Ural Sverdlovskaya wins European Club Cup

Pictorial Report from Kalithea

By Özgür Akman

The European Club Cup 2008 was held from the 16th to the 24th of October in Kallithea, a beautiful village (literally meaning “beautiful view”) in Halkidiki, close to Thessaloniki. The venue was the Athos Palace and Pallini Beach. Both hotels have already hosted numerous chess events, but never one this strong.

Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexei Shirov, Peter Svidler, Levon Aronian, Michael Adams were some of the top players in the event, 22 of them rated higher than 2700 and 78 higher than 2600. The women’s section was also very strong, with Koneru Humpy, Hou Yifan, Anotaneta Stefanova, Pia Cramling, Zhao Xue, Tatiana Kosintseva, Viktorija Cmilyte, Kateryna Lahno and Anna Muzychuk. Ten players are rated over 2500 and 30 over 2400.

In the press conference before the first round of the ECC GM Teimour Rajdabov joined ECU President Boris Kutin and the CEO of the ECC 20008 Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou to reflect on the possible consequences of the global economic crisis on chess.

Results and final standings

Open section

• All the games in zipped PGN (1344 games, 293 KB)
  

Women section

• All the games in zipped PGN (1344 games, 293 KB)

Picture gallery

Athos Palace, where the men's event is being held, from a view from the Pallini Beach. The men were not exactly happy about having women's competition in a different venue, even though they were part of the same tourism complex.

The swimming pool of Pallini Beach.

A problem at the outset: the Italian prodigy Fabiano Caruana was not allowed to play for his team, the defending champions, Linex Magic, owing to the fact that he has not played two games in the domestic leagues. The Spanish Chess Federation was late in clarifying Caruana's status, therefore it was not clear whether he could participate or not. In the captain's meeting Boris Kutin suggested if there was a solid vote in favour of Fabiano's participation he could play. But it was rejected by three votes. Still Fabiano is staying in Kallithea to support his team and have a short holiday.

The president of Linex Magic, Manuel Rodriguez, is not exactly happy with the decision

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, rated 2659, playing from Baden-Baden

Etienne Bacrot, top French player, rated 2705, playing for the Bundesliga Champions Baden-Baden

Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov, 2696, the second of Veselin Topalov, is now joining the elite himself. He contributed a great deal last year in Kemer to Linex Magic, which had a very happy ending for the Spanish side.

Michael Adams, top British Grandmaster, rated 2734, is also on the Linex Magic team

Ni Hua, one of the newcomer Chinese grandmasters rated 2710, playing for Economist Saratov

Krisnan Sasikiran, rated 2694, is the number two player of India (perhaps some of you can guess who the number one is). "Sasi" is playing for the Zagreb Chess Club and in the picture is pondering his move against Vassily Ivanchuk.

Braveheart! Silje Bjerke is one of the few female players to play in open ("men's") competition with her native team Schakklubben av 1911.

A Slovakian GM in a Hawaian shirt: Sergei Movsesian should be happy about entering the top ten live rating list for the first time, after defeating Magnus Carlsen playing for Bosna Sarajevo.

Magnus Carlsen, the world number four rated player (at 2786), playing for MIKA Yerevan together with Aronian

MIKA Yerevan's top board Magnus Carlsen, right, playing next to top Armenian GM Levon Aronian, who is moonlighting as a ChessBase commentator for the World Championship in Bonn. Next to Levon you can spot Israeli GM Boris Gelfand

"Shakh" Mamedyarov in action, one of the minority of the players remaining in the same team as last year, Alkaloid. Next to him GM colleague Vadim Milov.

Journalists surroung the Ural Ekaterinburg team, with Radjabov, Kamsky and Shirov.

Alexei Shirov and Gata Gamsky playing for Ural Sverdlovsk, the team that took the second place in the 2007 edition

Kamsky won the FIDE World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk last December, would normally be the next challenger to play the World Champion. But a special FIDE rule requires him to play a qualification match against Veselin Topalov before he does so. This match was originally supposed to take place in Lvov, Ukraine, but it is currently uncertain where and when it will be staged. In fact FIDE officials are in Kallithea to discuss the situation with Kamsky.

Women's section

WGM Nataliya Zhukova, playing for the Russian champions Finec St.Petersburg

Spartak Vidnoe won the silver medal in Russian Team Championship 2008. They are the second seed but missing the Chinese stars Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue, who were in Beijing for World Mind Sports Games. Stefanova, Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva and Evgenija Ovod are playing, while former Garry Kasparov second GM Yuri Dokhoian, now the coach of the Kosintseva sisters, kibitzes.

Antoaneta Stefanova, 2548, ex-world champion playing for
Spartak Vidnoe, looking as glamorous as ever.

GM Kateryna Lahno, the reigning European Individual Champion, now a university student in Russia

Top German women player IM Elizabeth Paehtz, playing for Economist Saratov, speaks fluent Russian and can easily communicate with her teammates.

IM Anna Ushenina playing for Economist Saratov

Anna Sharevich, who contributed to her team's crucial 2.5-1.5 victory against T-com Podgorica's by defeating IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya

Links

• The Official Website
• Multimedia with photos and interviews