23rd European Individual Championship 2023

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I count at least 12 defaults in the last round. Any explanation for this? Surely they were not all rushing off to play in some online tournament were they?

30 players on 7.5. Someone else will be checking the list against those already qualified. The grouping includes Ivanchuk and Gelfand, the leading over-50 players in the tournament.

Some of the players from this event did play the chess.com champions tour qualifier but I hope that the ECU take a dim view of all the defaults.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions Loz! That isn't great really, but a sign of the times maybe.

Incidentally, I just noticed that the Svane brothers played in round 10 and drew. I am presuming it was a short draw (it was 16 moves), but maybe games between chess siblings only get attention if you are sisters and your surname begin with 'K'?

[Event "European Championship"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2023.03.12"] [Round "10"] [White "Svane, Rasmus"] [Black "Svane, Frederik"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [Board "12"] [WhiteElo "2620"] [WhiteTitle "GM"] [WhiteCountry "GER"] [WhiteFideId "4657101"] [WhiteEloChange "-1"] [BlackElo "2577"] [BlackTitle "GM"] [BlackCountry "GER"] [BlackFideId "12923044"] [BlackEloChange "1"] 1. d4 {[%clk 1:30:05]} Nf6 {[%clk 1:30:43]} 2. c4 {[%clk 1:30:29]} e6 {[%clk 1:31:09]} 3. Nc3 {[%clk 1:30:51]} Bb4 {[%clk 1:31:30]} 4. Nf3 {[%clk 1:31:14]} O-O {[%clk 1:24:40]} 5. Bg5 {[%clk 1:31:19]} d5 {[%clk 1:24:24]} 6. e3 {[%clk 1:31:21]} c5 {[%clk 1:24:16]} 7. cxd5 {[%clk 1:29:46]} exd5 {[%clk 1:24:37]} 8. dxc5 {[%clk 1:30:08]} Nbd7 {[%clk 1:25:04]} 9. Rc1 {[%clk 1:21:11]} h6 {[%clk 1:25:29]} 10. Bxf6 {[%clk 1:12:51]} Nxf6 {[%clk 1:25:48]} 11. a3 {[%clk 1:06:31]} Bxc3+ {[%clk 1:26:13]} 12. Rxc3 {[%clk 1:03:27]} Ne4 {[%clk 1:26:38]} 13. Rc1 {[%clk 0:54:08]} Qa5+ {[%clk 1:26:48]} 14. Nd2 {[%clk 0:52:59]} Re8 {[%clk 1:24:28]} 15. Bd3 {[%clk 0:35:04]} Nxc5 {[%clk 1:15:27]} 16. Qc2 {[%clk 0:25:50]} 1/2-1/2

[Roger de Coverly]

Incidentally, I just noticed that the Svane brothers played in round 10 and drew. I am presuming it was a short draw (it was 16 moves), but maybe games between chess siblings only get attention if you are sisters and your surname begin with 'K'?

Not obviously a clear draw. Personally if white I would be tempted to grind away against the IQP.

[Mick Norris]

Thanks, Mick.

Worth pointing out that there are two Svanes. There is Frederik Svane (finished 19th), the younger brother (by 7 years) of Rasmus Svane (finished 34th), both finishing in the 7.5/11 score group. The two haven't been confused, have they? (Both are Danish, living in Germany, I think.)

Looks to me like the already-qualified Svane is Rasmus (from the EICC 2021), who finished in 34th, meaning his brother Frederik takes one of the EICC 2023 qualification spots instead of Gelfand!!

Ah, well spotted Chris, I didn't find it easy comparing the lists, and had missed Svane completely in the first run through; should have stuck with my original thought that everyone above Gelfand qualified (although I may have missed someone else)

Official report includes lots of photos

The best Junior players are:

GM Daniel Dardha (BEL, 2610), 8.5 points
IM Ediz Gurel (TUR, 2454), 8 points
GM Volodar Murzin (FIDE, 2554), 7 points

The best Senior players are:

GM Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2674), 7.5 points
GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR, 2664), 7.5 points
GM Michele Godena (ITA, 2446), 6.5 points

This year, the special prize fund for the best-ranked female players was doubled and six players received the prizes. The best female players in the EICC2023 are:

WGM Jolanta Zawadzka (POL, 2391), 6.5 points
IM Irina Bulmaga (ROU, 2438), 6.5 points
GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2576), 6 points
IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (POL, 2388), 6 points
WIM Adela Velikic (SRB, 2329), 6 points
IM Eline Roebers (NED, 2362), 6 points

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Any official confirmation of the qualifying places?

[Mick Norris]

chess.com report

An important reason for players to participate in the European Individual is because it's part of the world championship cycle; 23 players qualified for the next FIDE World Cup (July 29-August 26 in Baku, Azerbaijan). However, it was not simply the top 23 because some players had already qualified from earlier editions.

It's yet to be verified, but it looks like the following players qualified from this event: GMs Shevchenko, Dardha, IM Kourkoulos-Arditis, GMs Etienne Bacrot, Nguyen Thai Dai Van, Andrey Esipenko, Valentin Dragnev, David Paravyan, Igor Janik, IM Gurel, and GMs Alexander Donchenko, Korobov, Nijat Abasov, Alexandr Predke, Frederik Svane, Grzegorz Nasuta, Sergei Azarov, Szymon Gumularz, Nils Grandelius, Benjamin Gledura, Ante Brkic, Jergus Pechac, and Boris Gelfand.

I'd missed that Vocaturo had already qualified (I probably only checked those in the first 23 places when I had a quick run through)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Hah! There was a reason I didn't try and work it out myself!

I guess it is lucky that Boris Gelfand probably doesn't follow postings on this forum...

Thanks for the link to the report, Mick.

Any other good reports out there?

(I find it a bit sad that it seems to take longer these days for such reports to appear.)

PS. Any confirmation on any norms (of any kind)?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I managed to find German and Turkish news sources on Ediz Gurel's GM norm (his second):

https://www.tu4all.de/der-14-jaehrige-e ... e-erfolge/

https://turksporajansi.com/2023/03/11/g ... a-yolunda/

https://lordbisek.com/ediz-gurel-wird-grossmeister/

(That third link is a translation of the second link.)

Greek-language source on their latest GM (Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis):

https://www.in.gr/2023/03/14/life/momen ... ognostika/

Jan Subelj (who is Slovenian) apparently got his *final* GM norm at the EICC 2023 (and gained enough rating points to rise above 2500):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyiZeP4lsO8
https://twitter.com/AndrejZnidarcic/sta ... 5898806275

(Presumably the FIDE norms site which only shows one norm so far is out of date?)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Coming back to this, is anyone aware of any single source that reported on the norms achieved at this tournament? Failing that, is the only way to find this out to look through the submissions relating to this tournament on the FIDE website?

[Mick Norris]

Hah! There was a reason I didn't try and work it out myself!

I guess it is lucky that Boris Gelfand probably doesn't follow postings on this forum...

FIDE have published the provisional list for the WC and from this, they have:

1. GM Shevchenko Kirill (ROM) 2. GM Dardha Daniel (BEL) 3. IM Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis (GRE) 4. GM Bacrot Etienne (FRA) 5. GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van (CZE) 6. GM Esipenko Andrey 7. GM Dragnev Valentin (AUT) 8. GM Paravyan David 9. GM Janik Igor (POL) 10. IM Gurel Ediz (TUR) 11. GM Donchenko Alexander (GER) 12. GM Korobov Anton (UKR) 13. GM Abasov Nijat (AZE) 14. GM Predke Alexandr (SRB) 15. GM Svane Frederik (GER) 16. GM Nasuta Grzegorz (POL) 17. GM Azarov Sergei 18. GM Gumularz Szymon (POL) 19. GM Grandelius Nils (SWE) 20. GM Gledura Benjamin (HUN) 21. GM Brkic Ante (CRO) 22. GM Pechac Jergus (SVK) 23. GM Gelfand Boris (ISR)

The 2022 qualifiers were:

1. GM Sargissian Gabriel (ARM) 2. GM Saric Ivan (CRO) 3. GM Cheparinov Ivan (ECU) 4. GM Santos Latasa Jaime (ESP) 5. GM Ponomariov Ruslan (UKR) 6. GM Durarbayli Vasif (AZE) 7. GM Iskandarov Misratdin (AZE) 8. GM Guseinov Gadir (AZE) 9. GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel (ARM) 10. GM Sargsyan Shant (ARM) 11. GM Kobo Ori (ISR) 12. GM Moussard Jules (FRA) 13. GM Tari Aryan(NOR) 14. GM Anton Guijarro David (ESP) 15. GM Kuzubov Yuriy (UKR) 16. GM Kozul Zdenko (CRO) 17. GM Nesterov Arseniy 18. GM Indjic Aleksandar(SRB) 19. GM Martirosyan Haik M (ARM) 20. GM Bernadskiy Vitaliy (UKR)

The 2021 qualifiers were:

1. GM Demchenko Anton 2. GM Keymer Vincent (GER) 3. GM Sarana Alexey 4. GM Deac Bogdan-Daniel (ROM) 5. GM Piorun Kacper (POL) 6. GM Mamedov Rauf (AZE) 7. GM Erdos Viktor (HUN) 8. GM Huschenbeth Niclas (GER) 9. GM Navara David (CZE) 10. GM Sanal Vahap (TUR) 11. GM Bluebaum Matthias (GER) 12. GM Vocaturo Daniele (ITA) 13. GM Antipov Mikhail Al 14. GM Paichadze Luka (GEO) 15. GM Yilmaz Mustafa (TUR) 16. GM Fridman Daniel (GER) 17. GM Mamedov Nidjat (AZE) 18. GM Svane Rasmus (GER) 19. GM Gabuzyan Hovhannes (ARM) 20. GM Ivic Velimir (SRB) 21. GM Nagy Gabor (HUN) 22. GM Bjerre Jonas Buhl (DEN) 23. GM Lagarde Maxime (FRA)