Wins For Anand, Carlsen But Their Teams Drop Points
The third and fourth rounds at the European Club Cup saw nice wins for both GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Viswanathan Anand, but their respective teams dropped in the standings. Novy Bor (Czech Republic) is the only team that scored four victories, while ASVOe Pamhagen and CSU ASE Superbet are in a tie for first in the women's section.
Open tournament
Let's once again start with the biggest star of the event. Carlsen took a day off on Wednesday when his club Offerspill beat Schachgesellschaft Riehen 4-2. The world champion returned to the playing hall the next day and scored another fine win vs. GM Pentala Harikrishna, but the team lost 3.5-2.5 to Novy Bor due to wins by GM Vidit Gujrathi and GM Markus Ragger against GM Aryan Tari and IM Johannes Haug, respectively.
Anand's CSU ASE Superbet defeated Vugar Gashimov (the Azerbaijani club named after the grandmaster who sadly died way too young in 2014) 2-4 in the third round, where the Indian legend drew his game with GM Rauf Mamedov. The next day he faced another Azerbaijani player, who was contracted by the German Schachclub Viernheim and that team held the Romanian top seeds to 3-3.
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has been quite faithful to the Open Ruy Lopez in recent years, which gave Anand the opportunity to prepare deeply for it. "It was quite nice," he said. "The main stroke of luck was that this morning while preparing, I noticed 21...Rxa2, so I decided to enter it and make a few moves. I didn't go very far because it seemed to me it wasn't the main line. And then he plays it! So what might be normally a big surprise actually just bounced off harmlessly."
Anand also explained a deep tactical variation in his interview below which is included in the annotations.
Novy Bor, the only team to score four victories, is CSU ASE Superbet's next opponent on Friday which means on board one Anand is going to face one of his compatriots, Harikrishna. The other games in this top clash are Rapport-Vidit, Wojtaszek-Deac, Gukesh-Navara, Grandelius-Nisipeanu, and Sargissian-Anton.
2022 European Club Cup | Round 4 Standings (Top 20)
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Team | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 2 | Novy Bor Chess club | 8 | 75 | 18 | 59 | 59 | |
| 2 | 8 | Silla - València Origin of Chess | 7 | 78 | 19.5 | 49 | 39.8 | |
| 3 | 3 | Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier | 7 | 77 | 17.5 | 53.5 | 46.8 | |
| 4 | 1 | CSU ASE Superbet | 7 | 75 | 17.5 | 58 | 49 | |
| 5 | 4 | TAJFUN - SK Ljubljana | 7 | 68 | 18.5 | 54.5 | 44.8 | |
| 6 | 6 | Schachclub Viernheim 1934e.V. | 7 | 65 | 18 | 52 | 43.3 | |
| 7 | 5 | Clichy-Echecs-92 | 7 | 62,5 | 19 | 49 | 41.8 | |
| 8 | 7 | Offerspill Chess Club | 6 | 66 | 17.5 | 53 | 35 | |
| 9 | 9 | Vugar Gashimov | 6 | 58,5 | 16.5 | 53 | 35.5 | |
| 10 | 14 | Kfar Saba Chess Club | 6 | 58 | 16.5 | 53.5 | 35.5 | |
| 11 | 10 | Beer Sheva Chess Club | 6 | 56 | 16.5 | 48 | 30 | |
| 12 | 16 | Moravská Slavia Brno | 6 | 50,5 | 16.5 | 45.5 | 34 | |
| 13 | 12 | FC Bayern München | 6 | 48,5 | 15 | 52 | 33.5 | |
| 14 | 21 | Schach ohne Grenzen | 6 | 44,5 | 14 | 49 | 31.5 | |
| 15 | 20 | LSG Leiden 1 | 6 | 40 | 15 | 48 | 30 | |
| 16 | 15 | Schachgesellschaft Riehen | 6 | 40 | 13.5 | 53 | 35.5 | |
| 17 | 19 | SK Dunajska Streda | 6 | 39 | 13.5 | 49 | 31.5 | |
| 18 | 43 | SK König Tegel 1949 | 6 | 31,5 | 11 | 54.5 | 35 | |
| 19 | 13 | Gokturk Satranc Spor Kulubu | 5 | 55 | 14.5 | 60.5 | 33.5 | |
| 20 | 11 | Sentimento Ajka BSK | 5 | 47 | 13.5 | 60.5 | 32.8 |
Women's tournament
ASVOe Pamhagen scored an upset victory in round three of the women's tournament, beating the top seed, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo 3-1. In a battle between former world champions, GM Anna Ushenina scored a significant victory with the black pieces:
ASVOe Pamhagen played CSU ASE Superbet in the fourth round, the only two teams that had started with three victories. A hard-fought battle ended in 2-2 as Superbet's IM Irina Bulmaga defeated GM Elina Danielian on board one, but IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya scored for Pamhagen vs. IM Marsel Efroimski.
Bulmaga showed textbook perfection in checkmating her opponent with bishop and knight:
2022 European Women's Club Cup | Round 4 Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Fed | Team | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 3 | ASVOe Pamhagen | 7 | 47 | 11.5 | 35.5 | 30.3 | |
| 2 | 2 | CSU ASE Superbet | 7 | 40,5 | 10.5 | 35 | 29.3 | |
| 3 | 5 | BGK KS Gwiazda Bydgoszcz | 6 | 32 | 10 | 35 | 26.5 | |
| 4 | 7 | Wood Green | 6 | 25 | 10 | 32 | 20.5 | |
| 5 | 1 | Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo | 5 | 35 | 8.5 | 40 | 24.3 | |
| 6 | 13 | Haifa-Nesher | 5 | 25,5 | 8.5 | 31.5 | 18 | |
| 7 | 6 | SK Erste Bank Baden | 5 | 25,5 | 8.5 | 30.5 | 15.8 | |
| 8 | 4 | Odlar Yurdu | 4 | 25,5 | 8 | 34 | 13.5 | |
| 9 | 9 | TAJFUN - SK Ljubljana | 4 | 20,5 | 10 | 29 | 10.5 | |
| 10 | 10 | Sirmium | 4 | 14,5 | 7 | 30.5 | 11.5 | |
| 11 | 8 | Blue & Yellow | 3 | 23 | 7 | 34 | 11.8 | |
| 12 | 16 | Rishon Lezion Chess Club | 3 | 14,5 | 7.5 | 19.5 | 4 | |
| 13 | 15 | Garðabaer Chessclub | 3 | 8,5 | 7 | 20.5 | 4 | |
| 14 | 12 | Philidor Mulhouse | 2 | 16 | 6.5 | 32 | 7 | |
| 15 | 11 | Gambit Asseco See | 2 | 13 | 6.5 | 35 | 5 | |
| 16 | 14 | SK Zell/Zillertal | 1 | 13,5 | 5 | 22 | 0 | |
| 17 | 17 | Schachzentrum Seeblick e.V. | 1 | 6 | 4 | 24.5 | 0 |
The 37th European Club Cup and the 26th European Women’s Chess Club Cup take place October 3-9, 2022 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Both events are a seven-round Swiss with teams of six players in the open section and teams of four in the women's section. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
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Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
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