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European Club Cup 05: Siberia, Nona on top

Open Section

The 5th round of the European Club Cup 2015 witnessed the top-two teams – ‘SOCAR’ and ‘Siberia’ – taking on each other in an all important encounter. Courtesy of important victories by Kramnik and Grischuk over Topalov and Caruana respectively, 2nd-seeded ‘Siberia’ succeeded in edging out top-seeded ‘SOCAR’, with Michael Adams being the only player to score a win for the latter.

Meanwhile, 4th-seeded ‘O. R. Padova’ overcame 3rd seeded ‘Alkaloid’, thanks to Leko’s crucial win against Ivanchuk in a game that was largely dominated by the Ukrainian Grandmaster.

At the end of Round 5, ‘Siberia’ leads with a perfect score of 10/10.

Complete Round 5 Results: Here

Women’s Section

A fantastic run for top-seeded ‘Nona’ continued as they recorded their fifth straight victory in this tournament by overcoming ‘De Stukkenjagers’ in a convincing manner. However, it was a smooth win for 3rd-seeded ‘Gambit Asseko SEE’ that hogged the limelight as they overcome 2nd-seeded ‘SHSM Legacy Square’ with a 3-1 scoreline.

After 5 Rounds, ‘Nona’ are right on the top of the table, followed by ‘Gambit Asseko SEE’ on the second spot.

Complete Round 5 Results: Here

Hoogeveen Chess 06: Sengupta loses to Jan Werle, who leads with 5.0/6

Indian GM Deep Sengupta (2580) lost to Dutch GM Jan Werle (2524) allowing him to walk to the top of the Hoogeveen Chess table with 5.0/6. He is followed by nine players tied at 4.5/6.

Besides Sengupta, Indian GMs Abhijeet Gupta (2629), GM Debashis Das (2501) and GM Vishnu Prasanna (2503) are in the pack following the leader with 4.5/6. Among other Indians, GM G.N. Gopal (2536), GM Ankit Rajpara (2467), IM Arghyadip Das (2467) and GM Neelotpal Das (2465) are all part of a large contingent is at 4.0/6.

Check the Round seven pairings here.

European Club Cup 04: The top three prevail!

Open Section

The 4th round of the European Club Cup 2015 went favourably for the top three teams as they succeeded in overcoming their strong opponents without any damage. Although ‘SOCAR’ and ‘Siberia’ convincingly overcame ‘O. R. Padova’ and ‘Mednyi Vsadnik’ respectively, 3rd-seeded ‘Alkaloid’ were made to work hard by ‘Ave Novy Bor’. It was GM Yu Yangyi’s crucial win in a back-and-forth game against GM Zbynek Hracek that facilitated a 3.5-2.5 victory for ‘Alkaloid’.

As a result, the top 3 teams are jointly leading the table with a perfect score of 8/8.

The 5th round promises to be hugely exciting with the top two teams – ‘SOCAR’ and ‘Siberia’ – clashing against each other and ‘Alkaloid’ taking on ‘O. R. Padova’. With just 3 more rounds to go, these match-ups assume even more importance.

Complete Round 4 Results: Here

Women’s Section

In the Women’s section, top-seeded ‘Nona’ continued their dominance as they overcame 4th-seed ‘Ugra’ in a thumping fashion. With their fourth consecutive victory in as many rounds, ‘Nona’ now lead their nearest rivals ‘Gambit Asseko SEE’ with a two-point margin.

Complete Round 4 Results: Here

European Club Cup 03: Favourites Dominant!

Open Section

The 3rd round of the European Club Cup 2015 saw some top-notch teams clashing against each other. Top-seeded ‘SOCAR’ recorded a convincing 4.5-1.5 victory over ‘University Belorechensk’ while ‘Siberia’ overcame ‘SHSM Legacy Square’ with a 4-2 scoreline, despite GM Evgeniy Najer’s surprise win against GM Alexander Grischuk. In another important battle, ‘Alkaloid’ edged out ‘Odlar Yurdu’, thanks to GM Dmitry Andreikin’s crucial victory over GM Vugar Rasulov.

Meanwhile, 6th-seeded ‘Ave Novy Bor’, featuring Indian GMs Harikrishna and Sasikiran, white-washed ‘Rishon Lezion’.

At the end of Round 3, all the top six teams have notched up 6 points and are jointly leading the table.

Complete Round 3 Results: Here

Women’s Section

A 3-1 victory for ‘Nona’ over ‘Gambit Asseko SEE’ enabled the former to take up the sole lead after Round 3 with 6 points. ‘Nona’ is being closely followed by ‘Ugra’, whom they will face next.

Complete Round 3 Results: Here

Hoogeveen 05: Sengupta leads strong field with 4.0/5

Indian GM Deep Sengupta (2580) was perched on the top of the table with 4.5/5. He is followed by five players tied at 4.0/5.

Indian GMs Abhijeet Gupta (2629) and Vishnu Prasanna (2503) are in the pack following the leader with 4.0/5. Among other Indians, GM G.N. Gopal (2536), GM Debashis Das (2501), GM Ankit Rajpara (2467) and GM Neelotpal Das (2465) are all part of a large contingent at 3.5/5. IM Arghyadip Das (2467) is at 3.0/5.

Check the Round 6 pairings here.

European Club Cup 02: Nakamura and Giri shocked, 12 teams with perfect score

Open Section

The 2nd round of the European Club Cup 2015 saw the top teams record comprehensive wins, thus continuing their dominance. However, individual upsets were witnessed as World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura and World No. 5 Anish Giri succumbed to 2500 GMs Yannick Pelletier and Vlastimil Babula respectively. Despite these upsets, their respective teams had no trouble whatsoever in scoring comfortable victories.

At the end of Round 2, as many as 12 teams boast a perfect score of 4/4.

Women’s Section

In the Women’s Section, the top two teams – Nona and SHSM Legacy Square – were pitted against each other right in the second round of the tournament. Riding on wins by Dzagnidze and Batsiashvili, ‘Nona’ notched up a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory over their arch-rivals.

After 2 rounds, a total of 3 teams are jointly leading the table with 4/4.

European Club Cup 01: Top-seeds record easy victories

Open Section

The 31st European Club Cup 2015 commenced yesterday at Skopje, FYROM. The tournament is a 7-round Swiss event featuring 50 club teams from all over the Europe. As many as 5 teams boast an average rating of above 2700. Also, two Indians players – Harikrishna and Sasikiran – form a part of this event, with both of them representing the 6th-seeded Czech team ‘Ave Novi Bor’.

The first round went as per expectations with most of the top-seeded teams recording easy victories. However, in individual battles, a few top-level players like Grischuk, Li Chao, Ivanchuk, Vachier-Lagrave, Leko, Dominguez and Navara could only manage draws against their much less-fancied opponents whilst GM David Howell suffered a shock defeat at the hands of IM Diermair Andreas. This victory by Diermair also allowed his 43rd seeded team to notch up a surprise 3-3 draw against 18th seeded ‘Cheddleton’.

Complete Round 1 Results: Here

Women’s Section

The Women’s Section features a total of 12 teams, with the Georgian team ‘Nona’ starting as the top-ranked side. Just as in the open section, the first round matches were won easily by the top-seeded teams.

Complete Round 1 Results: Here

Monaco Women’s Grand Prix: Hou Yifan achieves a clean victory

Hou Yifan achieved a clean victory in the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix held at Monaco. She scored 9.0/11, a full two points ahead of the rest of the field.

The current World Champion Mariya Muzychuk finished second with 7.0/11, losing hear head-to-head encounter with Hou Yifan. Indian No. 1, Koneru Humpy, also scored 7.0/11, to finish on the third spot — she managed to beat Hou Yifan in their encounter.

Hou Yifan picked up 160 GP points from the tourney, Mariya Muzychuk made 130 and Koneru Humpy 110 GP points.

Isle of Man: Harikrishna wins the tournament

Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna (2737) scored 7.0/9 to win the Isle of Man PokerStars tournament on tiebreak. French GM Laurent Fressinet (2702) and Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian (2679) also scored 7.0/9, but finished second and third on tiebreak respectively.

India was represented by six GMs and 2 IMs in the star-studded field. IM Swayams Mishra was the second best Indian after Harikrishna, finishing 16th with 6.0/9.

Check the final standings here.

Isle of Man Chess 04: Seven lead after draw at the top board

The top board game between French GM Laurent Fressinet (2702) and Armenian GM Sergei Movsesian (2658) ended in a draw, allowing five others grandmasters to catch up with the erstwhile leaders in the Isle of Man Chess tourney.

Indian GM Dronavalli Harika (2516) suffered a defeat at the hands of the evergreen Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov (2612) to remain stranded 2.5/4. Other Indians had positive results to stay in the race.

Check the Round 5 pairings here.