Many top seeders of the European Individual Chess Championship 2019 suffered huge upsets in the first round of the event.
The battle for the throne of the European Champion started after the Director of the Agency of youth and sports of North Macedonia, Mr. Darko Koevski, made the first move on the first board, in the game between top-seeded Artemiev Vladislav (RUS, 2736) and Haldorsen Benjamin (NOR, 2448).
Before the start of the round, the President of the European Chess Union, Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, greeted the participants and wished them the best results. Many favourites of the round suffered difficulties and more than 40 games ended in a draw after long fights.
The greatest surprise was made by the 18 years old IM Pultinevicius Paulius (LTU, 2439) who defeated Mamedov Rauf (AZE, 2701) with black pieces in drawish Queens endgame with an equal number of pawns. Todorovic Goran M (SRB, 2429) surprised Eljanov Pavel (2682) also with the black pieces in a Spanish variation, and only after 30 moves Eljanov who couldn’t defend, had to shake hands and resign.
Serbian International master Goran Arsovic (SRB, 2380) overwhelmed GM Salgado Lopez Ivan (ESP, 2622), Mitsis Georgios (GRE, 2338) won with white pieces Zhigalko Sergei (BLR, 2604), while Osmanodja Filiz (GER, 2326) took a victory against GM Georgiev Kiril (MKD, 2595).
Beside these surprises, many of the top seeders had to be pleased with a draw and from now have to be more aggressive for getting back in the rally for the top.
The second round of the event starts today at 15.00 (local time) and can be followed live together with the live commentary made by GM Ivan Sokolov and GM Adrian Mikhalchishin on the following link.
Official Website of the Championship
