Background
The European Individual Chess Championship 2015 was the 16th in the annual series of European championships that were first staged in 2000. It was organized by the Jerusalem Municipality together with the Israel Chess Federation under the auspices of the European Chess Union. The top 23 places qualified for the World Cup (2015). 250 players including 113 GM's and 33 IM's competed. Tournament director: Tal Rami. Chief arbiter: Almog Burstein. Number of games played: 1365.
When
24 February 2015 to 8 March 2015. Rest days: 28 February and 7 March 2015.
Where
In the Jerusalem Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem, Israel.
Format
11 round Swiss system.
Time control
The rate of play was 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.
Tie breaks
1. Average rating of the opponents cut - 1, the highest number wins
(unplayed games, byes are not calculated);
2. Buchholz cut - 1, (the Buchholz score reduced by the lowest score of the opponents);
3. Buchholz, (the sum of the scores of each of the opponents of a player);
4. Most wins.
Prizes
The total prize EUR 120,000 distributed as follows:
Main prizes totaling EUR 93,750
1st EUR 16,000 7th EUR 5,000 13th EUR 2,000
2nd EUR 14,000 8th EUR 4,000 14th EUR 1,700
3rd EUR 12,000 9th EUR 3,500 15th EUR 1,500
4th EUR 10,000 10th EUR 3,000 16th EUR 1,250
5th EUR 8,000 11th EUR 2,500 17th EUR 1,000
6th EUR 6,000 12th EUR 2,250 18th EUR 1,200
Other prizes EUR 26,250
There were thirteen prizes worth a total of EUR 6,250 for best performances above rating and five prizes totaling EUR 10,000 for best results for seniors who turned fifty or more in 2015. There were twenty additional prizes of EUR 500 each to ACP premium members who didn't win a higher prize in the championship.
Comments
Round one saw a surprising number of draws on the top boards, with nearly half of the top (ie: 9/20) games drawn between the top seeded players and opponents rated more than 250 points below them. The biggest upset of the round was seed #140 Alexey Sarana (2419) defeating #16 seed, Sergei Zhigalko (2675). 101 players won their game. A minor surprise was that all registered players finished their games with no withdrawals occurring.
In round two, over half the top twenty boards were drawn, although the rating differential between opponents on this occasion was narrower than in the first round, all but two being differentials of between 100 and 150 (the other two being slightly less). 26 players scored their second consecutive win.
Five joint leaders emerged in round three, having won three consecutive games, namely David Navara, Korobov, Evgeniy Najer, Constantin Lupulescu and Yuri Vovk. The chasing pack on 2.5 points had 37 players. Anton Korobov was the only player to win four consecutive games and thereby became the sole leader after the fourth round, with eight players chasing on 3.5 points.
Korobov maintained his sole lead in the fifth round after drawing with Navara, as none of the chasing pack scored a win. However that pack, sitting on 4/5, swelled substantially to fifteen players with a number of victories in the third tier. Sarana scored another high profile victory when he defeated Kiril Georgiev. Goryachkina was the best performing woman, coming back from a first round loss to Vitiugov to win the next three games, including a fourth round win against Mihail Marin. Four players were yet to get off the mark.
Round six and Korobov tumbled back into shared fifth after his loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi, who took the shared lead on 5/6 with Bartel, Sargissian and Motylev. Goryachkina was unable to maintain her momentum, losing to Ivan Popov. There were twenty one players on 4.5/6, half a point behind the four joint leaders. Only one player, an untitled local, was on zero at this stage.
In round seven, all four leaders drew their games while five of the trailing pack caught up with wins to produce a nine-way shared leadership sitting on 5.5/7, with another 21 players only half a point behind. Goryachkina lost again, this time to Zubov, and the last player to get off the mark finally won his first game. All players had now scored a draw or better. Vladimir Shtivelband forfeited his game and was the only player to withdraw from the event.
Round eight and four of the five games of the leader group were drawn, the exception being Nepomniachtchi who defeated Howell to take the sole lead with 6.5/8 points. Thirteen players were on 6/8 at the end of the round. The leading woman, Goryachkina, drew with fellow teenager Grigoriy Oparin.
Come round nine and Nepomniachtchi immediately relinquished his lead when he lost to David Navara, who was joined in the lead by Evgeniy Najer and Anton Korobov on 7/9. Goryachkina beat Ralf Schnabel to move to 5/9. Eleven players were half a point from the lead. In round ten, Najer moved into the sole lead when he beat Korobov, as Navara drew his game.
Evgeny Najer took the event with outright first place after he drew his game with Khismatullin in the final round.
Official site
http://www.eicc2015.com/ (lost, not archived)
Regulations
https://web.archive.org/web/2021041...
Complete results and standings
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr157...
Previous: European Championship (2014). Next: European Championship (2016). See also European Championship (Women) (2015)
Kibitzing
