference of two players shall be 400 points. In case of unplayed games for the calculation of (a), (b) and (c) the current FIDE tournament rules shall be applied.

The confusion was about the way the organizers calculated the Performance Rating: besides removing the highest and lowest rating for everyone, also the score against these two players was removed, which led to different results than many had anticipated. (One effect of this calculation might be that a win against the highest rated opponent works out negatively.) And so until minutes before the closing ceremony started, some players thought they had qualified for the World Cup, but then found out they hadn't.

According to the tie-breaks, the first 23 players were Potkin, Wojtaszek, Polgar, Moiseenko, Vallejo, Ragger, Feller, Svidler, Mamedov, Vitiugov, Zhigalko, Jakovenko, Korobov, Inarkiev, Postny, Azarov, Khairullin, Kobalia, Guliyev, Zherebukh, Riazantsev, Iordachescu and Lupulescu.

However, according to our information Potkin, Svidler and Mamedov had already qualified, and so the numbers 24-26 are also in: McShane, Fridman and Motylev. They all have the right to play in Khanty-Mansiysk in August-September of this year, together with last year's qualifiers Nepomiachtchi, Jobava, Timofeev, Efimenko, Lysyj, Almasi, Tomashevsky, Rodshtein, Salgado Lopez, Pashikian, Movsesian, Drozdovskij, Babula, Vorobiov, Akopian, Nisipeanu, Alekseev, Socko, Grachev and Halkias.

We should mention that all this info is considered preliminary until it's certified by the ECU and FIDE, which is expected to happen in about a week from now.

Selection of games rounds 10-11

Game viewer by ChessTempo


European Individual Championship 2011 | Aix les Bains | Round 11 (Final) Standings (Top 100)

Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Potkin Vladimir	GM	RUS	2653	8.5	2849	63.5	78.0
2	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	GM	POL	2711	8.5	2826	63.0	77.0
3	Polgar Judit	GM	HUN	2686	8.5	2799	63.5	77.0
4	Moiseenko Alexander	GM	UKR	2673	8.5	2755	62.0	74.5
5	Vallejo Pons Francisco	GM	ESP	2707	8.0	2819	66.5	80.0
6	Ragger Markus	GM	AUT	2614	8.0	2783	62.5	76.0
7	Feller Sebastien	GM	FRA	2657	8.0	2766	58.5	70.5
8	Svidler Peter	GM	RUS	2730	8.0	2751	62.5	76.5
9	Mamedov Rauf	GM	AZE	2667	8.0	2751	61.0	74.0
10	Vitiugov Nikita	GM	RUS	2720	8.0	2741	63.0	76.5
11	Zhigalko Sergei	GM	BLR	2680	8.0	2732	59.5	72.0
12	Jakovenko Dmitry	GM	RUS	2718	8.0	2719	60.0	72.5
13	Korobov Anton	GM	UKR	2647	8.0	2697	61.5	75.0
14	Inarkiev Ernesto	GM	RUS	2674	8.0	2695	60.0	72.5
15	Postny Evgeny	GM	ISR	2585	8.0	2633	52.0	64.0
16	Azarov Sergei	GM	BLR	2615	7.5	2776	62.5	75.0
17	Khairullin Ildar	GM	RUS	2634	7.5	2771	61.5	74.5
18	Kobalia Mikhail	GM	RUS	2672	7.5	2754	57.0	70.5
19	Guliyev Namig	GM	AZE	2522	7.5	2739	59.5	71.0
20	Zherebukh Yaroslav	GM	UKR	2560	7.5	2739	59.0	71.5
21	Riazantsev Alexander	GM	RUS	2679	7.5	2728	60.0	72.5
22	Iordachescu Viorel	GM	MDA	2626	7.5	2725	62.0	76.0
23	Lupulescu Constantin	GM	ROU	2626	7.5	2722	58.0	71.0
24	Mcshane Luke J	GM	ENG	2683	7.5	2718	59.0	72.5
25	Fridman Daniel	GM	GER	2661	7.5	2717	56.5	69.0
26	Motylev Alexander	GM	RUS	2677	7.5	2716	59.0	71.0
27	Ivanisevic Ivan	GM	SRB	2617	7.5	2712	58.5	71.0
28	Jobava Baadur	GM	GEO	2707	7.5	2711	58.0	71.5
29	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	GM	ROU	2598	7.5	2709	65.0	78.5
30	Romanov Evgeny	GM	RUS	2624	7.5	2709	55.5	68.5
31	Esen Baris	GM	TUR	2528	7.5	2707	61.0	73.0
32	Nielsen Peter Heine	GM	DEN	2670	7.5	2703	55.0	67.5
33	Cheparinov Ivan	GM	BUL	2664	7.5	2698	62.0	75.0
34	Gustafsson Jan	GM	GER	2647	7.5	2687	55.0	67.0
35	Kulaots Kaido	GM	EST	2601	7.5	2669	54.5	67.5
36	Smirin Ilia	GM	ISR	2658	7.5	2668	56.5	69.0
37	Saric Ivan	GM	CRO	2626	7.5	2651	58.5	72.5
38	Pashikian Arman	GM	ARM	2642	7.5	2649	55.5	68.0
39	Edouard Romain	GM	FRA	2600	7.5	2634	52.5	66.0
40	Bologan Viktor	GM	MDA	2671	7.5	2629	56.0	68.5
41	Beliavsky Alexander G	GM	SLO	2619	7.5	2627	57.5	70.5
42	Rublevsky Sergei	GM	RUS	2678	7.5	2627	55.0	67.0
43	Volkov Sergey	GM	RUS	2621	7.5	2625	54.5	67.0
44	Sjugirov Sanan	GM	RUS	2643	7.5	2594	56.0	68.0
45	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	GM	GRE	2584	7.0	2703	58.5	71.5
46	Reinderman Dimitri	GM	NED	2601	7.0	2694	58.5	72.0
47	Nikolic Predrag	GM	BIH	2596	7.0	2685	56.5	69.0
48	Nepomniachtchi Ian	GM	RUS	2729	7.0	2680	60.0	73.5
49	Halkias Stelios	GM	GRE	2579	7.0	2662	58.5	71.0
50	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	GM	ARM	2575	7.0	2654	59.0	72.0
51	Nyback Tomi	GM	FIN	2656	7.0	2646	54.0	66.0
52	Fressinet Laurent	GM	FRA	2693	7.0	2641	56.0	68.5
53	Lenic Luka	GM	SLO	2623	7.0	2636	54.5	67.0
54	Grigoryan Avetik	GM	ARM	2608	7.0	2631	53.0	65.0
55	Smeets Jan	GM	NED	2660	7.0	2627	55.0	68.0
56	Rapport Richard	GM	HUN	2540	7.0	2624	54.5	67.0
57	Hammer Jon Ludvig	GM	NOR	2606	7.0	2621	59.0	72.0
58	Akopian Vladimir	GM	ARM	2675	7.0	2620	56.5	69.0
59	Khalifman Alexander	GM	RUS	2637	7.0	2615	53.5	66.0
60	Pantsulaia Levan	GM	GEO	2595	7.0	2613	61.0	73.0
61	Jones Gawain C B	GM	ENG	2578	7.0	2611	58.5	71.0
62	Michalik Peter	IM	SVK	2471	7.0	2611	55.0	65.0
63	Gharamian Tigran	GM	FRA	2650	7.0	2604	56.5	69.0
64	Matlakov Maxim	GM	RUS	2625	7.0	2600	56.0	68.0
65	Andriasian Zaven	GM	ARM	2645	7.0	2591	54.5	67.0
66	Popov Ivan	GM	RUS	2613	7.0	2590	54.5	66.5
67	Chatalbashev Boris	GM	BUL	2602	7.0	2582	50.5	62.5
68	Brkic Ante	GM	CRO	2592	7.0	2564	54.0	67.5
69	Balogh Csaba	GM	HUN	2601	7.0	2545	55.0	68.0
70	Fedorchuk Sergey A	GM	UKR	2662	7.0	2529	54.0	66.5
71	Guseinov Gadir	GM	AZE	2584	6.5	2705	60.0	73.0
72	Wirig Anthony	IM	FRA	2480	6.5	2683	63.5	74.5
73	Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter	GM	ROU	2673	6.5	2680	62.0	76.0
74	Sutovsky Emil	GM	ISR	2692	6.5	2678	63.5	76.5
75	Grachev Boris	GM	RUS	2675	6.5	2657	57.0	69.5
76	Kovchan Alexander	GM	UKR	2563	6.5	2652	63.5	76.5
77	Volokitin Andrei	GM	UKR	2677	6.5	2648	63.0	76.5
78	Naiditsch Arkadij	GM	GER	2684	6.5	2647	56.0	68.5
79	Savchenko Boris	GM	RUS	2616	6.5	2642	61.5	74.5
80	Khismatullin Denis	GM	RUS	2662	6.5	2642	57.5	71.0
81	Maze Sebastien	GM	FRA	2559	6.5	2641	62.0	74.5
82	Hracek Zbynek	GM	CZE	2631	6.5	2634	58.5	72.5
83	Stevic Hrvoje	GM	CRO	2611	6.5	2630	58.5	71.5
84	Dreev Aleksey	GM	RUS	2697	6.5	2627	61.0	74.5
85	Gabrielian Artur	GM	RUS	2532	6.5	2621	62.5	75.5
86	Ziska Helgi Dam	IM	FAI	2432	6.5	2620	52.5	65.0
87	Safarli Eltaj	GM	AZE	2628	6.5	2618	56.5	69.0
88	Popov Valerij	GM	RUS	2565	6.5	2611	55.5	67.0
89	Laznicka Viktor	GM	CZE	2688	6.5	2610	55.0	67.5
90	Pridorozhni Aleksei	GM	RUS	2542	6.5	2605	60.0	72.0
91	Nevednichy Vladislav	GM	ROU	2534	6.5	2601	56.0	68.5
92	Jaracz Pawel	GM	POL	2565	6.5	2600	55.0	67.0
93	Vuckovic Bojan	GM	SRB	2626	6.5	2598	53.5	65.5
94	Rogozenco Dorian	GM	ROU	2553	6.5	2597	58.0	69.0
95	Cornette Matthieu	GM	FRA	2548	6.5	2592	56.5	69.0
96	Zvjaginsev Vadim	GM	RUS	2663	6.5	2588	55.0	67.5
97	Aleksandrov Aleksej	GM	BLR	2638	6.5	2584	52.0	64.5
98	Bartel Mateusz	GM	POL	2638	6.5	2581	56.5	69.0
99	Vedmediuc Serghei	IM	MDA	2422	6.5	2577	57.5	70.5
100	Georgiev Kiril	GM	BUL	2666	6.5	2577	54.0	66.5

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