European Women's Championship 2015

Discuss anything you like about women's chess at home and abroad.
Chris Rice
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Sun May 24, 2015 7:12 pm

Draw. Ketevan on 3.5/6 and 24= with 5 rounds to go so she still has time.

Round 7 pairings http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=821

Chris Rice
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Mon May 25, 2015 3:54 am

A report here showing the Board 1 clash in round 6 was excluded from live broadcast. Clear implications here that if only one board was being singled out the only reason was that Mihaela Sandu was on 5/5. Guess this is what chess has been reduced to in the aftermath of the Georgian who cheated in Dubai. If you do well, someone, somewhere, is going to start pointing a finger at you even if the allegations are completely without foundation, which I'm confident they are in this case. However, the damage is already done I suspect and this could well ruin the tournament for her. Hope not.
Delaying the broadcast of live moves has been suggested before and as along as its consistently applied to all players in all rounds then its a good idea. Otherwise there is a danger you're just smearing someone's good name and integrity and I firmly believe that is what's happened here.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19088

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19078

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Mon May 25, 2015 10:12 am

Chris Rice wrote:A report here showing the Board 1 clash in round 6 was excluded from live broadcast. Clear implications here that if only one board was being singled out the only reason was that Mihaela Sandu was on 5/5. Guess this is what chess has been reduced to in the aftermath of the Georgian who cheated in Dubai. If you do well, someone, somewhere, is going to start pointing a finger at you even if the allegations are completely without foundation, which I'm confident they are in this case. However, the damage is already done I suspect and this could well ruin the tournament for her. Hope not.
Delaying the broadcast of live moves has been suggested before and as along as its consistently applied to all players in all rounds then its a good idea. Otherwise there is a danger you're just smearing someone's good name and integrity and I firmly believe that is what's happened here.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19088

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19078
Very bizarre, especially as the board 1 round 5 game was decided by black totally capitulating with her last two or three moves rather than white unleashing a Feller style combination over many moves. Mihaela's success seemed to come more from practical chess, keeping her nerve and taking advantage of mistakes from opponent's overpressing (round 4) or outright blunders (round 5).

Ian Thompson
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Location: Awbridge, Hampshire

Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Ian Thompson » Mon May 25, 2015 11:39 am

Chris Rice wrote:A report here showing the Board 1 clash in round 6 was excluded from live broadcast. Clear implications here that if only one board was being singled out the only reason was that Mihaela Sandu was on 5/5. Guess this is what chess has been reduced to in the aftermath of the Georgian who cheated in Dubai. If you do well, someone, somewhere, is going to start pointing a finger at you even if the allegations are completely without foundation, which I'm confident they are in this case.
If that happened in England would it be defamation?

Chris Rice
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Mon May 25, 2015 12:08 pm

Ian Thompson wrote:
Chris Rice wrote:A report here showing the Board 1 clash in round 6 was excluded from live broadcast. Clear implications here that if only one board was being singled out the only reason was that Mihaela Sandu was on 5/5. Guess this is what chess has been reduced to in the aftermath of the Georgian who cheated in Dubai. If you do well, someone, somewhere, is going to start pointing a finger at you even if the allegations are completely without foundation, which I'm confident they are in this case.
If that happened in England would it be defamation?
A reading of the 2013 Defamation Act suggests that it would be very difficult to bring such a case in England though perhaps not impossible. There are statements in the Russian Chess News press release such as: "Previous 100-percenter Mihaela Sandu Loses Game Excluded from Live Broadcast" and "During the game, it became clear that the organisers had decided to suspend its live broadcast. It appeared on the internet only with a long delay." and whether they could be defined as defamation. I would hope they could be but I suspect it would be a long and costly legal battle to obtain justice.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2013/26/enacted

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Mon May 25, 2015 12:22 pm

Chris Rice wrote:A report here showing the Board 1 clash in round 6 was excluded from live broadcast. Clear implications here that if only one board was being singled out the only reason was that Mihaela Sandu was on 5/5. Guess this is what chess has been reduced to in the aftermath of the Georgian who cheated in Dubai. If you do well, someone, somewhere, is going to start pointing a finger at you even if the allegations are completely without foundation, which I'm confident they are in this case. However, the damage is already done I suspect and this could well ruin the tournament for her. Hope not.
Delaying the broadcast of live moves has been suggested before and as along as its consistently applied to all players in all rounds then its a good idea. Otherwise there is a danger you're just smearing someone's good name and integrity and I firmly believe that is what's happened here.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19088

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19078
Her round 7 game is on live, albeit she's not playing a Georgian today!

Chris Rice
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Tue May 26, 2015 6:06 am

Looks like I was worrying over nothing as Sandu pretty much crushed Stefanova. Ketevan lost and has now dropped to 53rd. Presumably she now has to win her last four games to have a chance of a top 14 finish. She clearly hasn't been in her best form this tournament but there is always hope of course.

http://www.chessarbiter.com/turnieje/20 ... tb=1_&rd=8_

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Tue May 26, 2015 8:28 am

Chris Rice wrote:Looks like I was worrying over nothing as Sandu pretty much crushed Stefanova. Ketevan lost and has now dropped to 53rd. Presumably she now has to win her last four games to have a chance of a top 14 finish. She clearly hasn't been in her best form this tournament but there is always hope of course.

http://www.chessarbiter.com/turnieje/20 ... tb=1_&rd=8_
I was also relieved that Mihaela didn't appear affected by what occurred the day before. It looked a fairly chaotic game but was decided by Stefanova getting her queen trapped (albeit in a study like way) so there's no reason for any conspiracy theories.

I think the FIDE time limit does make it tough on the older players. Kety is renowned for her fighting spirit but the constant time pressure must be draining, even for her.

Barry Sandercock
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Barry Sandercock » Wed May 27, 2015 3:17 pm

Unfortunate game for Ketevan today. I think the trouble started with her 17..Qd8.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Wed May 27, 2015 6:44 pm

Round 8 results: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=984

Round 9 pairings: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=984

Batsiashvili 7.5/8
Zhukova 6.5
Melia & Sandu 6

Chris Rice
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Chris Rice » Wed May 27, 2015 8:06 pm

OK another statement has appeared on the Russian Chess News site and it looks a very disturbing one. Can this be anything other than a direct accusation of cheating against Mihaela Sandu by the other participants?

Games of European Women's Championship to be Broadcast with Delay, at Request of Participants

Wednesday, 27.05.2015 15:41

Chess-News has been informed that, from today, the games of the Women's European Championship will be broadcast with a 15-minute delay, at the request of many of the players. The competitors approached the organising committee with this request.

At this moment, the eighth round of the event is taking place. We would remind readers that in round six, the organisers decided to broadcast one game only with a delay, that involving Mihaela Sandu. The then leader lost that day for the first time in the event. The following round, all games were broadcast normally, and that day she won again.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19113

MartinCarpenter
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by MartinCarpenter » Wed May 27, 2015 8:38 pm

Not sure. They'd have had plenty to complain about on principle I think.

Broadcasting games without delay in a major event? Really not clever as it makes cheating vastly easier for very little gain.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Wed May 27, 2015 9:34 pm

Chris Rice wrote:OK another statement has appeared on the Russian Chess News site and it looks a very disturbing one. Can this be anything other than a direct accusation of cheating against Mihaela Sandu by the other participants?

Games of European Women's Championship to be Broadcast with Delay, at Request of Participants

Wednesday, 27.05.2015 15:41

Chess-News has been informed that, from today, the games of the Women's European Championship will be broadcast with a 15-minute delay, at the request of many of the players. The competitors approached the organising committee with this request.

At this moment, the eighth round of the event is taking place. We would remind readers that in round six, the organisers decided to broadcast one game only with a delay, that involving Mihaela Sandu. The then leader lost that day for the first time in the event. The following round, all games were broadcast normally, and that day she won again.

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19113
It's worth mentioning that the player who lost to Mihaela in round 5 posted this on Facebook:

"Come on chessplayers, stop panic and play better chess please ...P.s. I was one who lost to her also, but I have feelings that it's only because of me... also think about what she feels playing under such conditions.."

If you look at some of recent Mihaela's wins, Stefanova got her queen trapped, Javakhishvili capitulated in a playable position and Girya overpressed. Of the two games she lost, the first was a hard fought game and today's was won by a stronger player in convincing style. She has 6/8, both losses with black. Whilst she's performing well above her rating, there is nothing in her games to make me suspect anything other than a player in form and being gifted several points due to blunders.

Barry Sandercock
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by Barry Sandercock » Thu May 28, 2015 5:02 pm

Good win by Ketevan, but unfortunately too late for a top 14 finish.

LawrenceCooper
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Re: European Women's Championship 2015

Post by LawrenceCooper » Thu May 28, 2015 6:55 pm

Round 9 results: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=984

Round 10 pairings: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=984

Rankings: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx ... =30&wi=984

I suspect there have been several norms, a quick scan suggests:

IM: Girya, Sandu, WIM: Mammadova but there may be more. I couldn't see a list with all the rating performances and so didn't fancy clicking on each player in turn!