5) European Club Cup Qualifier
Sinisa Joksic reports on the final European Club Cup Qualifier (Preliminary
Group 7) which took place in Belgrade, November 23rd-25th 1998.

Elitzur Petach (Tikva) from Israel qualified for the final. It was
surprising because the host team from Zemun had the advantage on paper with
Beliavsky and Gelfand on the first two boards. Only 4 teams turned up in
Belgrade: Agrouniverzal - Zemun (YUG), Bestex - Nove Zomki (SVK),
Kalijschik - Soligorsk (BLR) and Elitzur Petach -Tikva (ISL). The teams
that were missing were Rimon - Kishnev (MDA), Miskolci SSC - Miskolc (HUN),
Peristeri - Athens (GRE) and Konya - Yapi Spor (TUR). The teams could and
did make an agreement to change the pairings, and so they played one match
per day over the three days.

Day 1 (November, 23):
                  Elitzur Petach      -  Bestex              5:1
                  Smirin Ilia         -  Balogh Tomas        1:0
                  Alterman Boris      -  Dovzik Juri         1/2
                  Yudasin Leonid      -  Sergeev Veniamin    1/2
                  Oratovsky Michael   -  Horvath Mario       1:0
                  Tyomkin Dmitri      -  Balogh Peter        1:0
                  Finkel Alexander    -  Kolesar Milan       1:0

Day 2 (November, 24):
                  Agrouniverzal       -  Kalijschik              3.5-2.5
                  Beliavski Alexander -  Volkov Sergey             1/2
                  Gelfand Boris       -  Voitsekhovsky Stanislav   1/2
                  Damljanovic Branko  -  Kochetkov German          1:0
                  Ilincic Zlatko      -  Kovalev Andrei            1:0
                  Drasko Milan        -  Korzubov Peter            1/2
                  Vukic Milan         -  Poley Vladimir            0:1
Day 3 (November, 25):
                  Agrouniverzal        -  Elitzur Petach        3:3
                  Beliavski Alexander  -  Smirin Ilia           0:1
                  Gelfand Boris        -  Alterman Boris        1/2
                  Damljanovic Branko   -  Yudasin Leonid        1/2
                  Ilincic Zlatko       -  Oratovsky Michael     1/2
                  Drasko Milan         -  Tyomkin Dimitri       1/2
                  Mikhalchishin Adrian -  Finkel Alexander      1:0

In the final the favorites, Agrouniverzal had a 2576.66 average rating
compared to that of 2525.83 for the Israeli team. Decisive was the win
Smirin scored against Beliavsky on the top board. The match was lost with
too many draws on the middle boards. There is still some chance for
Agrouniversal to play in the final. If, as seems likely, the Dutch
organisers can't hold the final, the Yugoslav team has offered to be the
host. It looks like the ECCC is going through a big crisis. The best clubs
have for a while lost interest in playing. The organisers have announced
fines for teams who fill out applications, and then don't play to
apparently little effect. The organisers need to find a new way of
attracting the established teams or end the competition.