Report round 7, ETCC open section

Report round 7, ETCC open section

Azerbaijan made a huge step towards defending the title of European Champion after walking over Bulgaria in the 7th round of the tournament. Bulgaria’s top performer of the event, Ivan Cheparinov, was the first to go down against the better-prepared Vugar Gashimov. Veselin Topalov drew Teimour Radjabov, but Azerbaijan won in the remaining two games for the overall 3.5-0.5 victory.

Armenia is back in the contention for gold medal after defeating France. Sergei Movsesian outplayed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the other three games were drawn.

Germany defeated the leader Romania thanks to the effort of GM Daniel Fridman on the 3rd board. Romania was actually close to equalizing, but Arkadij Naiditsch escaped from the poor position being three pawns behind.

Azerbaijan is leading the race with 11 points. Armenia and Germany are sharing the second with 10 points each.

In the other matches, Hungary switched the gear and defeated the solid Slovenia 3-1, Netherlands signed minimal victory against Greece, while Russia beat Spain 3-1.

Italy once again surpassed the expectations and won against the higher rated Moldova. Switzerland stunned Ukraine 3-1 and pushed them down to 26th place.

Full results / Round 8 pairings / Replay games / Photo gallery / Videos

European Team Championship round 8 pairings

Round 8 pairings

No.	SNo		Team	Team	Pts.	MP	Res.	:	Res.	MP	Pts.	Team	Team		SNo
1	3		AZE	Azerbaijan	18½	12		:		11	17½	Germany	GER		10
2	4		ARM	Armenia	18	11		:		10	15½	Netherlands	NED		9
3	17		ROM	Romania	17	10		:		10	17	Hungary	HUN		5
4	7		BUL	Bulgaria	15½	10		:		9	15½	Italy	ITA		22
5	1		RUS	Russia	16	9		:		9	16	France	FRA		6
6	12		CZE	Czech Rep.	14½	8		:		8	18	Serbia	SRB		18
7	14		POL	Poland	17	8		:		8	15½	Greece	GRE		19
8	21		SLO	Slovenia	13½	8		:		8	16	Switzerland	SUI		26
9	13		ESP	Spain	14	7		:		7	15	Latvia	LAT		27
10	16		CRO	Croatia	13½	7		:		7	16½	Moldova	MDA		20
11	25		SWE	Sweden	14½	7		:		7	14½	Montenegro	MNE		29
12	23		AUT	Austria	13	6		:		7	17	Georgia	GEO		15
13	2		UKR	Ukraine	13½	6		:		6	13	Iceland	ISL		32
14	11		ISR	Israel	14	6		:		6	12½	Denmark	DEN		24
15	8		ENG	England	13½	6		:		5	13	Finland	FIN		28
16	31		NOR	Norway	11	5		:		5	12	Lithuania	LTU		33

Full pairings here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/etcc-team-pairings-next-roundopen/

Major upsets at the European Team Championship

Round 7 results

Bo.	7	Bulgaria	Rtg	-	3	Azerbaijan	Rtg	½ :3½
1.1	GM	Topalov Veselin	2768	-	GM	Radjabov Teimour	2781	½ - ½
1.2	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2650	-	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2757	0 - 1
1.3	GM	Delchev Aleksander	2629	-	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2733	0 - 1
1.4	GM	Radulski Julian	2565	-	GM	Safarli Eltaj	2630	0 - 1
Bo.	17	Romania	Rtg	-	10	Germany	Rtg	1½:2½
2.1	GM	Lupulescu Constantin	2657	-	GM	Naiditsch Arkadij	2712	½ - ½
2.2	GM	Parligras Mircea-Emilian	2650	-	GM	Meier Georg	2659	½ - ½
2.3	GM	Vajda Levente	2584	-	GM	Fridman Daniel	2661	0 - 1
2.4	GM	Marin Mihail	2534	-	GM	Buhmann Rainer	2612	½ - ½
Bo.	6	France	Rtg	-	4	Armenia	Rtg	1½:2½
3.1	GM	Bacrot Etienne	2714	-	GM	Aronian Levon	2802	½ - ½
3.2	GM	Vachier-Lagrave Maxime	2710	-	GM	Movsesian Sergei	2710	0 - 1
3.3	GM	Fressinet Laurent	2700	-	GM	Akopian Vladimir	2681	½ - ½
3.4	GM	Bauer Christian	2641	-	GM	Sargissian Gabriel	2671	½ - ½
Bo.	5	Hungary	Rtg	-	21	Slovenia	Rtg	3 : 1
4.1	GM	Leko Peter	2720	-	GM	Beliavsky Alexander G	2617	½ - ½
4.2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2707	-	GM	Lenic Luka	2634	½ - ½
4.3	GM	Berkes Ferenc	2705	-	GM	Borisek Jure	2541	1 - 0
4.4	GM	Balogh Csaba	2662	-	IM	Sebenik Matej	2518	1 - 0
Bo.	9	Netherlands	Rtg	-	19	Greece	Rtg	2½:1½
5.1	GM	Giri Anish	2714	-	GM	Banikas Hristos	2620	1 - 0
5.2	GM	Van Wely Loek	2686	-	GM	Mastrovasilis Dimitrios	2621	½ - ½
5.3	GM	Sokolov Ivan	2646	-	GM	Papaioannou Ioannis	2600	1 - 0
5.4	GM	Smeets Jan	2615	-	GM	Nikolaidis Ioannis	2554	0 - 1
Bo.	13	Spain	Rtg	-	1	Russia	Rtg	1 : 3
6.1	GM	Vallejo Pons Francisco	2705	-	GM	Svidler Peter	2755	½ - ½
6.2	GM	Shirov Alexei	2705	-	GM	Grischuk Alexander	2752	½ - ½
6.3	GM	Salgado Lopez Ivan	2621	-	GM	Karjakin Sergey	2763	0 - 1
6.4	GM	Illescas Cordoba Miguel	2609	-	GM	Morozevich Alexander	2762	0 - 1
Bo.	22	Italy	Rtg	-	20	Moldova	Rtg	2½:1½
7.1	GM	Caruana Fabiano	2727	-	GM	Bologan Viktor	2665	½ - ½
7.2	GM	Godena Michele	2548	-	GM	Iordachescu Viorel	2648	½ - ½
7.3	GM	Brunello Sabino	2575	-	GM	Svetushkin Dmitry	2621	1 - 0
7.4	IM	Rombaldoni Axel	2459	-	IM	Vedmediuc Serghei	2465	½ - ½
Bo.	26	Switzerland	Rtg	-	2	Ukraine	Rtg	3 : 1
8.1	GM	Pelletier Yannick	2581	-	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2775	½ - ½
8.2	GM	Gallagher Joseph G	2500	-	GM	Ponomariov Ruslan	2723	½ - ½
8.3	IM	Kurmann Oliver	2451	-	GM	Eljanov Pavel	2691	1 - 0
8.4	IM	Forster Richard	2458	-	GM	Efimenko Zahar	2702	1 - 0
Bo.	14	Poland	Rtg	-	8	England	Rtg	3 : 1
9.1	GM	Wojtaszek Radoslaw	2705	-	GM	Adams Michael	2734	½ - ½
9.2	GM	Socko Bartosz	2635	-	GM	Howell David W L	2633	1 - 0
9.3	GM	Bartel Mateusz	2653	-	GM	Jones Gawain C B	2635	½ - ½
9.4	GM	Miton Kamil	2622	-	GM	Pert Nicholas	2563	1 - 0
Bo.	11	Israel	Rtg	-	12	Czech Rep.	Rtg	1½:2½
10.1	GM	Rodshtein Maxim	2645	-	GM	Navara David	2724	0 - 1
10.2	GM	Roiz Michael	2651	-	GM	Laznicka Viktor	2703	½ - ½
10.3	GM	Smirin Ilia	2670	-	GM	Hracek Zbynek	2628	½ - ½
10.4	GM	Postny Evgeny	2640	-	GM	Stocek Jiri	2600	½ - ½

Full standings here: http://euro2011.chessdom.com/results-round-6-open-section/