Knight Raider Shines on the World Stage

Knight Raider Shines on the World Stage

Grandmaster Georg Meier, co-captain of the Texas Tech University Knight Raiders, has defeated a former top 10 world professional chess player, Sergei Movsesian of Armenia. The win came in the final round of the 2011 European Team Championship.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Grandmaster Georg Meier, co-captain of the Texas Tech University Knight Raiders, has defeated a former top 10 world professional chess player, Sergei Movsesian of Armenia. The win came in the final round of the 2011 European Team Championship.

Meier, a freshman from Germany, tied for second place last month in the 2011 SPICE Cup at Texas Tech, along with Cuban Grandmaster Leinier Doniguez, a former World Blitz champion.

Meier also tied for first and beat Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the playoff at the 2011 SPICE Cup Blitz Championship.

“One of the top young talents in the world, Meier is the best German-born player in the past two decades,” said Paul Truong, marketing director for the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence ( SPICE ). “Last year, he decided to give up his very lucrative professional career with Baden Baden, the top club team in Chess Bundesliga, to join the SPICE program at Texas Tech.”

He is now being trained by Grandmaster Susan Polgar, winner of four Women’s World Championships and five Olympiad Gold Medals.

Meier will play board one for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders, the No. 1 ranked collegiate team in the nation with four Grandmasters, at the 2011 PanAm Collegiate Championship in Dallas in December. He will also lead the Knight Raiders in their title defense at the 2012 Final Four in Washington, D.C.

Full standings of the 2011 European Team Championship can be found here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-2011-standings-open-section.

A photo of Meier and Polgar is available here: https://picasaweb.google.com/SPICEChess/0SPICECup2011B#5667585805572112706

Find Texas Tech news, experts and story ideas at www.media.ttu.edu and on Twitter @TexasTechMedia.

Welcoming back the Champ!

Members of the Knight Raiders welcoming back GM Georg Meier at the Lubbock International Airport, one of the stars in the German European Championship Team!

Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch after winning the European team gold

Grandmasters Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany after winning the team GOLD medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras, Greece.

Germany gold, Azerbaijan silver, Hungary bronze

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	10		Germany	GER	9	7	1	1	15	22.5	183.0	154.50	142.0
2	3		Azerbaijan	AZE	9	6	2	1	14	23.0	181.5	139.75	140.5
3	5		Hungary	HUN	9	5	3	1	13	23.0	167.5	117.25	128.0
4	4		Armenia	ARM	9	6	1	2	13	22.5	172.0	117.25	132.5
5	1		Russia	RUS	9	6	1	2	13	21.5	174.5	123.50	134.0
6	9		Netherlands	NED	9	5	2	2	12	19.0	180.0	118.25	140.5
7	7		Bulgaria	BUL	9	5	2	2	12	18.5	187.5	122.50	146.0
8	14		Poland	POL	9	4	3	2	11	22.0	159.0	95.25	124.0
9	17		Romania	ROM	9	5	1	3	11	20.0	163.5	87.00	135.0
10	13		Spain	ESP	9	5	1	3	11	19.5	183.0	108.50	142.0
11	22		Italy	ITA	9	5	1	3	11	19.0	164.0	91.25	135.5
12	18		Serbia	SRB	9	5	0	4	10	22.0	152.0	77.50	123.0
13	15		Georgia	GEO	9	4	2	3	10	22.0	140.5	71.25	116.0
14	11		Israel	ISR	9	4	2	3	10	20.0	170.5	93.25	131.0
15	2		Ukraine	UKR	9	4	2	3	10	19.0	172.0	90.25	132.5
16	12		Czech Rep.	CZE	9	3	4	2	10	18.5	178.0	97.50	139.5
17	21		Slovenia	SLO	9	4	2	3	10	17.5	185.0	101.00	144.0
18	20		Moldova	MDA	9	4	1	4	9	20.5	156.0	70.25	125.0
19	6		France	FRA	9	3	3	3	9	19.0	179.0	86.00	140.0
20	19		Greece	GRE	9	4	1	4	9	19.0	168.5	76.50	140.0
21	16		Croatia	CRO	9	3	3	3	9	17.0	178.5	83.25	142.0
22	8		England	ENG	9	3	2	4	8	18.5	172.0	71.50	133.5
23	26		Switzerland	SUI	9	3	2	4	8	18.5	145.0	56.75	119.5
24	27		Latvia	LAT	9	3	2	4	8	18.0	163.0	67.75	124.5
25	29		Montenegro	MNE	9	3	2	4	8	18.0	160.5	60.50	128.5

Full standings here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-2011-standings-open-section

Women's top 5

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1		Russia	RUS	9	8	1	0	17	25.5	177.0	165.50	137.5
2	5		Poland	POL	9	6	2	1	14	23.0	178.0	133.25	138.5
3	3		Georgia	GEO	9	7	0	2	14	22.5	181.0	134.00	139.0
4	2		Ukraine	UKR	9	6	0	3	12	21.5	180.0	110.50	138.0
5	12		France	FRA	9	6	0	3	12	21.0	172.5	107.50	133

Meier and Germany win Gold at ETCC 2011

Texas Tech/SPICE Knight Raider GM Georg Meier defeated Armenian super GM Movsesian in the final round to give Germany a 2.5 - 1.5 win and the Gold medal at the 2011 European Team Championship! With this win, his rating should also pass the 2670 mark, breaking his previous high.

Congratulations to Georg and Germany! Well done!

Germany brings excitement in the Open Section

Germany brings excitement in the Open Section

Thanks to Arkadij Naiditsch’s victory against Teimour Radjabov, Germany shocked Azerbaijan and caused a huge turmoil in the Open section of the European Team Championship.

Meanwhile, Armenia signed a creditable victory against the Netherlands, with full points from Levon Aronian and Vladimir Akopian. Now Armenia is sharing the lead with Germany and the two teams are paired to play each other in the last 9th round.

Bulgaria defeated Italy in the match, which Fabiano Caruana missed, and is now sharing the third place with Azerbaijan.

Romania signed yet another excellent result by tying with the higher-rated selection Hungary.

Russia recovered after the setback in the middle of the tournament and won against the strong selection of France. Alexander Grischuk and Sergey Karjakin scored for Russia, Morozevich – Fressinet finished with a draw, while the fantastic Christian Bauer beat Ian Nepomniachtchi. Bauer now has 6 points from 7 games.

Full results / Round 9 pairings / Replay games / Photo gallery / Videos

Crunch time: Germany vs Armenia in round 9

Round 9 pairings for leading teams

No.	SNo		Team	Team	Pts.	MP	Res.	:	Res.	MP	Pts.	Team	Team		SNo
1	10		GER	Germany	20	13		:		13	21	Armenia	ARM		4
2	3		AZE	Azerbaijan	20	12		:		11	19	Romania	ROM		17
3	5		HUN	Hungary	19	11		:		12	18½	Bulgaria	BUL		7
4	21		SLO	Slovenia	16½	10		:		11	18½	Russia	RUS		1
5	9		NED	Netherlands	16½	10		:		10	17	Czech Rep.	CZE		12
6	6		FRA	France	17½	9		:		9	17	Spain	ESP		13
7	16		CRO	Croatia	16	9		:		9	19	Poland	POL		14
8	19		GRE	Greece	17½	9		:		9	16½	Italy	ITA		22
9	8		ENG	England	17	8		:		8	16½	Ukraine	UKR

Full pairings here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-2011-standings-open-section

Germany in the lead on tiebreaks after 4 rounds

Standings after 4 rounds

Rk.	SNo		Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2
1	10		Germany	4	3	1	0	7	11.0
2	3		Azerbaijan	4	3	1	0	7	10.5
3	6		France	4	3	1	0	7	10.5
4	13		Spain	4	3	1	0	7	10.0
5	7		Bulgaria	4	3	1	0	7	10.0
6	17		Romania	4	3	0	1	6	10.5
7	19		Greece	4	3	0	1	6	10.0
8	9		Netherlands	4	2	2	0	6	9.0
9	4		Armenia	4	2	1	1	5	9.5
10	22		Italy	4	2	1	1	5	9.5
11	11		Israel	4	2	1	1	5	9.0
12	1		Russia	4	2	1	1	5	9.0
13	2		Ukraine	4	2	1	1	5	9.0
14	24		Denmark	4	2	1	1	5	9.0

Full standings here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-2011-standings-open-section/

Upset galore

What if someone would have told you before round 4 at the European Team Championship that Spain will hold Azerbaijan while Bulgaria and Germany will crush Russia and Ukraine? Would you have believed it? Well, it did happen.

Illescas defeated Guisenov to give Spain a 2-2 tie against Azerbaijan.

But the bigger news is Topalov, Cheparinov, and Delchev defeated Svidler, Karjakin, and Morozevich to give Bulgaria a 3-1 win over Russia.

However, the biggest news of the round is Germany with wins by Naiditsch, Meier (Texas Tech freshman), and Gustafsson over Ponomariov, Eljanov, and Efimenko crushed Ukraine 3.5 - 0.5!

What a day at the European Team Championship!

Bad Wiessee Open

Bad Wiessee Open Friday, 28 October 2011 23:26

The 15th International Bavarian Open Chess Championship is organized by the Municipality of Bad Wiessee and Tourism Tegernsee GmbH and takes place from 29th October to 6th November in Bad Wiessee am Tegernsee, Germany. The tournament will be played over nine rounds of Swiss system. Due to space restrictions, the number of participants is limited to 450. The maximum number is reached and from Wednesday a waiting list is being formed. The total prize fund is 16500 EUR. First place brings 2500 EUR, 2nd 2000 EUR, 3rd 1500 EUR etc. A number of young chess stars are taking participation, including the reigning World Junior Champion Dariusz Swiercz, Baku Open winner Sergei Zhigalko, Indian stars Parimarjan Negi and Adhiban Baskaran, Ukrainian wonder Illya Nyzhnyk and American on the European tour Aleksandr Lenderman. Tournament website