European Championship: six players default on DST

The 13th European Individual Championship is taking place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from March 20th to 31st, 2012. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The total prize fund is 100,000 Euros, with the top three taking 14,000, 11,000 and 9,000 Euros respectively.

Round five – Three players lead

The sole leader after round four, Gawain Jones (2635, ENG) drew his game against Nikita Vitiugov (2709, RUS), while Laurent Fressinet (2693, FRA) beat Artyom Timofeev (2650, RUS) on board three and Yuriy Kuzubov (2615, UKR) outplayed Viktor Bologan 2687 (MDA) on board five. This left three players on top of the scoreboard with 4.5/5.0 points. Kiril Georgiev (2671, BUL) drew against 15-year-old "wunderkind" Illya Nyzhnyk (2585, UKR). Tigran L Petrosian (2643, ARM), as Black and Namig Guliyev (2532, AZE) played a very dramatic game that ended in stalemate after 73 moves.

"It’s not easy an4.y more – everybody knows how to play chess." This was evidenced by the fifth draw of second seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2752, AZE) against 15-year-old youngster Avital Boruchovsky (2333, ISR). Fourth seed Anish Giri (NED, 2717) registered a second loss in the tournament. the 18-year-old lost with the white pieces against Frank Holzke (2508, GER).

• Here are the results of all games of round five

Round six – Six players default

Everyone loves a good underdog tale. The story of someone facing incredible odds and coming out on top is the kind we hold dear, and is always a source of hope that we too might be included in those ranks. The European Championship had two such examples, and both came from Georgia.

The first and foremost was IM Shota Azaladze, rated 2419,and ranked 222 in the starting list. After four games, the ranking list had him… second! Facing not a single opponent under 2614, he had scored 3.5/4 and had an astronomical 2970 performance. In round five he survived a crazy game against Ivan Sokolov, and entered round six with 4.0/5 and a giant 2878 performance.

The second Georgian underdog tale came from untitled Davit Lomsadze, rated 2338, whose weakest opponent, all of whom were grandmasters, only outrated him by a measly 240 Elo. He scored no less than 3.5/5 and was also performing over 400 Elo above his actual rating, with 2741. GM norms for both hardly seemed a stretch of the imagination, until round six.

Then came round six, which registered losses for both. But not because the laws of probability had finally caught up with them. The night before, Europe set their clocks one hour forward, but apparently this was not properly understood by the Georgian squad, who adjusted their clocks the other way around – the mnemonic is "Spring forward, Fall back", but they sprung back. They did not notice their mistake until it was too late, and six Georgian players forfeited their games in a Darwinian turn of events.

The leaderboard is very crowded at the top with no fewer than ten players at 5.0/6, and German GM Arkadij Naiditsch, who beat Ivan Sokolov in round six, is at the top due to his 2864 performance. One result of the curious day’s events is that his is only the second highest performance. IM Shota Azaladze, ranked 35th, is still the highest with 2878, since the forfeit does not count towards his rating performance.

Top seed Fabiano Caruana, beat Rauf Mamedov in 76 moves, and is at 4.5/6 with 23 others. Monday is a rest day.Fourth seed Anish Giri won his game against Romanian IM Alexandru Manea, 2381, but still hasn't make it back into the 2700+ live rating list.

• Click to view results of all games

Here's an interesting game from round six, annotated by GM Alejandro Ramirez.

And here's a key game from round six, annotated by GM Efstratios Grivas, who is in Plovdiv as the trainier of the Turkish players.

Top rankings after round six

• Full rankings and tiebreaks of all 348 players

In the lead (with nine others at 5.0/6): French GM Laurent Fressinet, 2693, perf. 2860

Back in the leading pack: British GM Jones Gawain, 2635, with a 2852 performance

Remaining schedule + Playchess commentary

After every round there will be special wrap-up commentary on Playchess. This starts at 20:00h Server time (= CET, = , 22:00h Moscow, 19:00h London, 3 p.m. New York, 12:00 noon California, 03:00h Beijing, 00:30h New Delhi – you can find the time in your location here). Commentary is in English.

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN (zipped) Some of the games are being broadcast live on the official web site and some on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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