The 2018 European Club Cup is now history, and was won by a St. Petersburg team on tiebreaks over one ostensibly from the Czech Republic. All seven players on the St. Petersburg squad were born in that city, including not just their captain, Peter Svidler, but even their board 6, Maxim Rodshtein, who now lives in and represents Israel. The "Czech" club, by contrast, featured two Czechs, two Poles, an Austrian, and three players from India. (They don't call it for the "European Club Cup" for nothing! Or maybe they do.)
Anyway, for most of us the main interest in the event is the elite-level chess being played, so let's follow our usual procedure and recap the action of the 2800s and the hitherto struggling Peter Svidler. In round 6 Magnus Carlsen, the world champion and still world's #1 despite his best efforts to give that title to Fabiano Caruana, had the white pieces against Ding Liren. Whether for positive reasons or just to avoid showing prep for next month's match with Caruana, Carlsen played the Scotch Four Knights. Every so often someone manages to find a new wrinkle that gives the line a spark of life, but overall it has a reputation for being insipid and harmless.
It lived up to (or maybe down to) its reputation. Carlsen got nothing and then blundered with 23.g4? His 25.Re1 made things even worse, and Ding had a winning advantage he almost surely would have converted against any other player. The size of Black's advantage ebbed and flowed, but it was generally decisive for a long time. Ding probably lost the win when he played 44...Bxd3 instead of 44...Rxc2 (45.Nxf4 Rc1+ and only then 46...gxf4, and Black's d-pawn will decide). That was a huge result not just because it left Carlsen at #1, but it also prevented Ding from leapfrogging Shakhriyar Mamedyarov into third place on the rating list. And while I kid about the team competition, it was huge for that match. Carlsen's team was badly outrated by Ding's except on board 1, but they drew five games and won on board 2 to win the match.
Speaking of Mamedyarov, he faced less stellar opposition, defeating IM Tamas Petenyi (2444) with the black pieces in just 34 moves. White's problems began as early as move 8, when 8.Qe2? f4 already gave Mamedyarov a clear advantage.
How about Svidler? He had lost four games in a row entering the round, but at last he had a stroke of good luck rather than his usual kind. He managed to get an extra pawn in a rook ending, but his opponent, GM Erik Blomqvist, could have held it with best play. He defended accurately for a while when it got down to rook and two pawns vs. rook and one pawn, but he eventually committed the one error Svidler needed to squeeze out the point. White needed to play 51.Rd3+ before scurrying to g3 with the rook. Interestingly, he can (and must!) even meet 51...Ke5 with another zwischenschach, 52.Re3+, as 52...Re4 53.Kf3 (or 53.Kd3) 53...Rxe3+ 56.Kxe3 is a trivially drawn ending. Svidler played the remainder perfectly and won the game.
Just in time, too, as his last round opponent was Carlsen. The game was a draw, with Svidler enjoying some pressure most of the way but never the sort of advantage that Ding enjoyed. Svidler's team won the match comfortably, and that was good enough for team victory, as noted already. (Or at least it turned out that way. If the match on board 2 hadn't finished in a 3-3 tie, I suspect whichever team won would have had the better tiebreaks and won the event.)
As for the other 2800s: Mamedyarov drew a pretty tame game with Radoslaw Wojtaszek, while Ding looked shaky against Zahar Efimenko until the latter played 25...Ng7? (25...gxh5! gives Black a large, nearly winning advantage) 26.Rh3 Be7??, transforming a better position into a lost one. Perhaps Efimenko missed that after 27.f3 the natural retreat 27...Ng5 gets rolled by 28.Bxg5 Bxg5 29.f4 Be7 30.hxg6 fxg6 31.Bxg6. So he tried sacrificing a piece with 27...Nxh5, but it wasn't enough after 28.fxe4 dxe4 29.Bxa4, and Black resigned on move 40.
The games mentioned above, with the analytical comments incorporated therein, can be replayed here.