European Club Championship

[Mick Norris]

20 Grantham Sharks (48) 2.5 3.5 Bronshoj Skakforening (41)

20.1 2403 Roberson, Peter T 0 1 Bromann, Thorbjorn 2413
20.2 2392 Rendle, Thomas E 0 1 Pilgaard, Kim 2382
20.3 2142 Purton, Ben J 0 1 Aabling-Thomsen, Jakob 2302
20.4 2148 Murphy, Hugh W 1 0 Paaske, Asger 2141
20.5 2123 Varnam, Liam D 1 0 Christensen, Esben 2055
20.6 0 Willis, Rupert ½ ½ Petersen, Steen 2023

21 White Rose (38) 4.5 1.5 Ennis Chess Club (46)

21.1 2455 Wells, Peter K 1 0 Sodoma, Jan 2341
21.2 2098 Webb, Matthew D 1 0 Larter, Nick J. 1790
21.3 2223 Barrett, Stephen J 1 0 Walsh, Paul 2147
21.4 2262 Townsend, M Paul 0 1 Quinn, Rory 2120
21.5 2115 O'driscoll, Kieran ½ ½ Cassidy, John 1959
21.6 2081 Burnett, Jim 1 0 Carey, Paul 0

1 Malakhite (3) 1 5 SOCAR Azerbaijan (1)

1.1 2777 Karjakin, Sergey 0 1 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2756
1.2 2789 Grischuk, Alexander ½ ½ Topalov, Veselin 2784
1.3 2701 Shirov, Alexei 0 1 Adams, Michael 2752
1.4 2696 Malakhov, Vladimir 0 1 Giri, Anish 2758
1.5 2684 Lysyj, Igor ½ ½ Radjabov, Teimour 2717
1.6 2648 Bologan, Viktor 0 1 Wang, Hao 2730

2 G-Team Novy Bor (5) 5.5 0.5 Huginn Chessclub (21)

2.1 2736 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw ½ ½ Jones, Gawain C B 2664
2.2 2722 Navara, David 1 0 Van Kampen, Robin 2637
2.3 2725 Harikrishna, P. 1 0 Thorhallsson, Throstur 2437
2.4 2675 Laznicka, Viktor 1 0 Jensson, Einar Hjalti 2349
2.5 2680 Sasikiran, Krishnan 1 0 Hreinsson, Hlidar 2229
2.6 2638 Hracek, Zbynek 1 0 Teitsson, Magnus 2197

You can play through Mickey's 120 move win over Shirov here
http://www.chess.com/news/anand-secures ... atumi-5172

[Mick Norris]

Final round

White Rose SV Muelheim Nord 38 - 22

Adare Chess Club Grantham Sharks 47 - 48

[NickFaulks]

You can play through Mickey's 120 move win over Shirov here
http://www.chess.com/news/anand-secures ... atumi-5172

I don't understand how Black wins in the final position if White just tries the obvious idea of pushing his h-pawn.

[Richard Bates]

You can play through Mickey's 120 move win over Shirov here
http://www.chess.com/news/anand-secures ... atumi-5172

I don't understand how Black wins in the final position if White just tries the obvious idea of pushing his h-pawn.

Checkmate.

[Roger de Coverly]

I don't understand how Black wins in the final position if White just tries the obvious idea of pushing his h-pawn.

8/4R3/2r1b3/7P/5kpK/8/8/8 w - - 5 121

As above, some move like Rc1. It would make for an interesting endgame study as how the winning position was created.

[David Sedgwick]

The other key move is Bf5. For instance, 121. h6, Rc1; 122. Kh5, Bf5. Black can also play the moves in the opposite order.

[Mick Norris]

2664 Jones, Gawain C B ½ ½ Zhigalko, Sergei 2677

17 White Rose (38) 2.5 3.5 SV Muelheim Nord (22)

17.1 2455 Wells, Peter K ½ ½ Tregubov, Pavel V. 2606
17.2 2098 Webb, Matthew D 1 0 Hausrath, Daniel 2537
17.3 2223 Barrett, Stephen J 0 1 Levin, Felix 2513
17.4 2262 Townsend, M Paul ½ ½ Saltaev, Mihail 2483
17.5 2141 Shaw, Peter ½ ½ Ozerov, Ilja 2131
17.6 2115 O'driscoll, Kieran 0 1 Grodotzki, Kenneth 2012

23 Adare Chess Club (47) 1.5 4.5 Grantham Sharks (48)

23.1 2401 Astaneh Lopez, Alex ½ ½ Roberson, Peter T 2403
23.2 2040 Fox, Anthony 0 1 Rendle, Thomas E 2392
23.3 2030 Heinrich, Jan 0 1 Purton, Ben J 2142
23.4 1998 Thee, Bernd 0 1 Murphy, Hugh W 2148
23.5 1941 De Jonge, Henk 1 0 Varnam, Liam D 2123
23.6 1746 Mirza, Gabriel 0 1 Willis, Rupert 0

Final ranking here:
http://europeanchessclubcup2014.com/www ... team7.html

Player ranking here:
http://europeanchessclubcup2014.com/www ... layer.html

[Chris Rice]

Chessbase report with the last round highlights
http://en.chessbase.com/post/ecc-07-two-perfect-scores

The Bilbao and St Louis events have caused a lot of movement in the live ratings. Mickey up to 12th in the world, Nakamura, Aronian and MVL continue to slide. Giri now 7th, Topalov 3rd and dwarfing them all Caruana picking up 42.5 points since the last list:

1 Carlsen 2862.8 −7.2
2 Caruana 2843.5 +42.5
3 Topalov 2799.5 +15.5
4 Aronian 2797.6 −6.4
5 Grischuk 2796.6 +7.6
6 Anand 2791.8 +6.8
7 Giri 2768.1 +10.1
8 Karjakin 2767.3 −9.7
9 Nakamura 2764.3 −17.7
10 Mamedyarov 2763.7 +7.7
11 Kramnik 2760.0 0.0
12 Adams 2757.6 +5.6
13 Vachier-Lagrave 2757.2 −10.8

http://www.2700chess.com/

[Lewis Martin]

I don't understand how Black wins in the final position if White just tries the obvious idea of pushing his h-pawn.

8/4R3/2r1b3/7P/5kpK/8/8/8 w - - 5 121

As above, some move like Rc1. It would make for an interesting endgame study as how the winning position was created.

Following on from this, it seems that if:

1. h6 then 1... Rc3! The point being: 2. Kh5 Kf5!! should win for Black.

1...Rc1 does not work since 2. Kh5 Kf5 can be followed by 3. Kh4 etc. The point of the rook on the third rank is that it prevents the white king going to g3.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

1...Rc1 does not work since 2. Kh5 Kf5 can be followed by 3. Kh4 etc. The point of the rook on the third rank is that it prevents the white king going to g3.

Er, surely:

The other key move is Bf5. For instance, 121. h6, Rc1; 122. Kh5, Bf5. Black can also play the moves in the opposite order.

[Lewis Martin]

1...Rc1 does not work since 2. Kh5 Kf5 can be followed by 3. Kh4 etc. The point of the rook on the third rank is that it prevents the white king going to g3.

Er, surely:

The other key move is Bf5. For instance, 121. h6, Rc1; 122. Kh5, Bf5. Black can also play the moves in the opposite order.

Heh, yes of course. Forgive me, it is past midnight after all. I suppose when one sees a certain solution he aims for it. I hadn't noticed David's comment despite it being directly below!

[Leonard Barden]

The Guardian's reflections on Bilbao:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/s ... -world-no1

[Nick Burrows]

The Guardian's reflections on Bilbao:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/s ... -world-no1

Great article Leonard - thanks!