The ninth round of the European championship in Jerusalem witnesses once again dramatic changes at the lead. Former European champion , Russian Jan Nepomnianchtchi , the sole leader after round 7, met David Navara with the black pieces and fell victim to an excellent positional play of the Czech No.1. At the same time Ukrainian Anton Korobov beat yet another Israeli grandmaster, this time Ilya Smirin while Russian Evgeny Najer defeated German- Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Since all other top games were drawn all three winner seized by now the lead and improved significantly their prospects towards the upcoming decisive weekend.
The three leaders are on 7 points followed by 11 runners-up with 6.5 points each and 29 players with 6 points each. All of them still hope to do well in the remaining two rounds in order to pick up one of the 23 qualification tickets to the world cup.
The championship is providing plenty of opportunities to gain norms for international titles. After the ninth rounds two players have already secured a GM norm: Russian Ilia Iliushenok and Armenian Armen Mikaelyan ; 6 players already secured an IM norm and might well try for even more: World girls champion Aleksandra Goryachkina and Alexey Sarana (Russia); Valerii Lovcov (Moldova) and three Israelis: Pinchas Kantarji; Omer Reshef and Ohad Kraus.
The board of the European Chess Union is having its meeting here chaired by the president GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili. 17 arbiters attended a 3 –day Fide seminar headed by IA Almog Burstein to obtain a Fide arbiter title.
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דיווח יומי באנגלית עם צילומים וקרבות אפשר לקרוא גם באתר המוביל:
Navara,David (2735) – Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2714) [A34]
European Ch (9.1), 05.03.2015
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e3 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Qc7 7.Bb2 Nd7 8.Qb3 e6 9.c4 b6 10.a4 Bb7 11.a5 f6 12.Bd3 Bd6 13.Qc2 f5 14.Ng5 Nf8 15.f4 h6 16.Nf3 Ng6 17.h4 0–0–0 18.axb6 axb6 19.Bxf5 Nxf4 20.Be4 Bxe4 21.Qxe4 Nd3+ 22.Ke2 Nxb2 23.Rhb1 Rhe8 24.Rxb2 Qb7 25.Qb1 Bc7 26.Rba2 Bb8 27.Ra8 Rd6 28.R1a7 Qxa7 29.Rxa7 Bxa7 30.Ne5 Red8 31.d3 Rf8 32.g4 Bb8 33.Qh1 h5 34.gxh5 Rf5 35.Ng6 Rf7 36.Qe4 Rf6 37.Ne7+ Kc7 38.Qh7 Rf7 39.Ng6 e5 40.Nxe5 Re7 41.Ng6 Red7 42.Nf4 Kb7 43.Qf5 Bc7 44.e4 b5 45.Nd5 bxc4 46.dxc4 Rd8 47.e5 Re8 48.Nxc7 Kxc7 49.Qf7+ Kd8 50.Qxe8+ Kxe8 51.exd6 Kd7 52.Kf3 Kxd6 53.Ke4 1–0
By Yochanan Afek
Photos by Yoav Nis
