Final Standings

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Open Section.............................. Women's Section
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1st Azerbaijan....................1st Russia

2nd Russia.........................2nd Georgia

3rd Ukraine....................... .3rd Ukraine

Wales were ranked 35th team and finished 35th
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Round 9

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Wales v Belgium
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1. FM Jones Richard (2321)..- FM Hautot Stephane (2420)......0-1
2. FM Rees Ioan (2336) .....- IM Saiboulatov Daniyal (2395)..0-1
3. Dineley Richard (2270) ..- FM Docx Stefan (2384) .........0-1
4. Bennett Alan (2108) .....- IM Polaczek Richard (2381).....0-1
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Report from Tim

You're gonna look at the score and think we got mashed up by a superior team today and you'd just be so..... wrong. We had 4 perefectly good positions and just blundered them all away.

Richard J played a brilliant Welsh Attack against the Najdorf, sac'ed on e6 and was almost home and dry before missing one tactic and the Belgian scrambled away with his extra material.

Ioan outplayed his opponent with Black, won a pawn and got to an ending which was technically difficult to win but unfortunately tried so hard that when things went slightly wrong he lost the plot and failed to even draw it.

Richard D also reached an ending with a material advantage (2R's & 4 vs R, B & 5) before falling for the most transparent cheapo imaginable

Alan I suppose, was only better on the computer as his opponent made a speculative exchange sac to generate play in an other evenish position. Unfortunately the rapid change of scene succeeded psychologically straightaway as Alan transposed two moves and left his queen en prise.

What an utter disaster, and a really sad end to what has been an excellent campaign. Still, I'm determined to end on a positive note .... we would have played Monaco in the next round of course, so that would've been 4/10 .... plus we should've won this match so .... when I get back and people say how did you do I 'm gonna casually say "oh, about halfway". Two more years of hard work and that's where we'll be next time.

Final, final note: the finish of the whole tournament was very dramatic as the whole thing came down to Gashimov (Azerbaijan) needing to beat Stellwagen (Netherlands) to win their match and finish just ahead of Russia. By move 70 it had come down to R+P vs R+P with both players at 30 seconds per move to finish the game. It should have been drawn but the Dutchman finally cracked and within seconds of his resignation the Azeri was literally at the bottom of a football-style celebration as his team-mates, managers and national officials swamped the board hugging and kissing him and eachother. Can't quite make my mind up whether I like such unrestrained emotion in chess or not - but to have that passion for chess in Wales might not be a bad thing !

Round 9 Pairing

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Wales v Belgium (34th seed)

Round 8

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Iceland v Wales

1 IM Gunnarsson Jon Viktor 2462..- FM Jones Richard S 2321.. 0 - 1
2 IM Arngrimsson Dagur 2396......- FM Rees Ioan 2336........ 0 - 1
3 IM Thorfinnsson Bjorn 2395.....- Dineley Richard 2270..... ½ - ½
4 IM Thorfinnsson Bragi 2360.....- Bennett Alan 2108........ ½ - ½

Games

Tim's Report

Never mind "getting warmed up" today Wales were seriously hot ! Just got back from caning Iceland 3-1 and they were lucky to get 1 !!

Richard J's opponent reacted fairly passively to the KID and so our man just took over the initiative and advanced his K-side pawns. The Icelander panicked and tried to stop the flow by sac'ing a piece. He might have thought this would mean he would be attacking from now but Richard just kept on coming at him and smashed through on the K-side.

Ioan just played a beautifully controlled positional win on the White side of a Slav. Confidently rejecting the IM's early draw offer he pressed forward slowly but surely in the centre slowly squeezing the life out of Black's position. An exchange sac brought some temporary activity but not for long as Ioan just got his rooks coordinating neatly for a mating finish.

Richard D had a short but interesting game where White thought for ages in the opening about "winning" a pawn Richard was always happy to gambit. As soon as he got it though, rather than try to consolidate he launched an immediate attack on Richards king, leaving his own exposed to an easy perpetual in return. Richard should really have played on for a winning ending but with everything else going so well was happy to play it safe.

So thats the match won already, now for a bonus could Alan continue his fairytale and even go for an IM Norm ? Well, it didn't start too well and with a serious misjudgement (Bxb5 ?) his king was soon on the run. What followed though was a cool (if comical) escape from having castled queenside all the way back to a totally normal looking position on g1 !! After that he was at least equal but then tried a faulty combination (with the same errant Bishop ! - Bxf7+ ??) and should have been lost but in the time scramble he kept his cool and his opponent fell for one more trick allowing perpetual check. What a game ! I think he's still shaking now ....

So here we are on 6 points (or 3 out of 8 in old money). Its already Wales's best ever performace by a distance at the European Championship and (1) with a round to spare and (2) without having played the bottom seeded team (Monaco). The mood in the camp is ecstatic of course and we'll up for even more tomorrow.

Tim

Round 8 Pairing

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Iceland (33rd seed) v Wales
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Round 7

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Former Yug Rep of Macedonia v Wales

Bd 1. GM Georgiev Vladimir (2537)..- FM Jones Richard (2321)..1-0
Bd 2. GM Mitkov Nikola (2525)......- FM Rees Ioan (2336)......1-0
Bd 3. GM Nedev Trajko (2511).......- Kett Tim (2238)........1/2-1/2
Bd 4. IM Pancevski Filip (2432)... - Bennett Alan (2108)......1-0

Games here

Tim's report

Richard never really got his KID going and was fairly comprehensively beaten.

Ioan had the position at move 18 on his computer in the morning. It was still fine for White at move 39 but sadly he blundered a piece on the last move of the time-control.

I had another long game, finally persuading my opponent to settle for a draw in a Q&P ending on move 67. In the time-scramble 39....e3 would have given me good winning chances but I can't claim to have considered it.

Alan had his first bad game of the tournament, settling too early for a worse ending and then allowing Bxc3 fatally weakening his pawns and leaving a poor B against an excellent N.

Iceland tomorrow which means that amazingly we still haven't played the bottom team, Monaco. And if our secret plan for beating Iceland comes off then we won't play them at all - which would be a huge achievement in itself.

Tim

Round 7 Pairing

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Former Yug Rep of Macedonia (27th seed) v Wales
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