European Individual Championship
Maybe it's not as entertaining as the Amber tournament, but the European Individual Chess Championship is also very strong and it has at least two bonuses. First, they're using a classical time control, so the games are likely to be cleaner and have a bit more heft to them. Second, while some great players are participating, there's a broad range of ratings, as one would expect from a Swiss system event. And the lower-rated players didn't show up to be cannon fodder, either!
There are nine players with 2700+ ratings: Svidler, Nepomniachtchi, Navara, Vitiugov, Jakovenko, Caruana, Wojtaszek, Jobava and Vallejo Pons. Their opponents ranged in rating from 2422 to 2432, so you'd expect this round to be a mere formality. If so, you'd be wrong! The 2700s only managed to go +1 in the nine games! Nepomniachtchi and Caruana won, Jakovenko lost, and the other games were drawn. (Another oddity is that White failed to win on any of the top 14 boards.)
The tournament will run 11 rounds and continue through April 3, so we'll have plenty of time to return to it once Amber finishes.
Reader Comments (4)
Hey another mentionable is Judit Polgar is playing!
Actually even the +1 score of the 2700s was quite flattering as Navara was dead lost with white against Vincent Colin. I still cannot believe he drew that game.
Svidler with White played pretty poorly against Ziska, an IM from the Faroe Islands! (h3 looked a bit odd) It was a draw by repetition in a better position for Ziska.
With 393 players there are sure to be more upsets
I think I can explain Svidler's poor form. The cricket world cup is ongoing and if I'm not mistaken that is Pyotr's favorite sport. He must be suffering from a lack of sleep watching the games live from Asia.