Translated material
Duel with a second
Morozevich had to upset Belyavsky
At the European Championship, held on the island of Crete, four rounds were played, that is, the participants covered a little less than half the way. Over the past two days, the leaders in men's competitions have noticeably decreased: the standings are headed by the teams of Russia and Azerbaijan, which won all their matches. Late last night they finished the match between themselves.In the third round of the match against the traditionally difficult team of the Czech Republic, the Russian team fielded its first squad and prevailed with a score of 2.5:1.5. The match was won by Peter Svidler, who confidently beat David Navara with black. All other fights (Alexander Morozevich - Viktor Laznicka, Zbinek Hracek - Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Jakovenko - Vlastimil Babula) ended in a draw.
But the draw favored our team in the fourth round, matching it with Slovenia. Svidler was allowed to rest, which created a funny collision on the first board. The intrigue was that the leader of the Slovenes, four-time USSR champion Belyavsky, was Morozevich’s second at the World Championships in San Luis and both Alexanders are known for their uncompromising play. And so it happened: Belyavsky took an undue risk and was forced to give away quality for which he did not receive compensation. But Alexander Grischuk did not bother himself on the second board, offering a draw to Dusko Pavasovich on move 14. Evgeniy Alekseev and Marco Tratar also parted amicably. And the second victory was brought to the team by Dmitry Yakovenko, who beat Luka Lenich. The result of the match is 3:1.
The Azerbaijani team won their matches against Denmark and Holland with the same score of 2.5:1.5. But the Ukrainian team, despite the fact that Vasily Ivanchuk joined it in the third round, is slightly stalled. Perhaps its leader, who had just arrived from Mukachevo, did not have time to recover from a 12-game rapid chess match with Hungarian Peter Leko (the match ended in a draw, but Ivanchuk won the blitz tiebreaker) and therefore was unable to give his best against the Israeli team , after which the match ended in a draw - 2:2. But when Vasily won his game against Macedonia, it turned out to be decisive. Ukraine won with a score of 2.5:1.5. Armenia is not too bright either - after an easy victory (3:1) over the weak Austrian team, the Armenian grandmasters played all their games in a draw with the Danes - 2:2.
Our chess players also perform well. In the third round they continued their winning streak, defeating Bulgaria with a score of 3.5:0.5, achieving success on the first three boards. The leader of our team, Alexandra Kosteniuk, won the third victory in a row, beating former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Sisters Tatyana and Nadezhda Kosintsev also won the next games. Only Ekaterina Kovalevskaya was content with a draw.
Unfortunately, in the fourth round, the stumbling block for the Russians was Hungary, which they could not defeat. The draw was 2:2, and our team was surpassed by the current European champion Poland, who beat rivals from Holland (2.5:1.5) and France (3:1). The Georgians also joined Russia, having successfully completed all their matches after a misfire in the opening round.
After four days of play, Russia and Azerbaijan are in the lead among men, with 8 team points each. Bulgaria, Holland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Israel and France have two points less. Poland is ahead in the women's tournament with 8 points. Russia and Hungary have 7 points each.