John Nunn goes for gold at 11am Sunday

[Leonard Barden]

John Nunn goes for gold in the European 65+ championship at Rabac, Croatia, at 11am BST on
Sunday morning.

After 8 of the 9 rounds, GM Nunn has 6.5/8, half a point ahead of GMs Zurab Sturua (Georgia), Rainer Knaak (Germany) and Lubomir Ftacnik (Slovakia) all 6. Sturua was European 65+ champion in 2024, Nunn in 2023. It could go to tie-breaks. There have been no pairings among the top four in any of the previous 8 rounds.

John Pigott scored 5.5, Terry Chapman (who was in contention until losing to Ftacnik in round eight) and Paul Townsend 5, Mark Page and Brian Hewson 4.

Live games will be on lichess: lichess.org/broadcast/european-senior-championships-2025--open-s65/round-8/dsEFX9Y9

Round 9 pairings have not yet appeared.

[Roger de Coverly]

John Pigott scored 5.5, Terry Chapman (who was in contention until losing to Ftacnik in round eight) and Paul Townsend 5, Mark Page and Brian Hewson 4.

Also Andy Smith on 5 and Tim Harding on 4.5, both representing Ireland.

Pairings now out
https://chess-results.com/tnr1259708.as ... =9&flag=30

Nunn v Ftacnik

[Christopher Kreuzer]

What is the tiebreak if Nunn draws and board 2 has a decisive result?

I think Sturua is very much capable with White of beating Knaak and that would presumably boost his tiebreak more than Nunn would by drawing with Ftacnik.

The motivation is there for all four to play for a win, so could be really exciting if they all go for it! John Nunn (who also has White) is the only one who might need to play for two results as he would be happy if both games were drawn.

[Ian Thompson]

What is the tiebreak if Nunn draws and board 2 has a decisive result?

Nunn would probably lose the tie-break to Sturua. He's already half a point behind Sturua on Buchholz Cut 1; that would increase with the round 9 results so he'd need a lot of other results to go his way to catch up.

It's less certain if Knaak won, but the odds are against Nunn. Knaak is one point behind Nunn on Buchholz Cut 1 after 8 rounds, but would be ahead if he won in round 9 and Nunn drew. Nunn would then need some other results to go his way to catch up.

[Roger de Coverly]

Live games will be on lichess: lichess.org/broadcast/european-senior-championships-2025--open-s65/round-8/dsEFX9Y9

https://lichess.org/broadcast/european- ... k/5pYWA7DV

A chance to revisit some historic Najdorf theory. It's a line featured in a John Nunn book of the late 1980s which tried to update what we thought we knew from Fischer's ganes and annotations.

Ftacnik has played . .. 0-0, regarded as a suicide attempt in the past against the Bg5 Najdorf.

(edit) We probably didn't learn very much as they agreed a draw in a position that was already known. Stockfish (the lichess one) scores it as dead equal, which may suggest there's a forced repetition somewhere in later play.(/edit).

[Jonathan Rogers]

Those who have read Nunn's "Best Games 1985-1993" will not be very surprised. He identifies last round nerves as a recurring weakness, and so a draw would have quite appealed to him in a situation where it might well suffice for unshared first anyway. (Although looking at board two, Knaak in the past did not strike me as someone who was inclined to draws, and he is playing Black today).

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Nunn's draw does guarantee a medal. I am not sure which of the other three is most likely to miss out on a medal and if that is influencing the thoughts of Sturua and Knaak? If they draw, does Ftacnik get squeezed out?

[IM Jack Rudd]

After 11 consecutive captures, Sturua is now a pawn up, but there's still a lot of work to be done to convert it.

[Jonathan Rogers]

A lot? We shall see. Black has no counterplay and some weaknesses to defend.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A lot? We shall see. Black has no counterplay and some weaknesses to defend.

And so it came to pass. Sturua won and presumably takes the gold medal ahead of Nunn (silver). Not sure who takes bronze.

[Roger de Coverly]

And so it came to pass. Sturua won and presumably takes the gold medal ahead of Nunn (silver). Not sure who takes bronze.

Lots of draws, but John Pigott won to take him to 6.5 alongside Ftacnik. I'd suspect Ftacnik's tie break is better.