23rd European Individual Championship 2023

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Looking at the results of the IMs who have scored 6/9 or more so far (I am not going to bother looking at the large group of 60 players on 5.5/9), some results stand out as being on course for a GM norm:

1) Greek IM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis - will have played 8 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2719. (HAS TWO GM NORMS ALREADY)

2) Serbian IM Milos Stankovic - will have played 7 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2609. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

3) Armenian IM Mamikon Gharibyan - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2608. (HAS TWO GM NORMS ALREADY.)

4) Turkish IM Ediz Gurel - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2643. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

5) Israeli IM Yair Parkhov - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2643. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

6) Slovenian IM Jan Subelj - will have played 7 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2671. (NO GM NORMS)

That last set of results by Jan Subelj shows them unbeaten so far.

Incidentally, the list of the 22 players who have withdrawn looks quite large (but maybe that is due to the large number of players). Are most of the withdrawals likely a consequence of the relentless schedule of 1 round a day for 11 days? That is crazy.

EDIT: For some reason, I had thought it was necessary for 2/3 of the field to have GM titles for a norm. It is actually 1/3 (and half the field must be titled). So I think Kourkoulos-Arditis already has a 9-round GM norm. For an 11-round tournament, that would be 4 GMs (so some of what I said earlier was wrong, sorry). For GM norms, the rating performance (after rounding and after raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) must be 2600 or above, and 2450 for IM norms.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis has won his round 10 game. The others listed above either lost or are still playing.

I see Brandon Clarke won by default today. I am not sure if this helps his norm chances or not (almost certainly decreases it). His lowest-rated opponent will be raised to 2200 (I think) but the default will not count. It may mean he gets a high-rated opponent in the last round, but even with this I am not sure if a win would be enough to get a 2600 performance rating (probably not).

A last-round win might see Brandon Clarke sneak into the qualifying places for the World Cup and the prize money, but I think he would be low down in whatever tiebreak is being used.

Only a couple of games still in progress in round 10.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Wow. Just checked for an update, and Tristan Cox won again, against another IM. That is 5/10 with a win against a GM, two wins against IMs, and wins against an FM and a CM. Wonder if he will get his first draw in round 11 (all ten of his games have been decisive so far)?

[Mick Norris]

I think that's right about the norm chance having gone for Brandon

There are 2 players on 8, and at least 12 on 7.5, and at least 18 on 7 (I may not have added this up right!) so I can't see Brandon's possible best of 7.5 being enough for the top 23; what I don't know is how many of those have already qualified

Tristan won today, so that's 5 wins and no draws, he's gaining lots of rating points

[Christopher Kreuzer]

19 on 7 points, with 14 ahead of them. If all 10 of the boards with players on 7 points are drawn (possible), that would produce a massive pile-up on 7.5, with a group of 55 players on 6.5/10 of which 27 (one will have drawn with a player on 7 point) could win to make the total on 7.5 be 37, of which at least 9 will take a World Cup qualifying place, though it will be more as Mick says because some are already qualified. No idea what tiebreak is used.

[Mick Norris]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Typ Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Typ Rtg No.
11 44 137 IM Clarke Brandon G I 2475 6½ 6½ IM Teclaf Pawel 2568 69
11 52 154 IM Willow Jonah B 2459 6 6 GM Laurusas Tomas 2571 64
11 53 162 IM Royal Shreyas U18 2452 6 6 GM Van Foreest Lucas 2570 65
11 65 235 FM Secheres Adrian-Simion 2369 6 6 GM Fernandez Daniel Howard 2498 115
11 96 252 IM Milosevic Milos 2347 5½ 5½ IM Wadsworth Matthew J 2439 174
11 128 433 Cox Tristan A 1975 5 5 IM Bournel Antoine 2377 231
11 136 318 CM Khandelwal Ankush 2255 4½ 4½ FM Kochavi Ori 2417 186
11 184 441 Bleuzen Erwan 1937 4 4 Onslow Alfie 2174 356

[LawrenceCooper]

Looking at the results of the IMs who have scored 6/9 or more so far (I am not going to bother looking at the large group of 60 players on 5.5/9), some results stand out as being on course for a GM norm:

1) Greek IM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis - will have played 8 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2719. (HAS TWO GM NORMS ALREADY)

2) Serbian IM Milos Stankovic - will have played 7 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2609. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

3) Armenian IM Mamikon Gharibyan - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current rating performance of 2608. (HAS TWO GM NORMS ALREADY.)

4) Turkish IM Ediz Gurel - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2643. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

5) Israeli IM Yair Parkhov - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2643. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

6) Slovakian IM Jan Subelj - will have played 7 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2671. (NO GM NORMS)

That last set of results by Jan Subelj shows them unbeaten so far.

Incidentally, the list of the 22 players who have withdrawn looks quite large (but maybe that is due to the large number of players). Are most of the withdrawals likely a consequence of the relentless schedule of 1 round a day for 11 days? That is crazy.

EDIT: For some reason, I had thought it was necessary for 2/3 of the field to have GM titles for a norm. It is actually 1/3 (and half the field must be titled). So I think Kourkoulos-Arditis already has a 9-round GM norm. For an 11-round tournament, that would be 4 GMs (so some of what I said earlier was wrong, sorry). For GM norms, the rating performance (after rounding and after raising the rating of the lowest-rated player) must be 2600 or above, and 2450 for IM norms.

According to the ECU Secretary General Theo Tsorbatzoglou on Facebook: "Dozens of norms and titles were successful and will be reported by the end of the tournament."

[Mick Norris]

Brandon and Shreyas have drawn; Jonah looks to be in a decent position at move 17

Sarana drew quickly on top board and is now playing in the Chessable Masters play in; not sure if Saran would be overtaken by Bacrot on tiebreak were he to win

Boards 2 and 3 drew quickly too, and 4 of the games involving players on 7 points have been drawn too, so the qualification position is clarifying a bit

[Christopher Kreuzer]

4) Turkish IM Ediz Gurel - will have played 6 GMs after round 10. Current performance rating of 2643. (HAS ONE GM NORM ALREADY)

According to the ECU Secretary General Theo Tsorbatzoglou on Facebook: "Dozens of norms and titles were successful and will be reported by the end of the tournament."

Thanks, Loz. At least one of the GM norms will be from the 14-year-old IM Ediz Gurel who is winning in the last round and will finish on 8/11, half a point behind the winners. An impressive result.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Jonah has won. Tristan lost. I think Tristan gained more ratings points than all the other ENG players combined.

EDIT: Long-time leader Korobov may have slipped out of the qualification spots with a last-round loss, unless he is already qualified.

[Mick Norris]

I see that Daniel Dardha, the young Belgian who played the Cambridge open recently, won to join the top 2 on 8.5, impressive performance to get a medal

There were a further dozen players on 8 points, so as Chris predicted, there's a logjam on 7.5 for the remaining qualifying places

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I count at least 12 defaults in the last round. Any explanation for this? Surely they were not all rushing off to play in some online tournament were they?

30 players on 7.5. Someone else will be checking the list against those already qualified. The grouping includes Ivanchuk and Gelfand, the leading over-50 players in the tournament.

[Mick Norris]

Jonah has won. Tristan lost. I think Tristan gained more ratings points than all the other ENG players combined.

EDIT: Long-time leader Korobov may have slipped out of the qualification spots with a last-round loss, unless he is already qualified.

Tristan gained 75 points, excellent performance

Korobov qualifies in 16th

Gelfand was 28th, I have 5 of the top 23 qualified previously (Sarana, Kuzubov, Anton Guijarro, Santos Latasa, Svane), so Gelfand qualifies

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Thanks, Mick.

Worth pointing out that there are two Svanes. There is Frederik Svane (finished 19th), the younger brother (by 7 years) of Rasmus Svane (finished 34th), both finishing in the 7.5/11 score group. The two haven't been confused, have they? (Both are Danish, living in Germany, I think.)

Looks to me like the already-qualified Svane is Rasmus (from the EICC 2021), who finished in 34th, meaning his brother Frederik takes one of the EICC 2023 qualification spots instead of Gelfand!!

BTW, Kuzubov had 7 wins and 2 losses and only 2 draws (most of the other top finishers were either undefeated or had only one loss). Possibly Tristan Cox was the only player to not get a draw? (OK, more precisely, the highest-scoring player to have all games being decisive?)

OK, Richard Stalmach (6/11) and Vahap Sanal (7/11) both scored more points and also no draws. So that's the end of that useless statistic...

[LawrenceCooper]

I count at least 12 defaults in the last round. Any explanation for this? Surely they were not all rushing off to play in some online tournament were they?

30 players on 7.5. Someone else will be checking the list against those already qualified. The grouping includes Ivanchuk and Gelfand, the leading over-50 players in the tournament.

Some of the players from this event did play the chess.com champions tour qualifier but I hope that the ECU take a dim view of all the defaults.