On Sunday we witnessed an extremely interesting round at the European Team Championship – Open Section. Bulgaria was impressive against Russia and wins convincingly 3-1.
As Veselin Topalov explained later in the interview, Sergey Karjakin was caught in Ivan Cheparnov’s preparation and black quickly gained edge. With Alexander Delchev’s advantage and Kiril Georgiev’s comfortable position, Topalov felt that his team was winning and he was even ready to repeat the moves.
However, he continued to apply pressure on Peter Svidler’s defences. Meanwhile, Cheparinov and Delchev won and Georgiev surprisingly lost, but the things were still looking great for Bulgaria. Topalov eventually won in the Rook endgame, although he admitted that Svidler had certain drawing chances.
Vassily Ivanchuk skipped the match with Germany but this backfired horribly as the Ukrainian team was demolished by 0.5-3.5. Arkadij Naiditsch beats Ruslan Ponomariov on the top board and Alexander Moiseenko achieves the only draw for his team.
Tomorrow Germany will play Bulgaria and Russia is matched with Ukraine.
On the top table, the defending champion Azerbaijan was held to a tie by Spain. First two board were drawn, while later Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeats Ivan Salgado Lopez and Miguel Illescas simultaneously scores versus Gadir Guseinov.
France beats Moldova 2-5.-1.5 and joins the leading pack. The executioner was once again GM Christian Bauer.
Netherlands wins against Serbia thanks to Ivan Sokolov and Dimitrios Mastrovasilis brings key point in Greece’s victory over Georgia.
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Go Ukraine!