Thanks to Calle Erlandsson of Sweden we are glad to present you couple of photos of top players who came to Gothenburg to take part in the 15th European Chess Team Championship. Enjoy!

GM Boris Gelfand (Israel)	GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
GM Viktor Kortschnoj (Switzerland)	GM Luke McShane (England)
GM Jan Timman (Holland)	GM Loek van Wely (Holland)

Dutch men and Polish women are the newly crowned Champions! While the Netherlands fought hard to seal their win over Poland to deny Israel and take men's gold, the Polish ladies took easy draw vs abdcating European Champions Armenia to safely take the title. Poland took first ever ETC medal and the Dutchmen won the title for the second time following their lifetime success achieved in 2001 in Leon.

As usual the last round brought us all kinds of drama. Israel, who had to win to secure themselves of silver and count on Holland's slip-up vs Poland, easily ran over the Czech Republic and must have been seriously disappointed watching former Bosnian GM Sokolov beating GM Socko in a sharp King's Indian. Wojtaszek was pushing hard but finally Tiviakov found a way to extricate and save the day for the Dutchmen. Greece made another impressive step towards heaven and beat Georgia but failed to win the medal as the Frenchmen wiped out Serbia 3.5-0.5 to level on both match and game points with the Greeks and take the bronze medal by virtue of Buchholz points. Ukraine beat Croatia 3-1 and moved up to 5th - some consolation at last. The Russians halved vs Sweden which may not be very surprising result as for last round's match with no stake - but again they lost as much as two games on one day! The nightmare championship had a nightmare epilouge and no remorse for the two times winners.

The women's section was did not bring a fraction of emotions delivered by men. All of games at top four tables were drawn, although some of them fought really hard. Poland retained gold while Georgia easily took silver. Russia halved vs Bulgaria and stopped the Bulgarians to defend bronze medal positions. Third seeded Ukraine won 3.5-0.5 and moved into 7th while the French girls only took 16th place after last round's 3-1 over Switzerland.

Men's standings:
1. The Netherlands - had only lost one game (!!) but only won 9, on the contrary. A very firm team with no weak points. Best result: Timman +3=4.
2. Israel - by many considered to be the strongest team of the event. They would probably made it unless unexpected loss vs Georgia on day 8. Poor Israeli took four silver medals and no single gold. Best result: Avrukh +4=3 (two individual silver medals).
3. France - although they had to do their best in the last round to get the bronze they fully deserved it. They were holding the lead for many days and only lost to Israel and Poland, whom they finally overtook. Bacrot and Lautier were perhaps a little disappointing and Fressinet showed truly superb form.
4. Greece - very lucky to be that high although they missed medal by an inch. A good show by Banikas.
5. Ukraine - this didn't work as it did in Calvia. Three match loses are way to much for a nine round match point competition. However the team has much potential for game points events - they won six matches by a margin no worse than 3-1.
6. Poland did quite badly in the beginning and then faced the toughest opposition in the end. They narrowly missed the medal again, as in 1999 and 2003. Markowski won gold medal at respective board.

Other notable performances: Armenia (seeded 4th) in 12th, Russia in 14th (!!), Hungary in 17th, Spain, after dreadful beginning had a good finishing run and moved up to 22nd, and Bulgaria, the biggest losers of Gothenburg Championship, seeded in 13th with three strong GMs in the squad in 35th (yes!).

Women's standings:
1. Poland - won in style although some may argue they were extremely lucky to save draw vs Russia - who knows what would happen if they had lost? Anyway, team's overall record is excellent, and Monika Socko won two gold medals and one silver (and narrowly missed third gold!!).
2. Georgia - another excellent performance by the Georgians once again led by Chiburdanidze. The second and last team but Poland to avoid match loss. Perhaps Khurtsidze's poor form did not let them deny the Poles.
3. Russia were seeded first, so bronze medal is just sort of consolation prize for them. Apart from many glorious days they had three dark rounds: losing 3-1 to Romania, 2-2 vs Poland when the victory slipped from their hands, and 1.5-2.5 against Georgia in round 8 that cost them second position.

Also: Ukraine, seeded third and came only 7th, Serbia who climbed up to 9th after good finish, and France, a team with four WGMs of which two hold the men's IM title as well, lying in 16th.

Sweden, the host nation, did not produce any remarkable result neither in men's nor in women's event. 15th position of men's "A" team is their best achievement.

We owe 'thank you' to the organizers who took care of execellent live broadcast, Heinz Herzog who as usual provided with fast and reliable results and statistics, and PlayChess, who not only broadcasted games live, but also offered excellent daily audio comments by IM Aagaard and other titled players, all of which available for free for anyone, of course.

Please find complete records, standings and all the games of the Championship prepared in a well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Sokolov (NED, 2691) - Socko (POL, 2615)
This is how the Netherlands did the job: 19. Nxb7 Qxb7 20. Qf3! preventing from Nc3 20. ... Rab8 21. Be4 another good possibility was Bb5 21. ... Rxe4 22. Qxe4 exchange sacryfice was best choice for Black 22. ... Nc3 23. Qxb7 Rxb7 24. Rfe1 h6 25. Bd2 Rxb4 26. Re8+ Kh7 27. Re7 Kg8?! perhaps Rxa4 was no worse choice 28. Rxa7 Rxa4 29. Rxa4 Nxa4 30. Rc8+ +- Sokolov's perfect technique let him win the ending with ease. He first took d4 pawn, then traded Bishops, then zugzwanged black Knight. Vive les Champions!


Jobava (GEO, 2621) - Papaioannou (GRE, 2578)
Georgia needed a win in order to take the medal. The tension was huge, but the diagram position is clearly won for White, who has an extra Knight and no positional problems. But... 41. Nc7? Rd2 or Rc2 was necessary in order to cover the second line from black Rooks' attack 41. ... Nf4 42. Rc4 Raxc5 43. Re7+ Kh6 44. Rxf4 the piece is saved, but suddenly black Rooks explode 44. ... Rc2 45. Nd5 Re2= 46. Kf1 Red2 47. Re7 Rd1+ 48. Re1 Rxd5 now Black is a pawn up! However the game went on to a draw. Georgia failed to win the medal, and Greece narrowly missed it.


Lautier (FRA, 2672) - Markus (YUG, 2591)
A year ago in Calvia Georgia faced Armenia in the last round. The Armenians needed a grand win and they surprisingly beat strong Georgian side 3.5-0.5. Because of extremely weak play of some members of Georgian team some rumours appeared that there was a deal about the match result. Nothing has been proved though. Here comes another strange story, and again no proofs are available (and will never be, I'm afraid). See the diagram position. Black is absolutely OK here. Simple refutation of the X-ray threat is 21. ... Bxd4 22. exd5 Kxc5 23. dxe6 Rae8! and wins the 'e' pawn which is pinned because of King at e1. This is NOT a problem to play something like this for a 2600 player. Instead Markus played what every 1400 must be ashamed of 21. ... Nc7?? 22. e5 Be7? 23. Rb2+ resigns.... But this is not over, see below.


Ivanisevic (YUG, 2577) - Fressinet (FRA, 2627)
The position even, if no better for White. He simply has to take care of pawn e5 or, in another line, try to kill a7 and make best use of pair of passed pawns. Instead White finds simple way to get into trouble 23. Nxa7? Qc7 24. Nb5 Qxe5 25. Qxe5 forced 25. ... Nxe5 26. Nd4 Rxb2 =+ was that so hard to see for a grandmaster? Moreover, both Serbian player went into trouble on more or less same moment. No comments on that, judge yourself.


Graf (GER, 2605) - Pavasovic (SLO, 2566)
Now back to real chess. Alexander Graf of Germany played well throughout the entire Championship. Now he seals his excellent show with a win that gave him two individual gold medals! Watch the ending: 45. Ne3+ Ke4 46. Ke2 g6 47. Nc4 Na8? Kd5 was better 48.Nd6+ Kd5 49. Nf7 h5 50. Nh8 g5 51. hxg5 ke6 52. Kd3 Nb6 53. Ke4 resigns. Simply stunning!


Berg (SWE, 2539) - Bareev (RUS, 2688)
Finally the biggest sensation of round 9. World's top GM loses to a mediocre Swedish player. The diagram position is even. Black's best choice is 27. ... Bxg5+ 28. Kb1 Bxc6 29. Qxe6+ Kf8 30. Qxc6 Re8=. Instead Bareev played 27. ... Bxc6? 28. Qxe6 Bb7? here Kf8 leads to a previous line in case of Qxc6 but White has stronger move at his disposal: 29. f4! Now White wins quickly 29. g6 Rg7 30. Rh1 Nf6 31. Rh8+ Rg8 32. g7 resignes. The Russians barely drew the match since Timofeev lost to Hillarp Person as well!

Today was a murrain day for the favourites. It seemed like only Israel and the Netherlands are still in the battle for gold, but suddenly nothing can be said for sure yet. Israel, the leaders, ended the round with harsh humours as they sensationally lost to rampart Georgia. More than 100 ELO point advantage at each board did not help the Israelis who drew three games and lost one. Israel's slip-up did not help the Dutchmen much since they only halved vs speeding Georgia. Poland created another sensation of the day as their no. 1 GM Robert Kempinski beat Etienne Bacrot with black pieces to lead his team to a prescious 2,5-1,5 win over France. Now Poland face Holland on the last day to defend their bronze medal position or, in case of a win, take a paralell duel with Israel in the race for gold. Ukraine and Russia won 3-1 both, but this is not enough to go back to the nose of the group of course.

In the women's section Poland are holding firm. Today they ran over Ukraine despite Socko's loss vs Lahno. Joanna Zawadzka took decisive point after 5 hours of play in the minor piece ending vs Inna Gaponenko. Alexandra Kosteniuk lost to former World Champion Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia and Russia lost 1,5-2,5. The hopes of Russian ladies dashed today definitely. With last round to go Poland are a single step from heaven holding one match point advantage over Georgia who are safe in second too.

Standings
Men: Holland - 13; Israel, Poland and Georgia - 12; Greece, Czech Republic, Serbia & Montenegro and France - 11
Women: Poland - 14; Georgia - 13; Russia and Bulgaria - 11

Now you can watch games of both men's and women's section round 1-8 online via well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Van Wely (NED, 2655) - Kotronias (GRE, 2587)
Black has an extra piece but his position seems squeezed and pair of white free pawns seems to be mortal threat. 31. ... Ng4! perhaps one should say that it is black Queen that is under the pin but it is quite opposite in fact. If fxg4 then Qxg2# 32. Kg1 Qxf3 followed by Rxh2# was threatening 32. ... Nc6! preparing d4 for black Bishop 33. Qc4 Bd4+ 34. Rxd4 Nxd4 35. c6 if Qxd4 then Rxg2+ and Qa2+ will follow 35. ...Rc2 36. Qxd4? loses at once 36. ... Rxg2+! 37. Kxg2 Qa2+ 38. Kg1 Qh2+ 39. Kf1 Qh1+ 40. Ke2 Rxe6+ -+. Holland's only loss in the entire Championship!


Tiviakov (NED, 2678) - Banikas (GRE, 2548)
Pawn d6 makes Black's position a bit cramped. This is why Banikas decided to get rid of white Knight moving f7-f5? 23. Qf4! h6 24. Rae1 what a nasty Knight it is, still stays under attack and doesn't seem to take care 24. ... g5 25. Qf3 Rf8 26. h3 Ne5 27. Qh5 Nxd3? Rh7 was a must, though the position was hardly tolerable for Black 28. Qg6+ resigns. He first takes Be6 and then Bd3. Ne4 is untouchable because of a pin on Rf8.


Berkes (HUN, 2619) - Navara (CZE, 2663)
Berkes' extravagant treatment of the opening soon made White's position critical. Watch how strongly Black squeezed the White. 9. ... Qf6! 10. h3 Be2 fails because of e4! 10. ... Bh5 11. g4 e4! still 12. d4? 12. Nd2 was the only choice followed by 12. ... Nxc3 13. gxh5! Nxd1 14. Bxg6 Nxe3 15. Bxg7 Nxf1 16. Rxf1 Rg8 and White is still alive 12. ... exf3 13. gxh5 0-0-0 14. h4 Rhe8 15. Bh3+ the Bishop goes to nowhere 15. ... Kb8 16. 0-0 Bxc3 17. Bxc3 Re4! -+ Black won in 21 moves since the Bishop is lost and mate in inevitable.


Stocek (CZE, 2592) - Balogh (HUN, 2537)
The position is extremely sharp. Black is a pawn up but the Knight is hopelessly pinned. On the other hand Black has serious mate threats on the Kingside 33. ... Bf2+! 34. Kf3 Rg8?? a blunder. There was a great winning move here 34. ... Bb6! and if Rxa4 then Rf2+ follows the trade of Rooks, and the Rf2+ and Rg8+ sequence is another threat for White. Now Black wins unless... 35. Bd6! the only move to refute Black's threats and protect crucial g3 square 35. ... Bg3 36. Bxg3 Rh3 37. Rg1 resigns. Czech won 3-1, a result that let them play Israel on the next day...


Solak (YUG, 2557) - Lupulescu (ROM, 2542)
Is there any way for White to break Black's defensive shield? 26. f5! Bf8 taking the pawn was not a bad choice for Black, e.g. 26. ... gxf6 27. Ng5 Bxg5 28. Bxg5 Qf8 and there is no clear way to win for White 27. Qh3 exf5?! paradoxically gxf5 was better 28. Ng5 Bg7 29. e6! fxe6 30. Qh7+ Kf8 31. Nxe6+ Rxe6 32. Rxe6 Qd7? 33. Rf6+ resigns. Qg8+ will follow Ke8. Well done but Black could have defended way better than this.

Israel slowed the pace down a bit as they only halved vs newly emerged tournament rampage Poland on day 7. Holland beat Azerbaijan to level on points with the leaders. France cut the edge defeating Armenia. Russia and Ukraine - unanimously world's two most powerful chess nations - had another nighmare day today as they lost to Hungary and Georgia respectively. That some top players are missing is no excuse since their seeding numbers (1st and 3rd) still put them as iron favourites. With two days to go these teams are lying in 13th and 19th respectively. I doubt whether the Russians ever experienced something like that at international team event.

In the women's section Poland are on the straight road to heaven as they stunningly beat Bulgaria by 3,5-0,5 and World Champion Stefanova was to save the honour for the Bulgarians halving vs Radziewicz. IM Socko's record 6,5/7 is by far superior to any other female player. Russia denied Ukraine to move into tied second with reasonable advantage over the chasing groups. Georgia, who beat Romania today after fierce match are third and are looking for medal too. French girls are totally drawned - another loss today and they are lying in pathetic 22nd/26th!

Standings
Men: Israel and Holland - 12; France - 11; Poland, Greece and Georgia - 10
Women: Poland - 12; Russia and Georgia - 11; Bulgaria, Ukraine and Greece - 9

Now you can watch games of both men's and women's section round 1-7 online via well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Van den Doel (NED, 2587) - Guseinov (AZE, 2585)
The position seems better for Black. Now White finds very creative and unusual idea: 20. a4! Nc4 21. Qc2! Nxe3 a piece is lost, but... 22. Qxc8+ Bxc1 23. Rc1 Black has big material advantage, but can he stop the duo of white pawns at the Queenside?. 23. ... Be6 24. b6 Bh6 25. b7 Kg7 26. b8=Q +- and Black resigned after 35 moves.


Fressinet (FRA, 2627) - Vaganian (ARM, 2614)
The Armenian legend chose unusual opening line in French Defence (5. ... Be7?! see game here) and soon went into trouble. 15. ... Qg4?! 16. Qa4+! Ke7? perhaps c6 or Kf8 was safer, now Black goes under direct attack 17. 0-0 Qg6 18. d5 h4 19. d6+ cxd6 20. exd6 Kxd6? Kf8 did not save the game but did not lose at once 21. Bxa6! resigns. Frassinet appears in the highlight section almost every day, but not every day one beats Vaganian in 20 moves!


Bareev (RUS, 2688) - Ruck (HUN, 2546)
White had advantage all the time but he had to win in order to save the match for the Russians. On his first move after time control (yes, time controls reappeared after couple of years) he nervously played 41. Rxg7? Rd7 and then d5+ secured the win for White and the exchange sacryfice cannot work for White. Perhaps Bareev was afraid of 41. Rd7 e2 42. d5+ Kf5 but he still wins here after 43. Rf7+! 41. ... Rxg7 42. c7 Kd7 43. Kf3 Rxg3+ resigns. This is how the Russians lost yet another match...


Gormally (ENG, 2557) - Hracek (CZE, 2591)
White sacrificed the Bishop at g6 but his attacking chances look unclear. The accack continues under time pressure: 23. ... Rb8? Rf7 was a must. Rb7 would certainly follow Rb8, but the tempo plays major role here. Now White is quickier. 24. Qh6! Rf7? too late! Had he played Rf7 on move 23, he would now find time to protect g6 25. Qxg6+ Rg7 26. Rxh7! a pin. White stole the piece back 26. ... Rxg6 27. Rxe7 Bxg4 += and White won after 40th move.


Ivanisevic (YUG, 2577) - Jacimovic (MKD, 2438)
Nothing special is at stake but who says the tension is smaller? Black is two pawns up but White is pressuring 31. ... Rg8?? automatically covers open line but protecting f7 was a must 32. f7 Rf8 33. Qg3 e3 34. Rg2 Qg6 resigns. Rg4 with Rg8+ wins.

As usual the Russian players are dominant all over the field. Please note, of course, that we have mentioned those, who nowadays play under Israeli flag, since the Russian team is doing worse than bad and are lying in unbelievable 12th. Yesterday was a history day for the Netherlands who beat the Russians 3-1 to move into sole runner-up position. Soviet ex-patriate Tiviakov had no remorse to defeat Dreev and a living babyface legend Jan Timman ran over Motylev. Israel stopped almighty French squad and both Fressinet and Lautier, who were both doing so well until yesterday, lost. Israel peak at a record 2762 ELO performance level after round 6. See this interesting list to see who is doing well and who just made use of a bit of luck. By the way luck, Poland moved into 3rd position but they will now struggle since they did not play any of top 8 so today will be the test for them as they were honoured to face Israel at top board. Ukraine lost badly to Azerbaijan and perhaps their hopes on tirple crown (Olympiad, World Team Championship and European Team Championship) are over. Maybe they might still hunt for silver or bronze. Armenia-Romania, another match of the day, was a brisk 2-all draw. Lucky Luke (McShane) beat IM Hall of Sweden "C" to lead England to a 3-1 win and opens himself the statistics with a record performance of 5/6. Spain took a deep breath - a 4-0 vs Scotland as small consolation for past disasters - of course it is all over for them.

In the women's section Poland had all the luck to see N. Kosintseva making an awful blunder to level match result to a 2-2 (this may cost the Russians a lot!) and retained the lead. Inna Gaponenko sealed Ukraine's win over Romania and Georgia, 2nd seeds, ran over Hungary. France lost to Holland and the French girls led by Almira Skripchenko found themselved in 19th position, very close to the bottom of the table - is this what the 2001 Champions were dreaming about?

Standings
Men: Israel - 11; Holland - 10; Poland, Azerbaijan and France - 9
Women: Poland - 10; Russia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine - 9; Romania and Greece - 8

Now you can watch games of both men's and women's section round 1-6 online via well known OlimpBase format!
15th men's ETCh info page.
15th women's ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

Watch live games of round 7:
Poland-Israel and Azerbaijan-Holland (men)
France-Armenia and Georgia-Ukraine (men)
Romania-Greece (men) and Georgia-Romana(women)
Poland-Bulgaria and Russia-Ukraine (women)

Link for today:
Hans-Olav Lahlum's reports - the Norwegian arbiter writes daily, extensive reports on women event.


HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Lautier (FRA, 2672) - Sutovsky (ISR, 2674)
The position is clearly better for Black because of control over open file, excellent outpost for black Knight, protected King. Watch out how he converts it into a win in just a couple of moves: 36. ... Nd2! 37. Qe3 f5! the idea of this move is to gain control over e4 (Nxe4 is a direct threat). If exf5 then Qd5+ and Ne4 will follow 38. Bb6 Nxe4 (still) 39. Bxd8 Nxf2 40. Kxf2?? seems tempting since White may want to take control over "d" file but loses at once. 40. ... Ra2+ 41. Ke1 Qd5 resigns. Qh1 cannot be successfully refuted.


Fressinet (FRA,2627) - Erenburg (ISR, 2595)
Can Black do the job? Yes he could. See how: 84. ... Qa4+ 85. Kd5 maybe Kd3 was safer? 85. ... f4 86. Qc3? only 86. Qb2 was promising for White 86. ... Qc6+ 87. Ke5 Qxc5+ 88. Kxf4 and the game is still open 86. ... f3! 87. Qe3 if Qxf3 then Qc6+ wins the Queen 87. ... Qd1+ 88. Ke4 Qe2 89. c6+ Qxe2 90. Kxe2 bxc6 -+ since white King has to take the f3 pawn first it will not find enough time to stop the c6.


Tiviakov (NED, 2678) - Dreev (RUS, 2698)
Black's only activity was a Bishop commuting between f6 and g7. How can White break Black's order? 37. ... Bg7 again 38. g4! Bf6 39. g5! hxg5 40. h6 g4+ 41. Kg2 Kf8 42. h7 Bg7 White pawn is just a step from heaven, but this is the biggest threshold 43. Bxe5 Rxe5 44. Qd7 Re7? overlooking neat trap 45. Qd8+ Rd8 46. Qd6+ Rd7 what is white Queen aiming at? 47. Qh6!! Re2+ 48. Kf1 Bxh6 49. h8=Q+ resigns. No regret and no remorse.


Almasi (HUN, 2619) - Lutz (GER, 2616)
Interesting position, isn't it? Still, Black looks to keep small advantage. He plans to castle and then take Nc4 21. Bc7!! a thunderstruck! Control over d5 is worth a piece. 21. ... Bxc4 22. bxc4 Qxc7 23. Qxd5 Qf4+ 24. Kb2 Qxf3? loses prescious time 25. Qxa8+ Ke7 26. Qb7 of course not Qxh8?? because of Qc3+ with soon mate 26. ... Kf6 27. Qc6 Kg5? why not Kf7? 28. h4+ Kf4 29. Qc7+ Bd6 30. Rxe4+! Kxe4? Qxe4 was much better 31. Bd3+ Ke3 32. Qb6+ +-


Gustafsson (GER, 2614) - Berkes (HUN, 2619)
This position seems to be a dead draw, right? Would you believe the game will be over in just a few moves given both players are 2600+ GMs? No? Just check: 28. ... Qxa3 29. Qxa3 Na6 30. Rb1 Rc8?? 31. Bb7 resigns. Yes, this happens, even to the grandmasters.


Haznedaroglu (TUR, 2430) - Jones (WLS, 2325)
Now a little bit of romantic chess. Here everything is possible. The diagram position is much better for Black of course. He is a pawn up, has better piece co-ordination and just needs a move or two to complete his development. 13. Ncxb5?! doens't quite work but better this that waiting for execution 13. ... Qc8? why not to take the piece first? 14. fxe5 Ne4 15. Nd6+ Bxd6 16. exd6 Qd7 17. Qh4 Qxd6+ 18. Nf5 Qf8? Qxd1 and exf5 was an option 19. Bxa6!! resigns. If Rxa6 then Re8#; if Bxa6 then Qex4 wins; if Bxc6 then still Qxe4! wins. A superb manoeuvre!


Radziewicz (POL, 2447) - N.Kosintseva (RUS, 2490)
Russia were in the lead 2-1 and it seemed like they are going to dethrone the Poles. The game is virtually over (draw). Black has perpetual check in the pocket in case of trouble and White's position is impossible to break. Yet with 30 seconds per move not every detail of the position may always be analyzed... 68. ... Kd8?? Kb7 refuted the threat leading to a move repetition soon 69. Rg6 resigns. Rg8 will follow. Better luck next time!

Day five saw the leaders fighting hard to held Holland to a draw. This made it possible for Israel to level on points with the Frenchmen as the Israeli demolished young Azerbaijani team with a cold-blooded 3.5-0.5 Avrukh beat Guseinov nicely (see below) and Gelfand refuted Radjabov's piece sac. Ukraine won yet another important match defeating Germany 3-1 (see both decisive games in the highlights). Poland-Czech Republic was a no-history 2-2. Armenia hit back from yesterday's loss and ran over Serbia 3.5-0.5 to move into joint 5th. Russia had easy run vs Iceland. The Spanish nightmare lasts: 1.5-2.5 vs Finland. Sweden, the hosts, who did so well in the very beginning lost third consecutive match (vs Georgia today, who apart from Azmai and Jobava sent a pack of juniors) - which is almost impossible to recover from in a system where match points decide. Today's hit is the top clash of the day: Israel - France.

In the women's section Poland moved into the nose beating surprising Romania 3-1. Russia demolished France 3.5-0.5 to move into second position. Chiburdanidze-Stefanowa was a draw, same as Georgia-Bulgaria match. Despite GM Peng's win over WGM Zhukova Ukraine managed to beat Holland. 7th seeded Armenian girls fell down to 18th after third consecutive match loss. The Serbians, seeded 6th, have only won two games so far, both of them in the first round!

Standings
Men: Israel and France - 9; Ukraine and Holland - 8; Armenia, Russia, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden "B", Romania, Azerbaijan - 7
Women: Poland - 9; Russia and Romania - 8; Bulgaria, Georgia and Ukraine - 7

You can now watch games of men's section's rounds 1-5 online in a well known OlimpBase format!
Please find 15th ETCh info page.
(Please note: history statistics are not available yet. Olympic statistics are used instead)

Watch live games of round 6:
Israel-France and Russia-Holland (men)
Ukraine-Azerbaijan and Armenia-Romania (men)
Sweden "B"-Poland (men) and Hungary-Georgia (women)
Poland-Russia and Ukraine-Romania (women)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY



Avrukh (ISR, 2652) - Guseinov (AZE, 2585)
Avrukh kept pressure all the time but it started to look promising for Black. Simple Bxf4 leads to a better, although probably drawish, ending for Black. Instead young Gadir greedily took the "a" file pawn 36. ... Nxa4?? of course the easy pin try Ra2 fails because of Nb6 but Black forgot that the Rook first of all protects crucial g8 square! 37. Bc6!+- Ra6 38. Bd5! there is no danger of a pin at "a" file but the Rook cannot go back to a8. Now mate threats are impossible for cheap refutation. 38. ... h6 39. Nh4! Kh7 40. Ng6 resigns. His only choice is whether he wants to be mated at h6 or at h8.


Eljanov (UKR, 2639) - Gustafsson (GER, 2614)
The ending is drawish, but the game is not over yet. Of course after 58 moves both players played under serious time pressure. Black's tactics is simple: check often to push white King away of c5 pawn. Once the task is completed white Knight cannot take on f4 because of Kxc5. So... 58. ... Nc2+ 59. Kc4 Ne3+ 60. Ke4 Nf5+ 61. Kc4 move repetition? 61. ... Ne3+ 62. Ke3 now what? 62. ... Nf5?? 63. Nd4+ resigns. After Knight trade the pawn ending is easily won for White. A real drama!


Karjakin (UKR, 2645) - Kritz (GER, 2544)
The position is complex and both sides have all kinds of attacking chances. White threatens Qd6+ with quick mate and Black threatens Rxc2 and Qxf2. Black is on the move. In what way should he protect d6? Nd4 or f6? 47. ... Nd4? wrong choice! 47. ... f6! was the solution. 48. Qe2 Qxc2 49. Qxc2 Rxc2 50. Rxf6 Na5= now he loses quickly 48. Qe3! Ne6 49. Ne2 Qxc2? there was no hope, but now the execution comes immediately 50. Qe5+ Kb7 51. Qd5+ Kc7 52. Rf6!+- A pseudo active move proved very passive in fact.


Lputian (ARM, 2629) - Ivanisevic (YUG, 2577)
Black's action at Queenside has been blocked and White keeps control over the center and the Kingside. Now he polishes the attack off with a very neat trick 26. e4! the idea of this move is to pull black Bishop away from protecting d7. He may choose not to take the pawn with the Bishop of course in which case he either gets mated in two (fxe4 Qe6+) or falls under mortal attack (Bf4 Bd4 Qc7 Bc5+). 26. ... Bxe4 27. Bxg7!! Rxg7? the game was over, but this loses at once. 27. ... h4 was to lengthen the resistance (in order to prevent Qh4+) 28. Qh4+ Kf7 29. Rd7+ Kg6 30. Rxg7 Kxg7 31. Qg5+ resigns. The real tag game!


Palo (DEN, 2519) - Balogh (HUN, 2537)
The position is even. But just one reckless move is ample for Balogh to conduct decisive attack. 15. Be5? Nd7! 16. Bxf6 Qxf6 accacking Nf3 and indirectly f2 17. Be2 Ne5 18. Nxe5 Qxf2+! 19. Kd2 dxc4-+ It is very dangerous thing to leave unprotected Knight at f3 while "f" file is open for attack.


Kotronias (GRE, 2587) - Kozul (CRO, 2585)
Frankly speaking Black's position seems repulsive. However, so quick and simple way to win the game is hard to be seen at first glance. Kotronias finds it: 21. Nxb5! Rxb5 22. Bxb5 exd4? loses at once, but the choice was small. f6-f5 could help a bit perhaps 23. Qxf6 the Knight is pinned and the Rook is hanging, I wonder what Kozul must have felt here 23. ... Ba6 24. Nxd4 Bxb5 25. Qf7+ Kd8 26. Ke6+ +- A demolition job again by Vasilios.

In round four France won yet another giant clash. On Tuesday they beat Germany 2,5-1,5 to move into sole lead, and the one to seal their victory was again unstoppable GM Fressinet. Seeds 19, Switzerland, found themselves in the nose suddenly and fought hard only to lose modestly vs Israel. Van Wely's nice win over Akopian (a +2700!) and three draws paved Holland's way to a victory over Armenia. Sweden lost yet another battle and fell down the table. Poland recovered hammering Croatia 3,5-0,5 - the highest result of the day among top teams. Ukraine and Russia, the teams that were doing badly last days, ran over Sweden "C" and Scotland respectively with a steamrolling 4-0. Poor Scotland, yesterday they lost to Ukraine only to find Russia as their next opponents!

Women's section saw sensational Romania destroying Russia 3-1(Peptan-Kosteniuk 1-0) which is by far the biggest sensation of the event since Russia had no less than 100 ELOs advantage on average at each board! Georgia halved with France (Skripchenko-Chiburdanidze draw) and Poland moved into second position defeating Greece 3-1. Bulgaria shot Croatia (poor Croatia today) dead with a clear 4-0 while Hungary had another bad day barely drawing with Lithuania (no drawn games though!)

Standings
Men: France - 8; Azerbaijan, Israel, Netherlands - 7; Ukraine, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden "B", Germany - 6
Women: Romania - 8; Poland - 7; Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia - 6

Please don't forget these links:

http://www.goteborgchess2005.se - Championship Official page. Includes results, games, photos, comments and more.
http://schach.wienerzeitung.at/asp/turniereET.asp?tnr=2498&lan=1 - Official results page. Includes detailed results, rankings, statistics.
http://www.chessbase.com - daily reports with results, photos and links, including IM Aagaard's daily audio analyses in the Broadcast room at Playchess (available for guest users as well!)

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Fressinet (FRA, 2627) - Graf (GER, 2605)
Series of subtle manoeuvres, so typical for Breyer line in Ruy Lopez led White to obvious positional advantage. White Queen infiltrated sixth rank and black fields are weakened for Black. The final is not very close yet, though 42. Nc6! threatening the Rook and the Knight, which serves as major defender 42. ... Nxc6?? loses at once. Now White conducts quick and effective attack 43. Rxf7! Rxf7 44. Qxg6+ Rg7 45. Qxe8+ Kh7 46. e5+ resigns. Well done again, Laurent!


Van Wely (NED, 2655) - Akopian (ARM, 2705)
The game was decisive as the rest were either drawn or heading towards a draw. Black is squeezed and quite passive, but since d6 is his only weakness he should recover from it, had he only thought about defence... But perhaps Akopian decided to conduct a counter-attack. 23. ... f5? seemingly releases the tension but who says White must take the challenge? Of course gxf6 e.p. Nxf6 works fine for Black, but if White does not take the pawn it becomes clear that now both d6 and e6 became weak pawns. 24. e4! Rf8 of course fxe4 Nxe4 cost Black a pawn, but this move is no better for him 25. exf5 Rxf5 if exf5 then Nd5 wins 26. Ne4 e5 27. Nxd6 Bxd6 28. Rxd6 exf4 29. Rf1 +- White has huge positional advantage and an extra pawn (f4 is dead). He soon converted it into a win.


Wojtaszek (POL, 2591) - Palac (CRO, 2566)
This was really black day for the Croatians. Of 8 games played today they lost 7! Palac's game vs newly created Polish champion was no exception. See the diagram position. White has clear positional advantage but he is two pawns down. This usually leads to a draw... 31. Rxh6+! this is a pseudo sacrifice. Taking a Rook loses immediately after Qxh6+ Kg8 Rh1 with mate (or winning a Queen) 31. ... Kg8 32. Qc7 Rdxd7 33. Qc8+ Bf8?? Simple Rf8 refuted all the threats and led to a drawn enging 34. Rhd6!! resigns. Black Bishop is pinned and cannot take the Rook, and the black Rook cannot leave black Queen unprotected. White wins the Rook...


McShane (ENG, 2625) - Damljanovic (YUG, 2612)
What has considerable advantage (more active pieces and an extra pawn - though doubled) but it is not easy to convert it into a win. However, greediness rarely pays the rent: 32. ... Qxb2?? 33. Rh8+! Kxh8 34. Qh4+ resigns. Rh7 loses after Qxd8+ Kg8 Rg1+ and Kg8 loses after Qxd8+ Kh7 Qh4+ Kg8 Re8#. The d8-h4 diagonal proved crucial here!

Round three brought another major sensation as the Russians lost to France! Fressinet sealed French win at board 4 (see below for preview of this excellent game). The host team finally lost a match (3-1 vs Germany) and fell down the table. Israel took four brisk draws vs Netherlands at top table. Armenia beat Georgia 3-1, no suspicions this time (for those who don't understand: please study Calvia Olympiad round 14 results at olimpbase.org). Ukraine defeated 3-1 Scotland and Hungary, perhaps waiting for Judith Polgar too long lost badly to Serbia and Montenegro.

In the women's section Russia beat Greece 3-1 (although Botsari defeated N.Kosintseva) and Romania quite unexpectedly ran over Armenia. Chiburdanidze played excellent game to beat Zhukova of Ukraine and seal Georgia's win 2,5-1,5. Poland took precious win over Germany. An interesting battle between Skripchenko and Stefanowa went on for a draw, same as Bulgaria-France match.

Standings
Men: France and Germany - 6; Azerbaijan, Israel, Holland, Armenia, Switzerland and Romania - 5
Women: Romania and Russia - 6; Poland, Georgia - 5

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Dautov (GER, 2595) - Hector (SWE, 2534)
Apparently Black, whose position is quite passive and his pawn structure makes any breakthrough virtually impossible, was afraid of White's attacking chances at the Queenside. This is why he decided to block it with b7-b5. Of course cxb6 e.p. doesn't work well because of possible weakness of b4 pawn. But here comes an unpleasant surprise... 15. Nxb5! cxb5 16. Bxb5 Ne4 this is the point. Black's Knight is his only active piece, but since e4 is white square it controls only black squares that have ample protection. Now White easily dominates the Queenside. 17. Bc6 Rc8 18. b5 Nexc5 the piece must be given away, but there was no other way to clear the threats 19. Rxa7! Kf8 20. dxc5 Nxc5 21. Rxe7! a finishing move 21. ... Kxe7 22. Bb4 Kd6 23. 0-0 there is no way for Black to release from the pin 23. ... Rxc6 24. bxc6 Rc8 25. Ba3! Rxc6 26. b4 Nd3 27. b5 +- This must have been really frustrating for Hector since the game was totally one-sided and most of Black's moves were forced.


Berg (SWE, 2539) - Graf (GER, 2605)
Another game from Sweden-Germany match. As Berg was watching his teammates losing 1-2 his only chance to save the match was to win this game. The position is quite even, and the draw may be taken at no risk. But White decided to sacrifice a piece or two... 27. Bb2?! the idea is Qxb2 Bxg6 opening file and attacking the Queen. Still after Q takes R the position is hardly better for White. Even worse, Black has better defence 27. ... Bd7! 28. Qg5 Qxb2 29. Bxg6 Qc3 this is the point! Without Bd7 White could well play Bf5 and Nh5. Now it is over, so White sacrifices desperately another piece 30. Bxf7??! Kxf7 31. Nh5 Ne6 the only move, but fairly easy to find 32. Qf5+ Kg8 33. Nf6+ Bxf6 34. exf6 Kf7 35. Rxd5 Qc1+ 36. Kh2 Rh8+ -+ This is quite devilish ending. Finally it is White King that falls under mortal attack while the Black monarch stays safe.


Fressinet (FRA, 2627) - Timofeev (RUS, 2661)
Now watch how the Frenchmen beat the Russians. The position doesn't look bad for Black at all. The material is balanced, the King is ready to castle, d5 seems to be controlled well and black pieces seem to do well in general. Now watch how in just a couple of moves Fressinet destroys Black's hopes. A perfect example of positional play in the middlegame. 15. c4! covering the Bishop but also protecting d5. 15. ... Bc6 16. c5! suddenly we find that it is pawn e5 that is major weakness 16. ... dxc5 17. Nxe5 Qxd1 18. Rxd1 Rf8 19. Nc3 += the position is clearly better for White, but still not easily won. However the Russian blunders to make his position worse quickly: 19. ... Rc8? 20. Nc4 Rd8 21. Nd6+ Rxd6 22. Rxd6 +- Sometimes too offensive play is not recommended!


Kotronias (GRE, 2587) - Radjabov (AZE, 2682)
This is truly unbelievable position. White Rooks took absolute control over open files but pair of Black pawns is on their way to heaven. 42. ... c2!! yes! If White takes the Queen then Black simply recaptures and c2 is unstoppable. White seems to excert pressure but not, it is him who is in deep defence. So, only passive move works here... 43. Qc5 Wc8 the tension at "c" file increases but no one dares to take the first shot! 44. a6 b2 45. Qxc2 Qxb6! of course not Qxc6? Rxc6 Rxc6 Qxb2= 46. Rxc8+ taking a Rook with a tempo but this is still not enough! 46. ... Kg7 47. Qb1 Re7! threatening Re1+ 48. Kh2 Rc7 49. Rxc7 Qxc7+ a check! 50. g3 Qc1 -+ All of the mightiest pieces were facing each other but it was a humble pawn that it was all about in fact!