European Club Cup 2018

Tim Harding · 09-10-2018 11:34pm #1

Play in this always interesting 7-round team event starts on Friday at Porto Carras resort in northern Greece at 3pm local time (2pm IST). Squads of up to 8 players; 6 board matches.

This will be Magnus Carlsen's last tournament before the world championship match, but I doubt if he will play in round 1 when the top half meets the bottom half. His half-Norwegian team are fifth seeds, with David Howell on board 2.

http://eurochess2018.com/participants/

There are three Irish teams, seeded 57th (Dublin Chess Club), 59th (St. Benildus) and 61st (Ballinasloe). As there is an odd number of teams, Ballinasloe will have a bye in the first round if all teams turn up. Then they will probably play two of their six matches against the other Irish teams.

Alvaro Valdes Escobar is playing board 2 below Jon Speelman in an English team, Wood Green.

A regular contributor to this forum is on one of the Irish teams so I hope we shall get some colourful on-the-spot reports from him!

sodacat11 · 10-10-2018 10:28pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

There are three Irish teams, seeded 57th (Dublin Chess Club), 59th (St. Benildus) and 61st (Ballinasloe).

It would have made sense then to pair St Benildus and Dublin in the first round of the Armstrong instead of blindly following the same fixture schedule as last year.

Tim Harding · 10-10-2018 10:50pm

sodacat11 wrote: »

It would have made sense then to pair St Benildus and Dublin in the first round of the Armstrong instead of blindly following the same fixture schedule as last year.

The teams they have sent to Greece don't bear much relation to their Armstrong squads.

cdeb · 11-10-2018 3:10am

Also St Benildus were a very late addition after three other teams withdrew. I think the league fixtures may have been done by the time we formally entered

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 11-10-2018 9:44am

Best of luck Ballinasloe, Benildus and Dublin! Wish I was there - its a fantastic event and experience.

cdeb · 12-10-2018 9:15am

Ballinasloe lead the event at present, having gotten the bye in round 1.

Benildus and Dublin face Speelman and Khalifman respectively on board 1.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 10:49am

Local interest appears in the match-up Kevin McHugh v Alvaro Valdes Escobar, but some of the pairings are doubled up on chess24 at present so maybe that isn't actually going to happen?

At chess-results the board pairings are not yet (1045 IST) listed:
http://chess-results.com/tnr373918.aspx?lan=1&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30

But they may be later when people read this.

I hope the bye won't lead to poor Ballinasloe being hit with a pairing against one of the all-GM teams tomorrow.

The other two Irish teams need to pull something out of the bag early on or they will get byes soon.

brilliantboy · 12-10-2018 12:48pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

I hope the bye won't lead to poor Ballinasloe being hit with a pairing against one of the all-GM teams tomorrow.

Why? I'm sure they'd love that

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 1:00pm

brilliantboy wrote: »

Why? I'm sure they'd love that

Perhaps you are right. The top teams often complain about having to play the amateurs. Ding Liren wouldn't fancy risking losing his unbeaten streak to Denis Ruchko. Nor would Yu Yangyi so Andreikin might have to take on the dirty job.

Meanwhile today's most watchable games (starting 2pm) IMHO are:

David Howell v Twan Burg (one of the few GM-GM match-ups);

Richard Bates v Vitiugov

Martin Schmidt v Khalifman

Speelman v Vogel (Is he still living in Ireland?)

and yes Kevin is playing Alvaro.

brilliantboy · 12-10-2018 1:09pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Perhaps you are right. The top teams often complain about having to play the amateurs. Ding Liren wouldn't fancy risking losing his unbeaten streak to Denis Ruchko. Nor would Yu Yangyi so Andreikin might have to take on the dirty job.

The top players complain about anything they can. They're getting paid to play, not to mouth off. Bunch of pampered softies :pac:
And with all due respect to Denis I think Ding and Yu are pretty safe on that front.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 1:30pm

Like Magnus, Ding is taking the day off and so are Wojtaszek, Harikrishna and Svidler, but Mamedyarov is playing.

I was wrong about the start time. Play has started!

mikhail · 12-10-2018 1:47pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Speelman v Vogel (Is he still living in Ireland?)

No, he joined up with us from Germany. He only spent a year here on exchange. I hope we sent them someone good in return, because he makes a big difference to a team assembled at short notice.

mikhail · 12-10-2018 1:48pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Like Magnus, Ding is taking the day off and so are Wojtaszek, Harikrishna and Svidler, but Mamedyarov is playing.

I was wrong about the start time. Play has started!

3 pm local time; 1 pm in Ireland, for all rounds I think.

I might go see if Magnus wants a game of table tennis so...

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 3:57pm

Check out Dylan Boland's attack against FM Lawrence Cooper!

Correction, IM. Boland just took a draw in a winning position. He seems to have missed 17/19 Qh3 which regains the sac'd piece with a pawn up and dodgy Black K.
McHugh and Vogel have lost but there are a couple of outside chances of half a point elsewhere for Benildus.

brilliantboy · 12-10-2018 3:58pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Check out Dylan Boland's attack against FM Lawrence Cooper!

I hope he doesn't decide to cash out with the perpetual

mikhail · 12-10-2018 4:01pm

Sadly, he settled for the draw, but Dylan's beaten an FM before. https://stbenilduschessclub.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/dylan-1-0-fm/

Retd.LoyolaCpt · 12-10-2018 4:02pm

draw agreed

brilliantboy · 12-10-2018 4:04pm

That's a pity, but understandable. Kevin Burke's opponent has also let him off the hook for now it seems.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 4:07pm

brilliantboy wrote: »

I hope he doesn't decide to cash out with the perpetual

He did. See my edited post above. Maybe he thought a bird in the hand etc.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 4:10pm

In the Dublin CC match, O'Connor and Yin have lost.
Martin is gradually slipping, no disgrace against a former World Champion (albeit one of the cut-price knockout variety).

Colm Egan has made a bit of a comeback thanks to his opponent's feeble Bf1 and is the only player on the team with an advantage at present. Strike a blow for the Seniors, Colm!

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 4:19pm

brilliantboy wrote: »

That's a pity, but understandable. Kevin Burke's opponent has also let him off the hook for now it seems.

Alas poor Yorick.
Kevin will have to tell us why he didn't play Qxh6.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 4:26pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

I hope the bye won't lead to poor Ballinasloe being hit with a pairing against one of the all-GM teams tomorrow.

They are saying on the English Forum that teams getting a bye receive just 1 MP. This makes sense because otherwise one of the favourites would have an easy win in the next round while the others have to fight.

Since it's unlikely that any of today's matches will be 3-3 draws, there will be 30 teams on 2MP and 30 on 0 of which one will get the next bye.
Whether that's decided on seedings or game points, possibly taking colour allocations into account, I don't know.

Caissa Chania look like favourites for the bye, I think.

So Ballinasloe will get a downfloat to a team that loses today.

Some of today's pairings were wrong because 3Cs (an English team) was seeded far too low on account of a misidentification of a late substitute. This could have a knock-on effect unless they can alter the seeding order for the next round.

Tim Harding · 12-10-2018 4:59pm

Horror show in Artola's game, in a big time scramble.

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/european-club-cup-2018/1/26/4

White missed 32 Rg8+ winning Q for R.
At move 33...Kxh7 would have won, Black having an extra piece. Instead Gerardo played 33...Rb1+, putting the R en prise to the B that he could have captured. After this double blunder White had a mate.

In the last Dublin game, Egan was about equal but his 40...Rd4? allows White to set up a protected passed f-pawn and probably win eventually.

Players now get an extra half hour.

Brendan Lyons, who was a pawn down, now has a dead drawn K+P ending so Benildus will finish with 1 point. Not bad.

cdeb · 12-10-2018 6:35pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Alas poor Yorick.
Kevin will have to tell us why he didn't play Qxh6.

Alas indeed. I simply didn't think I had anything. I'd been under pressure the last while and had lost material. BxP was another blow which won a pawn, but it immediately let me back into it of course. A weak point of mine, spotting when my opponent has spectacularly gone wrong in a won position. 45 minutes of analysis with my opponent, Speelman, Constantin and Dylan after failed to find a clear win.

Hugely irritating. As indeed was the outcome on either side of me. Would have bitten your hand off for 5-1 beforehand, but we had a definite chance for as much as 3.5-2.5.

Tim Harding · 13-10-2018 10:36am

Round 2 pairings are up and Magnus Carlsen plays today in match 5.

Dublin CC have the bye. In all 8 teams have 0 GP but Chania managed a draw so they were not the lowest-ranked after all.

Ballinasloe are in match 16 against SF Wirtfeld, a German team with a GM, two IMs and a WIM.
In action today: Denis, Thomas, Jonathon, George, Kenneth and Conor, That's their top six, understandably.

Benildus are in match 27 against an English team sponsored by an Irish businesman (I think), Blackthorne Russia.
In action today: Vogel, McHugh, Lyons, Healy, Burke, Kenny. Dylan Boland is rested after his near-miss yesterday.

Board pairings at:
http://chess-results.com/tnr373918.aspx?lan=1&art=3&rd=2&turdet=YES&flag=30&zeilen=99999

Past_Pawn_99 · 13-10-2018 5:16pm

Looks like denis will draw with his GM opponent, Amazing result.

Ficheall · 13-10-2018 5:35pm

Past_Pawn_99 wrote: »

Looks like denis will draw with his GM opponent, Amazing result.

Looks like he's made a mistake in time trouble. Awful shame

Tim Harding · 14-10-2018 9:48am

Like many of you, I expect, saw nothing of round 2 because of the Eir broadband debacle.
All three Irish teams are in action today:

Drejtesia v Ballinasloe.
The opponents (from Kosovo) have an IM and two FMs.
John P. Dunne gets a game today; Kenneth Higgins is rested.

Grantham Sharks v Dublin CC
The English opponents have two IMs (Roberson and Rendle).
Eddie and Colm rest today so the two who didn't play round 1 are in action.

St. Benildus v Viking Chess Club
There is one IM on the opposing team (Bjorn Thorfinsson) and two FMs.
Kevin Burke, one of the players who drew yesterday, is rested.

So three tough, but not so impossible matches.

On the high boards we shall be treated to (Eir permitting):
Wojtaszek-Carlsen
Howell-Harikrishna
Svidler-Edouard

and some other all-GM clashes.

Ficheall · 14-10-2018 12:14pm

Tim Harding wrote: »

Like many of you, I expect, saw nothing of round 2 because of the Eir broadband debacle.
All three Irish teams are in action today:

If it's any consolation, there were issues with the chess24 broadcast too for about an hour, so those of us not on Eir didn't have uninterrupted viewing either.

brilliantboy · 14-10-2018 3:28pm

Jonathan Peoples' opponent played a very Botvinnik like Kh1 in a Carlsbad structure. Unfortunately it didn't prompt Jonathan to apply the brakes like it did Keres, he took a dodgy pawn and looks completely lost now.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1032264

Tim Harding · 14-10-2018 5:34pm

It's not getting any easier. Benildus and Ballinasloe were both whitewashed.

Dublin picked up 1.5, a win for Gerardo Artola and a draw for Stanley Yin.

Caissa Chania look like they may get the bye tomorrow but they still have a game going which they should win, in which case it could be Benildus.

European Club Cup 2018

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