Novi Sad: Azerbaijan wins Gold – by one rook move

by ChessBase
10/31/2009 – Daniel Stellwagen had fought bravely for 69 grueling moves. On move 70 the Dutch GM played the only rook move that lost him a drawn position. Azeri Vugar Gashimov seized the chance and won Gold for his team. Russia was second and Ukraine third. In the women's section it was Russia ahead of Georgia on tiebreak points. Here, too, with Ukraine took Bronze. Final report.

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This massive event, with 38 men's and 28 women's teams, four boards per round each – is taking place in the famous chess city of Novi Sad in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia).

Round nine (final)

Two teams went into the final round tied for first: Russia and Azerbaijan had 13 out of 16 possible match points each, two points ahead of the rest. Five teams – Ukraine, Armenia, Netherlands, Spain and Israel – could only hope to tie for first, which required that both the leading teams would lose their matches, hardly a likely scenario.

As it turned out Russia had yet another Alexander Morozevich win on board two: Francisco Vallejo was convincingly dispatched in just 32 moves of an aggressive Najdorf. However Evgeny Alekseev spoilt it all by going down badly to Ivan Salgado Lopez, 170 points below him on the FIDE rating scale. Russia and Spain had tied 2:2.

Bo. 1 Russia (RUS) Rtg
2:2
8 Spain (ESP) Rtg
1.1 GM Svidler Peter 2741
½-½
GM Shirov Alexei 2730
1.2 GM Morozevich Alexander 2750
1-0
GM Vallejo Pons Francisco 2696
1.3 GM Jakovenko Dmitry 2742
½-½
GM Illescas Cordoba Miguel 2591
1.4 GM Alekseev Evgeny 2725
0-1
GM Salgado Lopez Ivan 2555

In the other critical match Jan Smeets agreed to a draw against Teimour Radjabov after just twenty moves, Sipke Ernst got one with black in 26 moves against Rauf Mamedov, and Erwin L'Ami took a draw with the white pieces against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 115 rating points above him, in 35 moves. Only Vugar Gashimov was left, struggling to make something out of a extra pawn in a rook ending against Daniel Stellwagen. Everything looked like a 2-2 draw for Azerbaijan and sharing first place with the Russians.

Gashimov,V (2740) - Stellwagen,D (2630) [B12]
17th TCh-Eur Novi Sad SRB (9), 30.10.2009
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Ne7 8.Nd2 Nbc6 9.N2f3 Bg4 10.0-0 a6 11.Rc1 Bxf3 12.Nxf3 g6 13.c4 Bg7 14.cxd5 Qxd5 15.Qa4 Qa5 16.Qb3 0-0 17.Bc5 Rfe8 18.Bd6 Nxe5 19.Nxe5 Bxe5 20.Rc5 Qd2 21.Bxe5 Qxe2 22.Qxb7 Nd5 23.Bg3 Rad8 24.h3 Re7 25.Qb3 Red7 26.a3 h5 27.Rc2 Qb5 28.Qf3 Ne7 29.Bc7 Rc8 30.Rfc1 Qd5 31.Qe2 Qb7 32.Be5 Rxc2 33.Qxc2 Rd5 34.Qc3 Kh7 35.Bh8 Nf5 36.g4 e5 37.gxf5 Kxh8 38.fxg6 fxg6 39.Qc6 Qxc6 40.Rxc6 a5 41.Rxg6 Kh7 42.Rb6 Kg7 43.a4 Rd4 44.b3 Rd3 45.Kg2 e4 46.Rb5 Kg6 47.h4 Kh6 48.Re5 Rxb3 49.Rxe4 Ra3 50.f3 Kg6 51.Kg3 Kf6 52.Kf4 Ra1 53.Rc4 Ra3 54.Ke4 Ke6 55.f4 Ra1 56.Rc6+ Kf7 57.Rc4 Ke6 58.Rc6+ Kf7 59.Kf5 Rxa4 60.Rc7+ Kf8 61.Ra7 Ra1 62.Kg6 a4 63.f5 Rg1+ 64.Kf6 Kg8 65.Rxa4 Rg4 66.Ra8+ Kh7 67.Ra7+ Kg8 68.Ra8+ Kh7 69.Kf7 Rxh4 70.f6

Black has fought valiantly for sixty-nine moves and should be able to hold the draw quite easily. But in one move he throws this great effort out the window – and hands the gold medal to Azerbaijan: 70...Rf4?? Mate in 33, say Fritz after a quick look at the position. Black should have moved the rook to e4, to keep the white king on the f-file, or to c4 or b4 to give checks from the side, or to h1, h2 or h3 to give checks from a sufficient distance. 71.Ke6! h4 (after 71...Re4+ 72.Kf5 Black has no more checks) 72.f7 Kg6 73.f8Q Rxf8 74.Rxf8 Kg5 75.Ke5. It is hopeless: 1-0.

Bo. 15 Netherlands (NED) Rtg
1½:2½
2 Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg
2.1 GM Smeets Jan 2642
½-½
GM Radjabov Teimour 2757
2.2 GM Stellwagen Daniel 2630
0-1
GM Gashimov Vugar 2740
2.3 GM L'Ami Erwin 2606
½-½
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2721
2.4 GM Ernst Sipke 2589
½-½
GM Mamedov Rauf 2626

This result brought Azerbaijan Gold and the Russian team the Silver medal. The other results of relevance for the top places were the following:

Bo. 6 Israel (ISR) Rtg
1:3
5 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg
3.1 GM Sutovsky Emil 2676
0-1
GM Eljanov Pavel 2717
3.2 GM Roiz Michael 2658
½-½
GM Volokitin Andrei 2681
3.3 GM Postny Evgeny 2651
0-1
GM Efimenko Zahar 2654
3.4 GM Avrukh Boris 2668
½-½
GM Kryvoruchko Yuriy 2612
Bo. 25 Switzerland (SUI) Rtg
1½:2½
3 Armenia (ARM) Rtg
4.1 GM Pelletier Yannick 2589
½-½
GM Aronian Levon 2773
4.2 GM Jenni Florian 2500
1-0
GM Akopian Vladimir 2698
4.3 IM Ekstroem Roland 2488
0-1
GM Sargissian Gabriel 2678
4.4 GM Gallagher Joseph G 2464
0-1
GM Petrosian Tigran L 2602
Bo. 7 Germany (GER) Rtg
2½:1½
14 Romania (ROU) Rtg
5.1 GM Naiditsch Arkadij 2685
½-½
GM Istratescu Andrei 2624
5.2 GM Meier Georg 2664
½-½
GM Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2664
5.3 GM Fridman Daniel 2661
½-½
GM Lupulescu Constantin 2599
5.4 GM Gustafsson Jan 2622
1-0
GM Nevednichy Vladislav 2601

Final standings – Open section


Gold medal winners: the Azerbaijan team with their captain GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili (left)


Silver for the team from Russia, who were unlucky not to take first place

The win over Israel brought the Ukrainian team Bronze, while the German victory pushed that team from place eight to five. The Netherlands, in place five after the penultimate round, dropped to place nine.

Rk. SNo Team Team + = TB1 TB2 TB3
1 2 Azerbaijan AZE 7 1 1 15 22.0 180.5
2 1 Russia RUS 5 4 0 14 22.5 172.5
3 5 Ukraine UKR 5 3 1 13 23.0 161.5
4 3 Armenia ARM 6 1 2 13 21.5 179.0
5 7 Germany GER 5 2 2 12 21.5 164.0
6 8 Spain ESP 5 2 2 12 21.0 170.5
7 12 Poland POL 5 2 2 12 20.5 169.0
8 10 Hungary HUN 4 3 2 11 21.0 165.0
9 15 Netherlands NED 3 5 1 11 20.5 171.5
10 17 Serbia 1 SRB 1 4 3 2 11 20.0 169.0
11 6 Israel ISR 5 1 3 11 18.0 189.0
12 18 England ENG 4 2 3 10 19.5 157.5
13 11 Georgia GEO 4 2 3 10 19.0 180.5
14 14 Romania ROU 4 2 3 10 19.0 167.0
15 25 Switzerland SUI 4 2 3 10 18.5 178.0
16 16 Slovenia SLO 4 1 4 9 21.0 142.5
17 9 France FRA 3 3 3 9 19.5 172.5
18 4 Bulgaria BUL 4 1 4 9 19.0 150.5
19 31 Finland FIN 4 1 4 9 18.0 150.0
20 19 Greece GRE 4 1 4 9 17.5 183.0
21 21 Austria AUT 4 1 4 9 17.5 166.5
22 23 Denmark DEN 4 1 4 9 17.0 177.5
23 13 Czech Republic CZE 3 3 3 9 16.5 181.0
24 29 Norway NOR 2 5 2 9 16.5 175.0
25 22 Serbia 2 SRB 2 4 0 5 8 19.5 148.0
26 20 Croatia CRO 2 4 3 8 18.0 169.0
27 34 Belgium BEL 3 2 4 8 17.0 132.0
28 27 Yug Rep of Macedonia MKD 4 0 5 8 16.5 156.0
29 32 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 2 3 4 7 17.5 153.5
30 30 Turkey TUR 3 1 5 7 17.0 155.5
31 28 Lithuania LTU 1 5 3 7 16.5 161.5
32 24 Italy ITA 2 3 4 7 16.0 172.5
33 26 Montenegro MNE 2 2 5 6 18.0 137.5
34 33 Iceland ISL 3 0 6 6 15.5 125.5
35 35 Wales WLS 2 2 5 6 11.5 149.5
36 36 Luxembourg LUX 2 1 6 5 11.5 138.0
37 37 Scotland SCO 0 2 7 2 10.5 139.5
38 38 Monaco MNC 0 1 8 1 9.0 145.0

Women's Section

In the women's section we had a similar situation: Russia and Georgia led the field by three points and could not be caught by the others. So both sides were fighting for Gold. Russia's Alexandra Kosteniuk tried for 65 moves to beat Elina Danielian of Armenia, but in the end she had to settle for a draw. Two other games were likewise fighting draws, but on board three Nadezhda Kosintseva fought well to score a decisive victory over Lilit Galojan.

Bo. 1 Russia (RUS) Rtg
2½:1½
5 Armenia (ARM) Rtg
1.1 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516
½-½
IM Danielian Elina 2489
1.2 GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2536
½-½
IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469
1.3 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493
1-0
WGM Galojan Lilit 2326
1.4 WFM Gunina Valentina 2437
½-½
WGM Aginian Nelly 2307

In the other key match GM Nana Dzagnidze on board one for Georgia beat WGM Elena-Luminita Cosma of Romania. On board four Bela Khotenashvili took the full point for Georgia against Alina Motoc, but Carmen Voicu struck back for Romania with a win over Nino Khurtsidze. This match finished with the same score as Russia vs Armenia.

Bo. 13 Romania (ROU) Rtg
1½:2½
2 Georgia (GEO) Rtg
2.1 WGM Cosma Elena-Luminita 2331
0-1
GM Dzagnidze Nana 2535
2.2 IM Peptan Corina-Isabela 2387
½-½
IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451
2.3 WGM Voicu Carmen 2285
1-0
IM Khurtsidze Nino 2420
2.4 WGM Motoc Alina 2316
0-1
IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438

The other results of relevance for the top places were the following:

Bo. 16 Czech Republic (CZE) Rtg
2:2
3 Ukraine (UKR) Rtg
3.1 IM Jackova Jana 2393
½-½
GM Lahno Kateryna 2483
3.2 WGM Nemcova Katerina 2258
0-1
WGM Zhukova Natalia 2457
3.3 WGM Kulovana Eva 2287
1-0
IM Gaponenko Inna 2438
3.4 WIM Pertlova Sona 2226
½-½
WGM Zdebskaja Natalia 2410
Bo. 9 Serbia (SRB) Rtg
1:3
17 Israel (ISR) Rtg
4.1 IM Maric Alisa 2405
½-½
IM Borsuk Angela 2351
4.2 IM Bojkovic Natasa 2429
0-1
WGM Igla Bella 2258
4.3 WGM Chelushkina Irina 2333
0-1
WIM Vasiliev Olga 2266
4.4 WIM Rakic Marija 2323
½-½
Porat Maya 2192
Bo. 12 Slovenia (SLO) Rtg
1½:2½
20 Azerbaijan (AZE) Rtg
5.1 IM Muzychuk Anna 2533
1-0
WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2285
5.2 WGM Krivec Jana 2329
½-½
WIM Kazimova Narmin 2228
5.3 WGM Srebrnic Ana 2237
0-1
WGM Mamedjarova Turkan 2233
5.4 WIM Rozic Vesna 2240
0-1
WIM Isgandarova Khayala 2212
Bo. 14 Greece (GRE) Rtg
1:3
6 France (FRA) Rtg
6.1 IM Dembo Yelena 2482
0-1
GM Sebag Marie 2519
6.2 WGM Botsari Anna-Maria 2286
0-1
IM Milliet Sophie 2407
6.3 WGM Makropoulou Marina 2288
0-1
WIM Guichard Pauline 2304
6.4 WIM Fakhiridou Ekaterini 2253
1-0
WGM Leconte Maria 2325

Final standings – Women

The winners of Gold were, according to the tiebreak rules, were the Russian ladies. They had scored 26 board points to 24 for the Georgian team.


The Gold medallists from Russia – on the left, looking very solemn, is trainer Yuri Dokhoian, formerly the second of Garry Kasparov. On the right is Boris Kutin, the current President of the ECU. The players between them are Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva, Marina Romanko, Valentina Gunina and Alexandra Kosteniuk.


The Georgian team got Silver, by virtue of two board points less than the Russians

Rk. SNo Team Team + = TB1 TB2 TB3
1 1 Russia RUS 8 0 1 16 26.0 175.0
2 2 Georgia GEO 7 2 0 16 24.0 176.5
3 3 Ukraine UKR 4 4 1 12 20.0 188.0
4 20 Azerbaijan AZE 4 4 1 12 20.0 183.0
5 5 Armenia ARM 4 3 2 11 21.0 192.0
6 6 France FRA 4 3 2 11 21.0 165.0
7 16 Czech Republic CZE 4 3 2 11 19.5 184.5
8 4 Poland POL 4 2 3 10 22.5 166.0
9 12 Slovenia SLO 4 2 3 10 21.0 154.5
10 10 Hungary HUN 4 2 3 10 20.5 166.0
11 13 Romania ROU 4 2 3 10 19.0 176.0
12 7 Germany GER 4 2 3 10 18.5 177.0
13 17 Israel ISR 5 0 4 10 18.0 176.5
14 11 Netherlands NED 4 1 4 9 21.0 141.5
15 14 Greece GRE 2 5 2 9 19.0 172.0
16 15 Spain ESP 3 3 3 9 16.5 174.0
17 22 England ENG 3 2 4 8 19.0 131.0
18 19 Italy ITA 4 0 5 8 18.5 154.0
19 18 Croatia CRO 3 2 4 8 17.0 153.0
20 21 Austria AUT 3 2 4 8 16.0 145.0
21 8 Bulgaria BUL 4 0 5 8 14.5 174.5
22 23 Montenegro MNE 2 3 4 7 16.0 139.5
23 9 Serbia SRB 3 1 5 7 15.5 169.0
24 24 Bosnia & Herzegovina BIH 3 0 6 6 14.0 130.5
25 28 Turkey TUR 1 3 5 5 11.0 146.0
26 25 Yug Rep of Macedonia MKD 1 2 6 4 12.0 137.5
27 27 Norway NOR 0 4 5 4 12.0 136.5
28 26 Finland FIN 0 3 6 3 11.0 152.0

Performance

The best performance of the event was displayed by Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov, who scored a sterling 6.0/8 points and played as if he had a rating of 2823. In second place was Alexander Morozevich, just three performance points behind Eljanov. Norwegian teenager Jon Ludvig Hammer, who had led the performance field for so many rounds, finished in fourth place but with a sensational 2792 performance, 207 more than his nominal FIDE rating.


Top performer in Novi Sad: GM Pavel Eljanov, Ukraine

The best Open Section players

No. Ti. Name Rtg Team Rp
Pts.
Gms
  %
Bo.
1 GM Eljanov Pavel 2717 Ukraine 2823 6.0
8
75.0
1
2 GM Morozevich Alexander 2750 Russia 2820 4.5
6
75.0
1
3 GM Gashimov Vugar 2740 Azerbaijan 2813 6.5
9
72.2
2
4 GM Hammer Jon Ludvig 2585 Norway 2792 6.5
9
72.2
1
5 GM Mamedov Rauf 2626 Azerbaijan 2783 3.0
4
75.0
4
6 GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar 2721 Azerbaijan 2777 6.5
9
72.2
3
7 GM Svidler Peter 2741 Russia 2777 5.0
8
62.5
1
8 GM Petrosian Tigran L 2602 Armenia 2758 6.0
8
75.0
4
9 GM Bacrot Etienne 2709 France 2758 5.0
8
62.5
1
10 GM Navara David 2692 Czech Rep. 2752 5.5
9
61.1
1
11 GM Caruana Fabiano 2662 Italy 2751 5.5
8
68.8
1
12 GM Sargissian Gabriel 2678 Armenia 2747 5.5
8
68.8
2
13 GM Almasi Zoltan 2685 Hungary 2743 4.5
7
64.3
1
14 GM Shirov Alexei 2730 Spain 2738 5.5
9
61.1
1
15 GM Tomashevsky Evgeny 2688 Russia 2722 5.5
8
68.8
4
16 GM Jobava Baadur 2696 Georgia 2721 5.0
9
55.6
1
17 GM Fressinet Laurent 2658 France 2717 5.0
8
62.5
1
18 GM Topalov Veselin 2813 Bulgaria 2710 2.5
4
62.5
1
19 GM L'Ami Erwin 2606 Netherlands 2709 6.0
9
66.7
2
20 GM Nyback Tomi 2615 Finland 2708 6.5
9
72.2
1
21 GM Aronian Levon 2773 Armenia 2707 4.5
8
56.3
1
22 GM Fridman Daniel 2661 Germany 2703 5.5
8
68.8
2

The best Women's Section players

The final round victory of Nadezhda Kosintseva pushed her ahead of her team-mate Alexander Kosteniuk in the performance list. Nadezhda played all nine games on board two and scored 8.0 points. Her performance was that of a 2665 player. In second place was World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, who also performed above the 2600 mark.


Top performer Nadezhda Kosintseva (left) with sister Tatiana

No. Ti. Name Rtg Team Rp
Pts.
Gms
  %
Bo.
1 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda 2493 Russia 2665 8.0
9
88.9
2
2 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra 2516 Russia 2621 6.0
8
75.0
1
3 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2472 Georgia 2599 5.5
7
78.6
1
4 WGM Majdan Joanna 2361 Poland 2598 6.0
7
85.7
4
5 GM Lahno Kateryna 2483 Ukraine 2593 5.5
8
68.8
1
6 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2469 Armenia 2564 6.5
9
72.2
2
7 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2527 Bulgaria 2561 5.0
7
71.4
1
8 WGM Mamedjarova Zeinab 2285 Azerbaijan 2519 4.5
8
56.3
1
9 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2438 Georgia 2518 6.5
8
81.3
4
10 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2482 Germany 2516 5.5
9
61.1
1
11 IM Khukhashvili Sopiko 2451 Georgia 2516 5.0
7
71.4
2
12 IM Milliet Sophie 2407 France 2504 5.0
7
71.4
1
13 IM Jackova Jana 2393 Czech Rep. 2503 4.5
8
56.3
1

Video reports by Europe Echecs

Videos and pictures in this report by GM Robert Fontaine for Europe Echecs

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