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26/10/2024

European Chess Club Cup 2024

Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, 19th to 27th October 2024

 

The European Club Championship is being hosted by the Chess Federation of Serbia, on behalf of the European Chess Union, at the spa town of Vrnjačka Banja which has hosted many notable chess events in the past.  The venue is the Zepter Hotel, the “Z” being pronounced as English ”ts” for the first 28 matches in the pairing list, with the Hotel Fontana housing the bottom 14 matches.

 

In case your Serbian is a little rusty, “r” in the town’s name is syllabic (functions as a vowel) so that Vrnjačka is pronounced with three syllables, and the “j” in each case shows palatisation of the preceding “n” resembling in English something more like the “n” in “news” than in “noose”.  The “č” represents something akin to the English ”ch” sound.  Thus, the whole name sounds rather as Vrun-yachka Ban-ya would in English, but without the “u”, the stress in each word being on the first syllable.

 

There are separate Open and Women’s sections, of 6-player and 4-player teams respectively.  Open teams are allowed 2 reserves and women’s teams 1 reserve.  A country is allowed up to 5 teams in the Open section though no evident cap exists for the Women’s section.  Yorkshire is represented in the 84-team open (men or women) by the 4NCL White Rose team.  There are only 18 teams in the women-only section, England there being represented by She Plays to Win Lionesses.

 

Saturday 19th October was arrival and opening ceremony day.  Thereafter there would be 1 round per day with Sunday 27th October as departure day.

 

In Round one, White Rose were paired in the bottom half of the Swiss draw and hence would be expected to lose!  Their opponents were from the Greek chess club Σκακιστικός Όμιλος Καβάλας which translates literally to Chess Group of Kavala, i. e. Kavala Chess Club.  The final scoreline broadly reflected the average rating disparity.  Only 11 of the Open matches were shown on the live games, and White Rose did not feature on the live boards, but PGN files of the games later became available.  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

White Rose: seeded 60

1½‑4½

 

Kavala Chess Club: seeded 18

Rtg

1

2474

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal (W)

½‑½

GM

Dimitrios Mastrovasilis

2532

2

2189

 

Harry Li (B)

½‑½

 

Nikolaos Galopoulos

2399

3

2168

WIM

Svetlana Sučikova (W)

½‑½

IM

Georgios Kanakaris

2402

4

2041

 

Conrad Ho (B)

0-1

FM

Dimitrios Stefanou

2356

5

2082

CM

Jonathan W Arnott (W)

0-1

FM

Nikolaos Koutlas

2349

6

1806

 

Seth Woozeer (B)

0-1

 

Christos Tsarsitalidis

2104

Av

2126

 

 

 

 

2357

 

Round 2 (due to start 14.00 BST) saw White Rose paired against the highest-scoring round-1 losers, 81st-seeded White Rose Knights from Wales.  As the match was on table 39 out of 42, the match would again not be on a “live” board; indeed White Rose is unlikely ever to attain such dizzy heights.  In this round, in addition to 12-year-old Seth Woozeer, White Rose fielded 14-year-old Nathaniel Adrian Yi-Xing Zhu who appears not to have any rating anywhere except in Hong Kong.  Team average ratings suggested a score on the top 5 boards of 4-1 to White Rose, and that is what happened.  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

White Knights Chess Club: seeded 81

2-4

 

White Rose: seeded 60

Rtg

1

2017

 

Allan J Pleasants (W)

0-1

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal

2474

2

2005

 

Alan Young (B)

0-1

 

Harry Li

2189

3

1955

 

Lee Davis (W)

0-1

WIM

Svetlana Sučikova

2168

4

1908

 

John P Weatherlake (B)

0-1

CM

Jonathan W Arnott

2082

5

1887

 

Adam J May (W)

1-0

 

Seth Woozeer

1806

6

1966

 

Jason Garcia (B)

1-0

 

Nathaniel Adrian Yi‑Xing Zhu

0

Av

1954

 

 

 

 

2144

Teams' average ratings exclude board-6 where not both players have ratings.

 

In Round 3 White Rose was paired against De Sprenger Echternach.  Echternach is a town (also a canton) of Luxembourg, while De Sprenger seems to mean explosive force or blast.  (Luxembourg native Hubert Mossong of Chesterfield would be able to translate appropriately!)

 

Once the team lists had been published, it became possible to forecast the match result as 4-2 to the Luxembourg team – which was the case.  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

De Sprenger Echternach: seeded 37

4-2

 

White Rose: seeded 60

Rtg

1

2516

IM

Christopher Noe (W)

½‑½

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal

2474

2

2518

GM

Andrey Sumets (B)

1-0

 

Harry Li

2189

3

2109

 

Noah Geltz (W)

1-0

WIM

Svetlana Sučikova

2168

4

2138

 

Vasile Carafizi (B)

1-0

 

Conrad Ho

2041

5

2135

 

Gerd Gnichtel (W)

½‑½

CM

Jonathan W Arnott

2082

6

1989

 

Oliver Sparwel (B)

0-1

 

Nathaniel Adrian Yi‑Xing Zhu

0

Av

2283

 

 

 

 

2191

 

Blackthorne, with Sheffield’s Andrew Ledger on board 1 and two of his brothers lower down, has lost one match and drawn one, and is 65th in the round-3 batting order, but managed a win in round 3.

 

In Round 4 White Rose was paired against Macedonian team GAMBIT ASEE based in Skopje.  ASEE is a multinational firm whose Macedonian office is in Skopje, and presumably sponsors this Skopje-based team.  Ratings predicted a score on the top 5 boards of 3-2 to the Macedonian team.  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

White Rose: seeded 60

2½‑3½

 

GAMBIT ASEE: seeded 26

Rtg

1

2474

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal (W)

½‑½

GM

Evgeny Romanov

2580

2

2189

 

Harry Li (B)

½‑½

FM

Anton Zlatkov

2323

3

2168

WIM

Svetlana Sučikova (W)

0-1

FM

Andrej Veljanoski

2308

4

2082

CM

Jonathan W Arnott (B)

½‑½

IM

Nikola Nikolovski

2388

5

1806

 

Seth Woozeer (W)

0-1

FM

Ljubisa Andonovski

2256

6

 

 

Nathaniel Adrian Yi‑Xing Zhu (B)

1-0

 

Katerina Petrovska

1901

Av

2143

 

 

 

 

2371

Teams' average ratings exclude boards where not both players have ratings.

 

Of all the participants, the player to watch is arguably the Indian Gukesh Dommaraju, aka Gukesh D, who is due to play Ding Liren for the World Championship starting on 23/11/2024.  In the European Club Cup he is playing for the Roumanian team Superchess.  He won in rounds 1 and 2 but only drew in round 3.  Then, in round 4, he lost, so maybe this is not the kind of “warm-up” event he was hoping for!

 

For Round 5, White Rose was paired against 73rd-seeded Gonzaga, the Eire team based at Gonzaga College, Dublin, which used to play in the 4NCL though is not participating in the 2024-25 4NCL which starts on 09/11/2024.  White Rose looked to have an edge on the basis of ratings, which predicted White Rose scoring 3-2 on the top 5 boards, but that was not to be.  Harry Li seemed to have won by default.  (This was later explained by his opponent having been too ill to play.)  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

White Rose: seeded 60

2½-3½

 

Gonzaga: seeded 73

Rtg

1

2474

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal (W)

0-1

IM

Tarun Kanyamarala

2369

2

2189

 

Harry Li (B)

1d0

FM

Colin Menzies

2196

3

2168

WIM

Svetlana Sucikova (W)

1-0

 

Conor Nolan

1970

4

2041

 

Conrad Ho (B)

½-½

 

Kevin O`Flaherty

1977

5

1806

 

Seth Woozeer (W)

0-1

 

Carl Jackson

1934

6

 

 

Nathaniel Adrian Yi‑Xing Zhu (B)

0-1

 

Dermot Nolan

1914

Av

2135

 

 

 

 

2089

Teams' average ratings exclude boards where not both players have ratings.

 

Round 6, the penultimate round, saw White Rose paired against another Dublin-based team, this time University College Dublin.  Despite UCD being ahead of White rose on match points, teams’ average ratings predicted a 6-0 win to White Rose, though 5-1 would perhaps be more probable on the basis of ratings on individual boards.  First to finish of the White Rose players was Daniel Alsina Leal, bouncing back with a win after recording his first loss of the event on the previous day, and last to finish was Conrad Ho who finally turned in the 5th win.  Below, click on the game result to play through the game on screen.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

UCD (University College Dublin): seeded 83

1-5

 

White Rose: seeded 60

Rtg

1

1885

 

Jonathon Peoples (W)

0-1

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal

2474

2

1898

 

Sam O`Neill (B)

0-1

 

Harry Li

2189

3

1844

 

Dean Copeland (W)

0-1

WIM

Svetlana Sucikova

2168

4

1800

 

Tallann Maguire (B)

0-1

 

Conrad Ho

2041

5

1879

 

Will Sidney (W)

0-1

CM

Jonathan W Arnott

2082

6

1989

 

Fiachra Scallan (B)

½‑½

 

Seth Woozeer

1806

Av

1882

 

 

 

 

2127

 

In Round 7, the final round, White Rose was paired against the 71st-seed, Serbian team Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica.  Sremska Mitrovica is a city in Serbia on the site of the important Roman town of Sermium.  Sremska means of or pertaining to Sirmium, distinguishing that Mitrovica from Kosovska Mitrovica (i. e. the Mitrovica in Kosova), so making the team’s name strangely tautologous.

 

Teams’ average ratings predicted a score of 3½-2½ to White Rose, though that could obviously vary either way, especially as on some boards rating difference is negligible.

 

Bd

Rtg

 

White Rose: seeded 60

2½‑2½

 

Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica: seeded 71

Rtg

1

2474

GM

Daniel Alsina Leal (W)

1-0

 

Yury Garifulin

2101

2

2189

 

Harry Li (B)

½-½

WGM

Jovana Eric

2159

3

2168

WIM

Svetlana Sucikova (W)

1-0

 

Filip Nestorovic

2037

4

2082

CM

Jonathan W Arnott (B)

0d0

 

Dragan Lazic

2026

5

1806

 

Seth Woozeer (W)

0d1

 

Stevan Cetkovic

1941

6

1841

FM

Rupert Jones (B)

0-1

 

Milan Zutic

1977

Av

2093

 

 

-

 

 

2040

 

Improbable as it may seem, board 4 was scored as a double default, so maybe the players agreed a draw before 30 moves per side had been completed, thereby violating the rules.  Also, Seth Woozeer appeared to default.  Chess-results.com doesn’t explain such things in detail.  However, an e-mail from Rupert Jones explains what was going on.

 

“Both Jonathan and Seth took quite ill on Friday night and it got worse on Saturday.  Things improved slightly when we were informed that one of their team was also ill hence the double zero due to illness.

 

“Also, Nat had to leave after round 5 and Conrad after round 6.  So, other than myself, no subs were left.”

 

Regarding his own game, Rupert comments,

“After being v passive, my game suddenly livened up and I was a good bit better.  However, I had got to increments - my fault for not playing v much especially at home.  In the diagram, if I find Q-d8 I am about plus 6 up.  With 4 knights on the board, I did later walk into a fork.

 

Some photographs appear on a follow-up page.

 

 

This left White Rose 62nd out of 84 teams.  Individual performances, including wins and losses by default due to illness, were as follows:

 

Player

Games

Av Bd

Wins

Draws

Losses

Percent

Daniel Alsina Leal

7

1

3

3

1

64.3

Harry Li

7

2

2

3

1

50.0

Svetlana Sucikova

7

3

4

1

2

64.3

Conrad Ho

4

4

1

1

2

37.5

Jonathan W Arnott

6

4.5

1

3

2

41.7

Seth Woozeer

6

5.3

0

1

5

8.3

Nathaniel Adrian Yi‑Xing Zhu

4

6

2

0

2

50.0

Rupert Jones

1

6

0

0

1

0.0

 

The White Rose team was obviously not the strongest it could have been, but provided the opportunity for Seth Woozeer (born 2013) and Nathaniel Zhu (born 2010) to experience playing in a high-level event.

 

The winning team was Novy Bor Chess Club from Czechia.  The highest-placed English team was Wood Green who finished 28th.

 

 

Final Rankings

Match

Tie-Breaks

Rk.

SNo

Team

W

D

L

MP

OSB

GP

Bu

SB

1

3

Novy Bor Chess Club (Czechia)

6

1

0

13

249½

29½

183

168.3

2

2

Alkaloid (Macedonia)

5

2

0

12

243½

29½

179

150.3

3

13

Vados Chess Club (Roumania)

5

1

1

11

232½

29½

167½

125.5

4

5

Turkish Airlines (Turkey)

4

3

0

11

225½

28

178½

136.8

5

6

TAJFUN-ŠK Ljubljana (Slovenia)

5

1

1

11

217

29

176½

134.5

6

4

Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club (Turkey)

5

1

1

11

206

28½

169½

129.5

7

1

SuperChess (Roumania)

5

0

2

10

243½

29½

173

115.5

8

11

Beer Sheva Chess Club (Israel)

5

0

2

10

217½

29½

169½

111.0

9

18

Kavala Chess Club (Greece)

5

0

2

10

199

29

154½

103.5

10

7

Sentimento Ajka BSK (Hungary)

4

2

1

10

198½

25

182

123.3

11

8

Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai Sakk Klub (Hungary)

5

0

2

10

194

26

180

121.0

12

9

C'Chartres Echecs (France)

4

2

1

10

180

25½

172½

116.0

13

10

Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan)

5

0

2

10

170½

25½

159

101.0

14

15

SK JAVES Modra (Slovakia)

5

0

2

10

155

23

174

116.5

15

27

Perfect

5

0

2

10

153½

23½

158½

100.0

16

24

C.A. Silla Integrant Col-lectius (Spain)

4

2

1

10

131

23

162

109.5

17

12

Rishon Le Zion A

4

1

2

9

177

25

168

102.5

18

21

Riehen

4

1

2

9

169

24½

161½

100.3

19

20

SK Rockaden

4

1

2

9

158

26

153

92.3

20

42

Rishon Le Zion B

3

3

1

9

155½

25½

150½

92.3

21

19

SV Werder Bremen

4

1

2

9

153½

23

165

102.3

22

40

Breidablik Chess Club

4

1

2

9

125½

22½

145

84.0

23

14

Kfar Saba

4

0

3

8

173½

25

166½

90.0

24

17

Elektroprivreda

4

0

3

8

152

25

164

86.5

25

22

Etude Ramat Gan Dov Porat Memorial

4

0

3

8

140

22

167½

83.0

26

16

Zmaj

4

0

3

8

137

23½

157½

79.0

27

25

LSG

4

0

3

8

134½

23

148½

78.5

28

32

Wood Green

4

0

3

8

131

24½

148

71.5

29

55

SK Reval-Sport

4

0

3

8

125½

25

144

72.5

30

35

Koninklijke Brugse Schaakkring vzw

4

0

3

8

120½

23½

144½

76.0

31

28

ŠK Dunajská Streda

4

0

3

8

117

21

160½

81.5

32

23

ŠK K CERO INVEST Nitra

4

0

3

8

112

20½

165

80.5

33

30

FC ST.Pauli 1910 eV Sabt

4

0

3

8

109

22½

151

71.0

34

53

La Tour d'Ans-Loncin

4

0

3

8

108

21½

136½

74.5

35

31

Lunds ASK

4

0

3

8

107½

18½

165½

81.5

36

39

Crvena zvezda - Data Driven Lab

4

0

3

8

101

20½

146½

72.0

37

33

Andreu Paterna

3

1

3

7

131½

21

157½

71.5

38

41

ASD Pedone Isolano

3

1

3

7

124½

23

141½

61.3

39

38

Skakklubben Nordkalotten

3

1

3

7

117½

23½

141½

52.8

40

34

HSK Lister Turm

3

1

3

7

115½

21

157½

68.5

41

29

The Sharks

3

1

3

7

114

21

154

67.3

42

45

De Stukkenjagers

2

3

2

7

109½

20½

150

68.3

43

48

Blackthorne

3

1

3

7

109½

20½

148

65.0

44

46

Drejtesia-Trokadero

3

1

3

7

109½

18½

151

67.8

45

26

GAMBIT ASEE

3

1

3

7

104½

20½

149½

65.3

46

69

SK 1911

3

1

3

7

95

17

146½

66.3

47

47

SV Erkenschwick

3

0

4

6

125½

22

146

56.0

48

36

Paul Keres 1

3

0

4

6

125

22½

142½

51.5

49

37

De Sprenger Echternach

3

0

4

6

114½

23

149½

53.0

50

57

Jugović

2

2

3

6

107½

23

131½

50.3

51

49

Viking Chess Club

3

0

4

6

98½

19

142½

49.0

52

43

Gambit Bonnevoie I

3

0

4

6

98

19

141½

50.0

53

63

Sussex Martlets

3

0

4

6

95

20½

140

50.5

54

50

Schaakclub De Pluspion Wachtebeke

3

0

4

6

90½

19½

138

48.5

55

56

O.F.I. Chess Club

3

0

4

6

90

21

142

49.5

56

64

Aarhus Skakklub/Skolerne

3

0

4

6

89½

19

136

52.5

57

44

Wasa SK

3

0

4

6

86½

17

147½

58.5

58

51

Raahen Linnoitus

2

2

3

6

84½

18½

134

50.8

59

67

Bærum Schakselskap

3

0

4

6

78

19½

125

49.0

60

73

Gonzaga

3

0

4

6

75

17½

126½

53.5

61

61

Koninklijke Wetterse Vrijpion

2

2

3

6

74½

18½

121½

40.8

62

60

White Rose

2

1

4

5

88½

20

137

38.5

63

54

Differdange

2

1

4

5

87½

18½

134

41.8

64

52

SOSS

2

1

4

5

83½

15½

149

45.3

65

58

Malerei 2000 Rapid Feffernitz

2

1

4

5

78

16½

140½

41.8

66

75

K.Sh Butrinti

1

3

3

5

76

17½

132

41.5

67

59

SV Muelheim Nord

2

1

4

5

75

17½

134

33.3

68

74

Koninklijke Oostendse Schaakkring

2

1

4

5

73

16

134½

43.3

69

76

Jyväs-Shakki

2

1

4

5

71

18

120½

35.5

70

71

Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica

2

1

4

5

61

17

131

38.0

71

70

SK König Tegel

2

1

4

5

50½

16½

127½

35.8

72

68

Paul Keres 2

2

0

5

4

72

16½

133½

28.0

73

66

SK Doppelbauer Kiel

1

2

4

4

69

18½

117

25.8

74

77

Diagonal Alcorcon

1

2

4

4

63

15

142½

36.0

75

72

SK Radnicki

2

0

5

4

57½

15

123

27.0

76

65

TSV Schönaich

1

2

4

4

54½

17

108

22.8

77

62

EtVaS

2

0

5

4

45½

14½

121

23.0

78

84

Cardiff Chess Club

2

0

5

4

44

15

122

23.0

79

81

White Knights Chess Club

1

1

5

3

78½

17½

125

23.3

80

78

Ennis Chess Club

1

1

5

3

49

13

136½

26.3

81

79

Gambit Bonnevoie II

1

1

5

3

46

16½

108½

15.3

82

83

UCD (University College Dublin)

1

1

5

3

46

12½

113

21.3

83

82

St Benildus

1

0

6

2

34½

10½

124

16.5

84

80

ŠK Goč - Vrnjačka Banja

0

1

6

1

17

118½

6.3