European Team Championship November 2023

[John Moore]

England's narrow victory over Georgia came courtesy of a win by Luke from a Rook ending which appeared totally drawn.

[Mick Norris]

I am presuming from the final moves (with the superfluous extra king move) that David was trying to claim threefold repetition and the arbiter did not follow the correct procedure, or something similar happened?

The route out of the threefold repetition comes after the third of four positions that repeat in succession, so if you were to try and gain time, you would need to decide on move 35 to play 35...Kh6 rather than 35...Kg8, after the initial 32.Nf6+.

That always confuses me slightly and I tend to spend as much time working out how many times I can repeat as I would gain on the clock, if not more...

Pairings out and David not playing today

[Kevin Thurlow]

""Today was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my career. Not only did the arbiter not know the laws of chess, but he patted me on my bum while trying to usher me out of the playing hall. Surely this is harassment?""

Yes - and indecent assault. Some players would have punched him.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Do we know if David Howell's draw was claimed to secure the match win (i.e. other games already clear result or finished)?

Agreed. Disgraceful behaviour by the arbiter.

I noticed the error made by Luke's opponent. Is that the sort of standard endgame tactic a GM should know and avoid?

[Paul Heaton]

Do we know if David Howell's draw was claimed to secure the match win (i.e. other games already clear result or finished)?

McShane won a drawn position much later, so no.
I think there is general confusion on how to claim a 3fold repetition (write the move down, don’t play it, call the arbiter over), so you could speculate the unpleasantness in the Howell game originated from that.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Today's match just recently started and somehow Czech Republic seem to be on the floor already. All surrounding matches still in their early phases!

[John Moore]

I think that there is some confusion here. Jobava must have been the one making the three fold repetition claim. If David plays Kh6, he is winning although it does appear somewhat risky. Presumably David's complaint is that the arbiter wrongly allowed Jobava's claim.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Today's match just recently started and somehow Czech Republic seem to be on the floor already. All surrounding matches still in their early phases!

err, hmm. Things got better for them. As often (very often) there has been a swing in Luke's game, even allowing for a possible overestimation of his position from the opening.

[LawrenceCooper]

Today's match just recently started and somehow Czech Republic seem to be on the floor already. All surrounding matches still in their early phases!

I was puzzled by this post as it didn't appear to relate to the positions I could see at the time. Was there a transmission error?

[Jonathan Rogers]

not obviously. Just that Luke and Ravi seemed to doing very well, backed up by the engine. This was around the time that Luke played ...Qd7. But of course the games were not exactly about to finish and obviously I should have waited ...

[LawrenceCooper]

not obviously. Just that Luke and Ravi seemed to doing very well, backed up by the engine. This was around the time that Luke played ...Qd7. But of course the games were not exactly about to finish and obviously I should have waited ...

Ah yes, I joined as black played d5 in Ravi's game, blissfully unaware that Ra3, instead of Na3, apparantly gives an advantage! I also hadn't seen Luke's opponent's rather odd rook lift which does indeed give Luke a very promising position.

At least there is hope that we will win board 1 to save the match.

[John Moore]

And Vitiugov does the business.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Only man on +1: everyone else on 50%.

Not that this need be such a surprise. Have we seen all those draws in most of the top matches, and matches decided by just one win? This is one very intense event, since it pretty much starts like this from the outset.

[Mark Howitt]

There's a lot I could say yet I'll limit it to saying bit of a shame Howell wasn't playing today...

[Jonathan Rogers]

Disappointing result for the women against France, though. Spain made the headlines in the women's event today, I should think.