23rd European Individual Championship 2023

[Mick Norris]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
6 28 115 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2498 3½ 3½ GM Sargsyan Shant 2630 28
6 35 49 GM Iskandarov Misratdin 2598 3½ 3½ IM Willow Jonah B 2459 154
6 37 137 IM Clarke Brandon G I 2475 3½ 3½ GM Paravyan David 2584 55
6 98 278 FM Palczert Matyas 2304 3 3 IM Royal Shreyas 2452 162
6 100 167 IM Nigalidze Gaioz 2448 3 3 Cox Tristan A 1975 433
6 122 312 Parligras Cosmin 2260 2½ 2½ IM Grieve Harry 2455 160
6 126 320 CM Garsky Vladyslav 2253 2½ 2½ IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2439 174
6 136 356 Onslow Alfie 2174 2½ 2½ IM Czerw Dawid 2404 204
6 202 318 CM Khandelwal Ankush 2255 1½ 1½ Pantovic Dragan M 2038 417

[Jonathan Rogers]

There but for a few rating points! Willow (2459) and Grieve (2455) both started on 2.5/5 before play started today but those points evidently matter. Willow played a 2200 and Grieve played Wojtaszek (2682)!

Admittedly, he might have welcomed the opportunity. I haven't been following the games. Tristan Cox aside, what have I missed?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

While looking at the results of the other non-titled and low-rated players on 3/5 alongside Tristan Cox (there are four non-titled players in total, but two of those are rated over 2200), I noticed that two other players rated below 2200 had reached 3/5, which is not easy in this super-strong and deep field awash with strong GMs, strong IMs and strong FMs and up-and-coming future IMs and future GMs.

The other two are Oksana Goriachkina (who beat Ireland's IM David Fitzsimmons in round 5 and drew with another IM and a GM). She is rated 1759.

http://chess-results.com/tnr712575.aspx ... 30&snr=471

There is also WFM Alexandra Shvedova (2083) who has beaten a GM and a WGM, and drawn with 2 IMs.

http://chess-results.com/tnr712575.aspx ... 30&snr=405

Performance ratings of:

2531 (Shvedova)
2426 (Goriachkina)
2440 (Cox)

[Mick Norris]

There's another UK based player Yichen Han

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Shvedova is only 14 as well. Impressive and clearly a talent to watch. Oksana Goriachkina is 13. Does anyone know if she is related to the GM Aleksandra Goryackina? I don't know how common that Russian name is or if the difference in transliteration makes any difference.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandra_Goryachkina

[Paul Cooksey]

Younger sister, reigning European girls U-12 champion I believe

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thank you. Confirmed here:

https://twitter.com/NotGMHammer/status/ ... 7995609092

There is no way Aleksandra Goryachkina's sister Oksana is really 1759. She drew GM Michele Godena (2446) in Round 4, and is performing at 2358, which is 600 POINTS (!!!!!!) above her rating!

Aleksandra Goryachkina didn't even win yesterday, but her little sister Oksana did and it was maybe the best win of her career so far! It was against Tijana Blagojevic who is nearly 500 points higher-rated!

From the same Twitter feed:

The future is now for Alexandra Shvedova! The 14-year-old beat a GM and then drew an IM, both around 400 points higher-rated, to start her European Championship!

Yesterday, Olga Badelka (2428) beat GM Maxim Rodshtein (2622) at the European Championship and through five rounds she is on pace for a GM norm!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

All three of the players I namechecked lost today. Better stop doing that! The giant-killing is happening on the top boards too. An IM from Greece (Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, rated 2520) has beaten three GMs to be tied for the lead on 5.5/6 with Anton Korobov.

EDIT: Kourkoulos-Arditis has two GM norms already, and meets the rating requirements, so it won't be a huge shock if he does well here and gets his final GM norm.

Details of norms are on the FIDE site here:

https://ratings.fide.com/titles_page.phtml

[Mick Norris]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
7 42 66 GM Livaic Leon 2569 4 4 IM Clarke Brandon G I 2475 137
7 43 162 IM Royal Shreyas 2452 4 4 GM Nesterov Arseniy 2568 68
7 88 227 IM Garrido Outon Alex 2380 3½ 3½ GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2498 115
7 99 154 IM Willow Jonah B 2459 3½ 3½ FM Shoshin Kirill 2278 298
7 115 160 IM Grieve Harry 2455 3 3 CM Skvortsov Andrei 2298 284
7 117 174 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2439 3 3 FM Kristoferitsch Daniel 2282 296
7 142 433 Cox Tristan A 1975 3 3 FM Hagner Bennet 2361 244
7 159 261 FM Yordanov Lachezar 2335 2½ 2½ Onslow Alfie 2174 356
7 179 430 Biyiksiz Ali Batuhan 1994 2½ 2½ CM Khandelwal Ankush 2255 318

[NickFaulks]

After an early wobble, Shreyas hits the big time.

[Mick Norris]

chess24 round 5 report

The European Championship is a gruelling 11-round tournament without a single rest day, and the focus for most of the players is on finishing in the top 23 places to qualify for the World Cup. That can lead to draws at the top, with just one win on the top 10 boards in Round 3, and two in Round 5 — when other games ended in 14, 29, 9, 24, 20, 21 and 15 moves. As you can see, there are no restrictions on draw offers.

The top performing woman in the tournament is Aleksandra Goryachkina on 3.5/5, who’s now again 2nd only to Hou Yifan on the women’s live rating list. More dramatic, however, has been the performance of her sister Oksana, who is 12 years younger and only half a point behind, despite a FIDE rating of just 1759

[Mick Norris]

After an early wobble, Shreyas hits the big time.

Brandon drew in 15 moves, Shreyas seems level at move 17 chess24 live

[Mick Norris]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
8 35 115 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2498 4½ 0 - 1 4½ GM Saric Ivan 2674 10
8 42 137 IM Clarke Brandon G I 2475 4½ ½ - ½ 4½ GM Yuffa Daniil 2605 46
8 47 67 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil 2569 4½ 1 - 0 4½ IM Royal Shreyas 2452 162
8 100 300 Levitan Tal 2276 4 0 - 1 4 IM Willow Jonah B 2459 154
8 105 298 FM Shoshin Kirill 2278 4 0 - 1 4 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2439 174
8 116 274 FM Gombocz Ferenc Jr. 2311 3½ 1 - 0 3½ IM Grieve Harry 2455 160
8 163 356 Onslow Alfie 2174 3 0 - 1 3 IM Todorovic Goran N 2296 285
8 173 306 Savicevic Vlatko 2268 3 1 - 0 3 Cox Tristan A 1975 433
8 185 318 CM Khandelwal Ankush 2255 2½ 0 - 1 2½ FM Efremov Vladislav 2120 385

[Mick Norris]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Rtg No.
9 46 47 GM Can Emre 2600 5 5 IM Clarke Brandon G I 2475 137
9 50 154 IM Willow Jonah B 2459 5 5 GM Moroni Luca Jr 2578 59
9 54 174 IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2439 5 5 IM Makarian Rudik 2557 73
9 77 216 IM Maltsevskaya Aleksandra 2388 4½ 4½ GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2498 115
9 95 162 IM Royal Shreyas 2452 4½ 4½ FM Piliposyan Robert 2314 272
9 144 160 IM Grieve Harry 2455 3½ 3½ FM Djokic Mihailo 2227 330
9 191 426 Banov Boil 2016 3 3 Onslow Alfie 2174 356
9 192 433 Cox Tristan A 1975 3 3 CM Safar Sandro 2173 358
9 201 455 Velkoski Stojan 1868 3 2½ CM Khandelwal Ankush 2255 318

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I see round 9 has finished and the pairings are up for round 10.

Couple of points are noticeable/notable:

Harry Grieve's opponent looks to have won by default in round 9 and Harry is not paired in round 10. Presumably withdrawn? (Hope all is OK.)

Jonah WIllow (beating a GM in round 9) is now leading the England contingent and is 1.5 points off the lead (on the top board, Korobov lost to Sarana who leads on 7.5/9 with a group of seven on 7/9 and a group of 25 on 6.5/9 - Jonah is in the even larger group of 45 players on 6/9!).

Tristan Cox won and gets paired with an IM again. As this is his sixth player with either the IM or GM title, is there even a hint of a chance of an IM norm?? (I suspect he would have to win both remaining games for 6/11.)

I suspect there are a lot of norm opportunities. Is there somewhere this is being advertised or calculated, or is that less common these days (I seem to remember in the past this was followed quite closely). Maybe Twitter or Facebook, but are the organisers here saying anything about norms? Is anyone up to looking at the England players and seeing if there are any chances? (Are 9-round norms still a thing in events like this?)

Maybe Jonah Willow has a chance of a GM norm, but I suspect he has not played enough GMs? Looking at the field played by Brandon Clarke, and the rating performance (though never trust the Rp on chess-results!), that looks more feasible to me.

I can't see anything else immediately obvious. I presume Greece's Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis is easily on course for his final GM norm to confirm his title.

EDIT: I had mis-remembered how to calculate norms, so some of those I said might not be able to get norms might be able to - I am guessing the real calculations will come after round 10.