European Championship (Women) (2015) |
The 16th European Women's Individual Championship was a 98-player 11-round Swiss held at the Oazis Palace hotel in Chakvi, Adjara region, Georgia, 19-30 May 2015, with a rest day on 26 May (after Round 7). It was organized by the Georgian Chess Federation, under the auspices of the European Chess Union. The first 14 players would qualify for the next World Championship tournament. Time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 more minutes for the whole game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1. The order of players that finished with the same number of points was determined by the application of tiebreak rules. Prize fund: 60,000 euros. First prize 11,000, 2nd prize 9,000, 3rd prize 7,000 euros. Tournament director: Giorgi Giorgadze. Chief arbiter: Tomasz Delega. Play began each day at 3 pm (Round 11: 11 am). Number of games played: 524. Natalia Zhukova won with 9.5/11, her second European Championship title (the first was in 2000). Batsiashvili was 2nd with 9/11 and Kashlinskaya 3rd with 8/11. Excluding those who were not already qualified, the first 14 players (by average rating of opponents for those with equal number of points) qualified for the Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2017). The event was followed by the European Rapid Championship (Women) (2015) (Kutaisi, Georgia, 1-3 June, won by Alexandra Kosteniuk ahead of Gunina and Batsiashvili). Sources
Regulations: https://www.europechess.org/wp-cont...
Chess-Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr164130....
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/news/view/zhu...
ChessBase 1: https://en.chessbase.com/post/europ...
ChessBase 2: https://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-...
Olimpbase: https://www.olimpbase.org/ind-eicc/...
TWIC: https://theweekinchess.com/html/twi...
ECU: https://www.europechess.org/natalia...
FIDE: https://ratings.fide.com/tournament...
Europe-échecs: https://www.europe-echecs.com/art/c... Previous: European Championship (Women) (2014). Next: European Championship (Women) (2016). See also European Championship (2015)
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
May-29-15 | | notyetagm: The game in question: M Sandu vs A Stefanova, 2015. To me it looked like Sandu was outplayed and then Stefanova blundered and lost material. That simple. I do not see any genius or computer moves. |
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May-29-15 | | notyetagm: <donjova: ... Of course, it is still possible that she's using the "intelligent cheating" as they put it.> A new chess term, "intelligent cheating", when they accuse you of cheating but they have no proof. I have a different expression for that: sour grapes/poor sportsmanship/sore loser/. |
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May-29-15 | | notyetagm: Like the old joke goes:
Q. How do you know your opponent in Internet chess was cheating with computer assistance? A. You lost. |
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May-29-15 | | PhilFeeley: So what happened to #1 seed Dzagnidze, and #3 Stefanova? Did they drop out, and why? |
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May-29-15
 | | WannaBe: <PhilFeeley> See <whiteshark>'s chess24 link, paragraph 2. |
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May-29-15 | | luzhin: Stefanova is known to be a bad loser. But this goes too far. |
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May-29-15
 | | perfidious: In this case, Stefanova has plenty of company. |
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May-29-15 | | ChessVip: Mihaela Sandu speaks: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?... |
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May-29-15 | | PhilFeeley: Such a case can sound the death of chess. If good players are accused of cheating, I can see them giving up the game to avoid such nonsense. Where will it end? |
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May-29-15 | | donjova: notyetagm, I only translated what I read in the site. I actually agree with you, this sounds like poor sportsmanship. Unfortunately, the pattern of Sandu's results, where she won all the games that didn't have delay and lost all the delayed games will be used by some as another indirect "proof". So I hope she will break the pattern, hopefully with some brilliant victory in a game that is not transmitted live. |
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May-29-15 | | Maatalkko: Based on the Chessbase report and the statement by Sandu that <ChessVip> linked to, it seems that Natalia Zhukova drafted, circulated, and published both petitions directly before her Round 8 game against Sandu. That was a low blow by Zhukova, given that she provided no evidence of wrongdoing except for Sandu's good performance. Zhukova should have her Round 8 win and Elo points disqualified. There needs to be a rule that public allegations of cheating cannot be made during the tournament, by a player in the tournament, if they could directly or indirectly influence that player's standings. |
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May-29-15 | | cro777: WGM Mihaela Sandu: "I have tried to stay calm and play as usual after this attack, but I have learned it's impossible. There is an enormous psychological pressure and it's difficult to find the energy to play normal chess. I even thought about withdrawing from the tournament, but my family and my dear ones support me and tell me to continue in spite of everything. I am both a chess teacher and a professional chess player so my name in chess is very important to me. I have come to this competition after serious chess preparation, with great hopes of a good result and confidence in myself. But some peaple seem to think that if you have a good result, you have to be punished ... What they did is a very dirty attack, permanently damaging my name in the chess world. Also I want to mention Zhukova's paltry behavior is standing out as she was the main benefactor of the defamation campaign, making psychological attacks right before our game." |
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May-30-15 | | dumbgai: It seems to me that a big problem is the lack of consequences for those who make unfounded or poorly founded accusations of cheating. If it costs you nothing to accuse an opponent, it's a very cheap way to get a big psychological advantage. Nothing came out of the Mamedyarov-Kurnosov incident except for Kurnosov having his name dragged through the mud and being distracted for the rest of the tournament, and unfortunately it looks like the same will happen here. |
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May-30-15 | | zborris8: Arbiters should have engine-checked the games of Sandu as a first step. |
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May-30-15 | | notyetagm: <Maatalkko: Based on the Chessbase report and the statement by Sandu that <ChessVip> linked to, it seems that Natalia Zhukova drafted, circulated, and published both petitions directly before her Round 8 game against Sandu. That was a low blow by Zhukova, given that she provided no evidence of wrongdoing except for Sandu's good performance. Zhukova should have her Round 8 win and Elo points disqualified.> IMHO this behavior by Zhukova makes the <POOR SPORTSMANSHIP HALL OF FAME>. Along with Stefanova, who signed the petition although she lost material against Sandu because she made a move that GMs rate as ?? (... Qc6-b5??). |
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May-30-15 | | donjova: And Zhukova wins the championship... |
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May-30-15 | | siggemannen: you gotta give it to Zhukova though, she really rolled her opps |
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May-31-15 | | CountryGirl: The person accused can not win. If they lose, then their hot streak was due to cheating. If they continue winning, obviously they are still cheating! As MIG wrote six years ago, when Mamedyarov accused Kurnosov of cheating at the Aeroflot Open: "We need both strong anti-cheating measures and penalties for unfounded accusations or this sort of thing could easily get out of hand." |
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Jun-01-15 | | sonia91: Anastasia Savina and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya removed their signature from the second letter on the day of 10th round: http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19168 |
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Jun-02-15 | | G Kar: ... Along with Stefanova, who signed the petition although she lost material against Sandu because she made a move that GMs rate as ?? (... Qc6-b5??)... Stefanova's name is missing on both signature lists ... Natalia Zhukova - Beat Sandu in Round 8
Alisa Galliamova
Lanita Stetsko
Nastassia Ziaziulkina
Olga Girya – Lost to Sandu in Round 4
Dina Belenkaya
Anastasia Bodnaruk
Anastasia Savina
Vlada Sviridova
Lilit Galojan
Jolanta Zawadzka
Jovana Vojinovic
Nino Batsiashvili – Beat Sandu in Round 6
Bela Khotenashvili
Evgenija Ovod
Inna Gaponenko
Sofio Gvetadze
Nino Khurtsidze
Maia Lomineishvili
Melia Salome - Lost to Sandu in Round 2
Svetlana Matveeva
Olga Zimina
Alessia Santeramo
Maria Kursova
Anna Hairapetian
Maria Gevorgyan
Marina Guseva
Svetlana Petrenko
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya
Anna Ushenina
Elina Danielian – Beat Sandu in Round 9
Alina Kashlinskaya
* only signed the 2nd letter - Anna Tskhadadze
* only signed the 2nd letter - Tatiana Ivanova |
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Jun-05-15 | | ChessVip: Zhukova speaks: "I'm not ashamed of any of my words or actions - concludes Natalia. - And if the same situation arose again, I would do the same." http://chess-news.ru/en/node/19190? |
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Jun-06-15
 | | HeMateMe: Was the Euro Rapid tournament played here, immediately after this event? It has a write up on ChessBase, Kosteniuk won it. I was wondering why she didn't play in the regular championship, if the venue is the same. |
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Jun-06-15 | | sonia91: <Was the Euro Rapid tournament played here?> No, it was held in Kutaisi, while the Euro Women CC (standard controls) was held in Chakvi. |
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Jun-06-15
 | | HeMateMe: I was curious because Stefanova played in both events, but I didn't see Kosteniuk's name in the main tournament. It seemed logical that they took place in the same venue. |
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Jun-07-15 | | PhilFeeley: I also wondered why Kosteniuk didn't play in the main event. It was the more important of the two. |
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