Rollin' rollin' Russia

Who's gonna stop the Russians? At two-third of the tournament, Russia still hasn't dropped a single match point at the European Team Championships in Crete, Greece. In rounds 4-6 they beat Slovenia (3-1), Azerbaidzhan (3?Ǭ?-?Ǭ?!) and Israel (3-1) consecutively, creating a two-point gap with no. 2 Slovenia, who are on 10 points, followed by Ukraine, France and Armenia who are on 9. In the women's section an exciting race between Russia and Poland is going on, with both teams on 10 out of 6. Another big report with games, photos and videos.

Slovenia too is doing extremely well so far. With Beliavsky (2646), Pavasovic (2597) and Tratar (2502) and two IMs the second spot after six rounds is magnificent. They won all their matches except for their match against Russia in round 4, with Morozevich beating Beliavsky and Jakovenko defeating Lenic. The Netherlands went down to Azerbaidzhan 1?Ǭ?-2?Ǭ?, with three draws and Van den Doel losing to Guseinov. Bulgaria crushed Croatia ?Ǭ?-3?Ǭ?, the last match in which Topalov participated because meanwhile he's started in a tournament in Spain. In the women's section, Hungary held the Russian ladies on four draws while Poland beat France 3-1.

In the fifth round, the Russians made their intentions more than clear with a smashing ?Ǭ?-3?Ǭ? victory over Azerbaidzhan. Svidler beat Mamedyarov with Black, Morozevich took Radjabov and Alekseev defeated Gusevinov. On "board 2", Ukraine-France ended in 2-2 after Bacrot managed to beat Ivanchuk with Black (see this game below with some notes by Bacrot) and Karjakin winning against Tkachiev. The top ladies match was Poland-Russia 2-2. Two draws and Iweta Rajlich, Rybka programmer Vasik Rajlich's wife, beating Tatiana Kosintseva and Przezdziecka losing to Korbut.

The sixth round was played yesterday, after the players had enjoyed a rest day on Friday. Svidler finally seems to have regained his ability to win chess games and after beating Sutovsky in the match against Israel, he's now on a 3045 rating performance (4,5 out of 5 on board 1). In this match Jakovenko was too strong for Rodshtein and two games were drawn. Azerbaidzhan surprisingly lost to the already mentioned amazing Slovenians. In the ladies section, it was now Poland drawing all their games against Georgia, while Russia slaughtered Slovenia ?Ǭ?-3?Ǭ?.

Round 6 standings (top 10) men:

1	RUSSIA		12	18,0	82,0
2	SLOVENIA	10	15,5	76,5
3	UKRAINE		 9	15,0	66,5
4	FRANCE		 9	14,5	85,0
5	ARMENIA		 9	14,5	78,5
6	POLAND		 8	14,5	68,5
7	ISRAEL		 8	13,5	85,5
8	AZERBAIDZHAN	 8	13,5	85,0
9	SPAIN		 8	13,0	80,0
10	BULGARIA	 7	14,5	78,0

Round 6 standings (top 10) women:

 1	RUSSIA		10	17,0	84,5
 2	POLAND		10	17,0	78,5
 3	UKRAINE		 9	16,5	70,5
 4	GEORGIA		 9	16,5	67,0
 5	BULGARIA	 8	15,0	73,5
 6	NETHERLANDS	 8	14,0	82,0
 7	SLOVENIA	 8	13,5	77,5
 8	ARMENIA		 8	13,5	74,5
 9	HUNGARY		 7	15,0	74,0
10	GREECE 		 7	14,0	69,0

All statistics and standings here. All games in PGN so far here.

On the spot coverage is provided by the guys of Chessdom. They've created some videos and here's two of them:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kupxBEJON0M[/video]

(an interview with Veselin Topalov)

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMNz7tn0-gk[/video]

(an interview with Erwin l'Ami)

A selection of games from rounds 4-6:



Levon Aronian (Armenia)

Anna Ushenina (Ukraine)

Alexander Grischuk (Russia)

Almira Skripchenko (France)

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaidzhan)

Marlies Bensdorp (The Netherlands)

Kiril Georgiev (Bulgaria)

Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgia)

Fabiano Caruana (Italy)

Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany)

Mark Hebden (England)

Norway vs France

Russia vs Slovenia

Azerbaidzhan vs Russia

Poland vs Russia