European Club Cup

[Nick Ivell]

Is it just me, or were there no winning chances whatever for David in that endgame?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is it just me, or were there no winning chances whatever for David in that endgame?

You perhaps assume he saw something. Otherwise maybe he was just doing it to annoy an arbiter or arbiters. I did notice that Sasikiran used so little time that he had accumulated a spare hour by the end.

[Nick Ivell]

Of course I can see that White had any advantage that was going, but it's hard to imagine that this kind of wood pushing is good for the game.

[Paul Cooksey]

Difficult to say. If I was in a probably drawn position, and moving my king from h1 to a1 and back again gave me enough time to decide if it was definitely drawn with no risk, I would do it. If I saw I could extend the game to move 200, I might do that too, for the same reasons I might play a line with underpromotion when there are other wins.

I'd be surprised if the arbiter was trying to make a point, or responding to a perceived slight. I think we take for granted in England that arbiters know enough about chess not to distract someone still playing. But at large team events there always seem to be stories of this type.

[LawrenceCooper]

Is it just me, or were there no winning chances whatever for David in that endgame?

You perhaps assume he saw something. Otherwise maybe he was just doing it to annoy an arbiter or arbiters. I did notice that Sasikiran used so little time that he had accumulated a spare hour by the end.

His team were one down in the match with one game left so playing on had some logic. When facing someone of Harikrishna's strength it must be fairly rare to have such little risk albeit admittedly very minimal chances to make any progress.

[NickFaulks]

But at large team events there always seem to be stories of this type.

I had a good one in the 2002 Bled Olympiad.

The rest of my team having lost quickly and miserably, I played for a couple of hours with the arbiter breathing garlic into my right ear.

At the end of the game, my opponent found the remarkable resource 50...Ne2-b4+, removing the c3 pawn en passant ( well, he had to, otherwise it would have taken his knight ). I said to the arbiter, who was still three inches away, "illegal move". In panic, he ran out of the room, never to be seen again.

In another match we arrived to find that the arbiters had set up the pieces with all of the knights and bishops the wrong way round. When we tried to correct them there were furious shouts of "no touch, no touch!".

Somalia.PNG

[Alex McFarlane]

Stories of some of the inexperienced arbiters, especially in the past are legion.

Phil Giulian made a claim by repetition. His arbiter did exactly the same as the one in Nick's game.

In a game his wife, Rosie, had she asked for a continuation scoresheet on reaching move 60 to be told she could not get one until after her flag had fallen. (It was 20 moves an hour at that point.) That 'arbiter' at least apologised the following day.

At the last Olympiad though, to confirm that they are still amongst us. Black played his 75th move at which point the 'arbiter' stepped in and declared the game drawn!

[Mick Norris]

Good draw yesterday for Dan Fernandez, playing for Gent, against Vidit (2722)

Mickey white v Matlakov today, with Gawain black v Rodstein, as their team Padova has a 1 point lead

David white for Valerenga v Dreev

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Worth a look:

An amazing game at the European Club Cup 2019

(Ivan Saric vs Aydin Suleymanli in Round 5)

[Geoff Chandler]

A good spot Chris, it's a very entertaining game.

I. Saric - A. Suleymanli, Round 5, European Club Cup 2019

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e5 c5 5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Qa5 7. Bd2 Qa4 8. Qg4 Kf8 9. Qd1 Ne7 10. Qb1 c4 11. Ne2 Nbc6 12. Nf4 b6 13. Nh5 Bd7 14. Qc1 Rg8 15. h4 Ke8 16. Rh3 Kd8 17. Rf3 Kc7 18. g3 Raf8 19. Bh3 Be8 20. Nf4 Bd7 21. Kf1 Kb7 22. Kg1 Nf5 23. Rb1 Nce7 24. Rb4 Qc6 25. Ng2 h5 26. Nf4 f6 27. Qe1 g5 28. Nxh5 g4 29. Rxf5 Nxf5 30. Bg2 fxe5 31. dxe5 a5 32. Rb1 Qc5 33. Nf6 Rg7 34. Be3 Nxe3 35. Qxe3 Qxe3 36. fxe3 Ba4 37. Rc1 b5 38. e4 d4 39. cxd4 b4 40. axb4 axb4 41. Bf1 Rc8 42. Rb1 b3 43. c3 Kb6 44. h5 Bb5 45. h6 Ra7 46. h7 Rh8 47. Be2 Ra2 48. Bxg4 Rc2 49. Bxe6 b2 50. Rxb2 Rxb2 51. Bg8 Rc2 52. Nd5+ Ka5 53. e6 Bc6 54. e7 Ka4 55. Nb6+ Kb3 56. d5 Bb5 57. d6 Rd2 58. Nxc4 Rd1+ 59. Kf2 Kxc3 60. Na3 Be8 61. e5 Kd4 62. e6 Ke5 63. Nc4+ Kf6 64. g4 Rd5 65. d7 Rxd7 66. exd7 Bxd7 67. Nb6 Kxe7 68. Nxd7 Kxd7 69. Kg3 Ke7 70. Kh4 Kf6 71. Kh5

[Mick Norris]

Good draw yesterday for Dan Fernandez, playing for Gent, against Vidit (2722)

Mickey white v Matlakov today, with Gawain black v Rodstein, as their team Padova has a 1 point lead

David white for Valerenga v Dreev

David & Mickey drew, with a good win for Gawain

Padova are 2 points clear; Mickey has black against Andreikin, Gawain black against Inarkiev

Pairings

[NickFaulks]

with a good win for Gawain

Therein lies a story, and yet another example of Gawain's amazing resourcefulness. He was busted, playing essentially a piece down, but found chances which led to perpetual check. His opponent, short of time, tried too hard to escape and got mated. A great result when I think many players, including really good ones, might have gone down without a fight.

[Leonard Barden]

Padova have won the final round, defeating the top seeds Alkaloid from Macedonia by 3.5-2.5 with five draws (including Mickey and Gawain) and a win on bottom board.

Padova have won all seven matches, so gold for our intrepid pair to go with the world teams silver and the Euroteams bronze.

The board list is also showing Gawain (5/6) as the Board 5 individual gold medallist. Mickey totalled 4/6.

Congratulations to them, especially since both have shown resilience to recover from spells of poor form earlier in the year.

David Howell was filling in on Board 1 for his Norwegian team, led last time by Magnus Carlsen, and scored 3/6.

Latest live ratings: Adams 2701, Sadler 2692, Howell 2686, McShane 2680, Jones 2676.

[Kevin Thurlow]

Great results! (Obviously the chemist in me was cheering on Alkaloid though...)