Euro Club Cup: SuperChess and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo claim titles

Deserving champions

The European Club Cup reached its conclusion in Rhodes on Saturday, with SuperChess claiming outright victory in the open section after winning all seven of their matches.

Entering the final day one match point ahead of Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai, the Romanian squad needed at least a draw to secure the title, and they did so by beating their direct rivals 3½–2½. Alexey Sarana and Bogdan-Daniel Deac provided the key wins, although Benjamin Gledura struck back for the Hungarians by defeating Parham Maghsoodloo (find below expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller).

Remarkably, Maghsoodloo’s was the first individual loss suffered by a SuperChess player in the event. The narrow victory sealed a perfect 14/14 final score for the fourth seeds.

World champion Gukesh Dommaraju led the way on top board for the champions. His 4/5 performance, highlighted by a crucial win over Arjun Erigaisi in round six, earned him individual gold on board one with a 2927 performance rating. Sarana, Deac and Daniel Dardha also finished among the top individual scorers, taking silver medals on their respective boards.

Behind SuperChess, Alkaloid and defending champions Novy Bor secured clear victories in the final round to finish in second and third place respectively, both on 12/14 match points.

SuperChess’ Parham Maghsoodloo grabbed individual bronze on board three despite losing his final-round game | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Gledura (Tuxera Aquaprofit) 1-0 Maghsoodloo (SuperChess)

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Individually, four of the world’s current top ten played in Rhodes: Arjun Erigaisi, Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer and Wei Yi. While Arjun and Wei dropped rating points, Giri and Keymer both posted strong results, continuing the momentum they showed at the recent European Team Championship.

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Keymer in particular progressed further up the live ratings list, building on his recent breakthrough into the world’s top ten. Gukesh, currently ranked 11^th in the official list published by FIDE, also climbed in the rankings, gaining 10.8 Elo points to move into ninth place in the live ratings list.

Dutch star Anish Giri | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Movsesian (Sigil Fund Pardubice) 0-1 Giri (Bayegan Pendik)

Analysis by GM Karsten Müller

Monte Carlo leave closest rivals three match points behind

In the women’s event, top seeds Cercle d’Échecs Monte Carlo completed the tournament without losing a match, securing the title with a final-round 2–2 draw against second seeds Turkish Airlines.

All four games in the match were drawn, though the result was hard-fought. Monte Carlo’s Alexandra Kosteniuk and Elisabeth Paehtz drew fairly quickly with the white pieces, while the other two games went the distance. Alina Kashlinskaya pressed in an objectively drawn rook ending (a pawn up) against Stavroula Tsolakidou until move 73, and on the top board Aleksandra Goryachkina defended accurately in a rook and bishop versus rook endgame that was only drawn after Black’s 149^th move!

As it turned out, even a loss would have sufficed for Monte Carlo, as Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica were beaten by SuperChess in their final outing. The Serbian squad from Mitrovica nevertheless secured silver with 10/14 match points. Third place was decided by tiebreaks: SuperChess, Tajfun SK Ljubljana and CE Gambit Bonnevoie all finished on 9/14, but it was the defending champions from Ljubljana who claimed bronze.

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For Monte Carlo, Divya Deshmukh and Alina Kashlinskaya both earned board-gold medals, with Kashlinskaya’s 5/6 effort producing one of the standout performances of the event — a 2624 Tournament Performance Rating.

Two performances surpassed even that: Zhu Jiner scored 5/6 for a 2713 TPR on top board for Tajfun SK Ljubljana, while 2242-rated Liwia Jarocka of Poland, representing CE Gambit Bonnevoie, achieved a perfect 4/4 and a 2855 TPR – her showing included a round-six win over Estonia’s top woman player, Mai Narva.

Monte Carlo’s Divya Deshumkh grabbed individual gold on board two | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Monte Carlo’s Alexandra Kosteniuk also returned with a medal for her individual performance – she grabbed bronze on board three | Photo: Mark Livshitz

22-year-old Zhu Jiner had yet another stellar performance | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Mehmed (Crvena Zvezda) 0-1 Beydullayeva (Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica)

Analysis by Jonas Lampert & Karsten Müller

• Full technical information on Chess-Results: Open | Women’s
• All available games on Live.ChessBase.com: Open | Women’s

Final standings – Open

…102 teams

Games – Open

Final standings – Women’s

…20 teams

Games – Women’s

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