Fine start for Englishman in Euro championship

[Leonard Barden]

England's only representative in the European championship at Legnica, Poland, is GM Stephen Gordon. He is seeded a lowly No 131, but scored as Black in 26 moves in round two against the former prodigy Illya Nyzhnik of Ukraine (2635).
The game looked level till Stephen produced Qb4! winning the d1 bishop or establishing a winning passed c pawn.

This afternoon (2pm BST start) in round three Stephen will be on the live boards playing White against the top seed and defending champion GM Dmitry Jakovenko (2731).

http://en.eicc2013.pl/index.php/live

You have to hunt a bit for the game, which is board 17, so far an uneventful Bogoindian.

[Mick Norris]

Also available to watch here
http://www.theweekinchess.com/live

[Simon Brown]

Worth a look is the game on board 2, Saric - Korobov, if only for the fact that Black had three uncaptured pawns on the 6th rank by move 22.

[Matthew Turner]

Simon,
Certainly a bizarre position, but unfortunately it didn't come off.
Stephen got a very good draw, so he'll be well up there on the live boards again tomorrow.

[Simon Brown]

Shame. But good result for Stephen.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Gordon lost to French GM Tkachiev in round 4, now paired with Armenian GM Pashikian in round 5.

http://chess-results.com/tnr95789.aspx? ... =30&wi=821

There are 36 players from Russia and 42 from Poland (the host country):

http://chess-results.com/tnr95789.aspx? ... =30&wi=821

Only one player each from England (Stephen Gordon) and Scotland (Alan Tate).

There are two players competing under the European Chess Union flag:

http://chess-results.com/tnr95789.aspx? ... =30&wi=821

I think they are both from Kosovo:

http://www.shahu-ks.com/

[Mick Norris]

England v Scotland today - Gordon v Tate

[John Philpott]

Stephen is back on the winning trail. He beat Alan Tate, and after Sunday's rest day has today defeated Germany's Daniel Fridman with Black to reach 5/8.

[Stewart Reuben]

Stephen Gordon is being financially supported by the Friends of Chess.

I am chairman of that organisation and more members would be very welcome.

[Mick Norris]

http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/moise ... -world-cup

Interesting report on many levels, including Beliavsky among the qualifiers for the World Cup, an explanation of the tie break rules, and a link to this

http://chess-news.ru/en/node/12087

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Returning to this topic, a list of GM norms and IM norms attained at the 14th European Individual Chess Championships was published here:

http://www.eicc2013.pl/index.php/9-news ... d-im-norms

Six GM norms and 8 IM norms. It got me wondering why no English players were out there trying to get norms. Was the timing wrong, no financial support available, or was the tournament too strong?

[Roger de Coverly]

It got me wondering why no English players were out there trying to get norms.

The clash with the final weekend of the 4NCL was presumably a contributory reason.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

It got me wondering why no English players were out there trying to get norms.

The clash with the final weekend of the 4NCL was presumably a contributory reason.

Doh! That does explain it mostly. Still, makes you wonder whether those not on course for a norm in the 4NCL, and not committed to playing (admittedly that wouldn't leave many) might have considered going here instead.

[LawrenceCooper]

It got me wondering why no English players were out there trying to get norms.

The clash with the final weekend of the 4NCL was presumably a contributory reason.

Along with the clash with the World Schools where several of the coaches hold gm norms.