The Poland-hosted European Team Championship is over, and it is good time for a short statistical review. When it comes to the open section there were 38 teams present out of 56 E.C.U. members, on par with 2009 and 2011 editions, and three under record of 41 from Debrecen, Hungary in 1992. None of 10 European micro-nations arrived (Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Malta, Cyprus, Monaco, Guernsey and Jersey) as they were set for 4th Small Nations tournament in Monte Carlo. Yet there were some prominent chess nations missing too: Bosnia and Herzegovina (Nikolic, Predojevic), Latvia (Shirov!), Moldova (Bologan), Slovakia who suffer deep structural crisis (Ftacnik, Stohl), Portugal, Estonia, Albania, Ireland. Most of the absentees suffered serious financial constraints and were unable to get enough funds for completing the team.

There were even less teams in the women's section. With 32 teams in the pool the counter may reach its 21st century peak, but it is still far from Debrecen 1992 record of thirty-eight. The following six federations did not send women's team: Sweden (!!), Denmark (!), Scotland, Wales, Montenegro, FYROM. No nation was represented solely by women's selection.



Teams in orange participated in both open and women's competition,
teams in yellow took part only in open event, teams in white were absent in Warsaw.
Note! Northern Ireland (in grey) are not member of E.C.U.

The teams of Azerbaijan in the Open section and Ukraine in Women's section are the new winners of the European Team Chess Championship, which was held in Warsaw/Poland 7-18 November, 2013.
Azerbaijan tied with Armenia in the last round, but Russia defeated the leader France in the last round, thanks to the victory of Andreikin, which helped Azerbaijan to win the gold. Silver went to France, and bronze went to Russia.

In the Women's section the leading Ukraine lost to Russia in the last 9th round, but since they were leading by 3 points, they became the winners afterall. Silver medal went to Russia, and bronze to Poland.

The Championship was held under the under the auspices of Bronisaw Komorowski, the President of the Republic of Poland. The organizer was The Polish Chess Federation under the auspices of the European Chess Union. The tournament was played according to the Swiss system in 9 rounds, with the time control 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment per move starting from move one.

For more information you can visit the official website of the Championship http://etcc2013.com


/ taken from www.europechess.net /

See results of 2013 European Team Championship: men and women

See all-time summary: men and women



Azerbaijan - the winners of open championship

Shadowed by the World Championship match, yet still important, the 19th European Team Championship commenced on Friday, November 8th in Warsaw, Poland in Novotel Hotel. The biennial event is held under patronage of Polish President Bronisław Komorowski and attracted 38 men's (no Latvia and no Slovakia) and 32 women's teams. As in previous years, the event is nine round Swiss, and the final order is decided by match points.

There is no Carlsen, of course, and Poland, the home side are missing their top board Wojtaszek, Anand's second. Russia have no Kramnik nor Karjakin, but Grischuk and Svidler are there. Ponomariov and Ivanchuk are missing for Ukraine, while Aronian (2801) leads extremely strong Armenian team. Other top rated players to arrive to Warsaw are Caruana (2782), Topalov (2774 - played Aronian in round 1 - these two are the strongest players ever to play a game of chess on Polish soil), Mamedyarov (2757), Adams (2752).

As the games took off, Russia sensationally lost to Turkey by 2.5-1.5 while second seeds Armenia went to a disappointing draw vs Bulgaria. Mighty France seem to be the strongest in the pool. In round 3 they scored thumping 3-1 win over Ukraine. England lost badly to Greece 3-1 on day two, but held Russia on the consecutive day. Czech Republic are in the lead, but this seems rather be lucky pairing so far, and challenges are yet to come.

In the women's section Armenia and Poland are in joint lead at 6 points, both to play each other on Monday. 15th seeds Israel step from one surprise to another: on day two the beat 2nd seeds Russia and then held 3rd seeds Georgia to a draw. Today they must face top seeded Ukraine - what a demanding roll!

Tournament website :: http://etcc2013.com
European Team Championship 1957-2011 summary :: men and women




Wojciech Bartelski, Mayor of Warszawa-Śródmieście district, member of honorary committee,
(and yes! - owner of olimpbase.org) starts game GM Svidler-GM Ivanisević,
Russia-Serbia, round 1, board 1.

G-Team Novy Bor from Czech Republic defeated Minsk 4,5-1,5 in the final round in the Open section of the European Club Cup to take a clear first place and win the prestigious trophy.

G-Team Novy Bor won six matches, including the clash with the previous champion and top-seeded SOCAR, and tied only Malachite to conclude the event with 13 match points, one point ahead of the chasing pack.

Malachite took the silver medal thanks to the 4-2 win against PGMB-Rostov. Top two players Alexander Grischuk and Sergey Karjakin decided the match.

SOCAR split the points with Saint-Petersburg (six draws) which was enough for the bronze medal on best tie-break: Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger.

Also on 11 points but with weaker tie-break are Clichy Echecs 92 and Saint-Petersburg.


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Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo won all matches in the first six rounds in Women section of the European Club Cup to secure the title of European Champion with one round to spare.

Monte-Carlo proceeded to beat Fischer Chieti 4-0 in the final round. Chess Club BAS and Ugra played 2-2 in the match of many missed chances on both sides. Ugra confirmed their second place and silver medal. On the shared third place are SHSM Nashe Nasledie and Mika Chess Club with 9 points each. SHSM Nashe Nasledie claimed the bronze thanks to the superior tie-break.

This is the fifth title for CE Monte Carlo, after previously winning in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

The club is represented by the reigning World Champion GM Hou Yifan 2609 CHN, former World Championship challenger GM Koneru Humpy 2607 IND, GM Muzychuk Anna 2585 SLO, GM Cramling Pia 2515 SWE and IM Skripchenko Almira 2441 FRA.

/ taken from www.fide.com /

See detailed results of 2013 European Club Cup: men and women

See all-time statistics: men and women

Tagaytay-Philippines whipped Shah Alam, Malaysia 2.5-1.5 in the ninth and final round to capture the title of the 2013 Asian Cities Chess Team Championship also known as Dubai Cup on Saturday.

Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa downed FM Nicolas Chan after 39 moves of Slav defense on Board 1 while GM Darwin Laylo crushed Mohd Nabi Azman Hisham after 28 moves of Gruenfeld defense on Board 4. GM John Paul Gomez drew with Fong Yit San after 60 moves of Queen's Gambit Declined on board 3 to lead his team to victory.

Li Tian Yeoh upset GM Mark Paragua after 55 moves of Caro-Kann defense on Board 2 to provided full point for Shah Alam, Malaysia.

The win gave Tagaytay finished 17 total match points in the event hosted by NCFP secretary-general Rep. Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino, the Fide Asian Zone 3.3 president in close cooperation with the Tagaytay City government, headed by his wife and mayor, Dr. Agnes Tolentino.

Tagaytay pocketed top prize $3,000 plus Dubai Cup trophy.
Shanghai and Wuxi, China came second to third place with 15 points apiece.
Shanghai crushed Sharjah, UAE, 2.5-1.5, while Wuxi nipped Singapore, 4-0.
Both, Shanghai and Wuxi split the combined prizes of $3,000 for 2nd and 3rd placers.
Tournament director is IA Casto Abundo, while supervising arbiter is IA Gene Poliarco.

See detailed results :: 2013 Asian Cities - Dubai Cup ::

Read more at www.fide.com

/ Taken from National Chess Federation of The Philippines /

The history of Chess Olympiads spans back to 1927, yet women's tournament was introduced only in 1957. While traditional division between men's and women's events was, and still it, predominant, technically speaking there are no "men's" Olympiad in chess, since they have always been open for every player, regardless of his or hers sex. This article thoroughly guides through the history of women's participation in the "men's olympiads". And it has never been easy for women to be successful, given there are no gender parities prescribed in chess, and all of them qualified for the national teams only because there were no stronger male players in sight.

Definitely the first woman who threw down the gauntlet to the men's world was Vera Menchik. Born from Czech father and British mother she was raised in the Soviet Union, from where she left for Great Britain. She took her first World Championship title in 1927 with 100% performance and had since outclassed her female opposition in consecutive championship tournaments. (....)

Click here to read full story...

Following the installation of the pgn4web game viewer there is now a unique opportunity for every player to follow the handwritten analyses of the fourth World Chess Champion, the legendary Alexander Alekhine.

There is excellent Alekhine's chess notebooks blog by Denis Teyssou, who deciphered and digitized Alekhine's handwritten notes, so there comes a bunch of five brilliantly annotated games from Buenos Aires 1939 Olympiad, four played by Alekhine himself and the fifth by Canadian then prodigy David Yanofsky.

Alekhine's instructive remarks reflect his way of thinking, in-depth strategic views as well as brief tactical comments provide with fascinating and highest quality chess lecture that will help you improve your chess skills and obtain more profound understanding of the game, no matter if you are rated 1000 or 2600. These PGN's are not available anywhere else! Enjoy, and if you find them useful, please drop us a note.

Vladas Mikenas-Alexander Alekhine ½-½
Fricis Apsenieks-Alexander Alekhine 0-1
Jens Enevoldsen-Alexander Alekhine 0-1
Moshe Czerniak-Alexander Alekhine 0-1

Daniel Yanofsky-Alberto Dulanto 1-0

Remember! While browsing the game C8 - view PGN; E8 - analysis board with engine; H8 - help

Recent months our readers filed numerous complains about the way the game viewer works. Since it used Java it was heavily platform-dependent, causing numerous software conflicts and many people found it impossible to view games due to internal errors. Moreover, games could not be accessed from any of mobile devices.

This is why we have decided to switch to one of best chess browsers online, the pgn4web. It was created by Italian programmer Paolo Casaschi in 2009, and has since gained reasonable reputation among leading chess webmasters. Compared to the old viewer it has many extra features and offers wide range of opportunities:

- no more internal errors
- loads faster, does not need Java, platform independent
- available on mobile devices (iPad, iPhone), many games can be analyzed at the same time
- much more flexible, under constant development
- wide choice of first class graphics
- and more

One of its more intriguing and innovative features is, that clicking on every field makes an effect, e.g. "a1" - go to the start of the game, "h8" - help, "e7" - flip board, "d8" - view PGN, and many more.

Please visit the pgn4web home page
Test how it works: Armenia takes gold in Istanbul 2012