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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Round 6

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Wales v Montenegro
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Bd 1. FM Richard Jones (2321)..- GM Nikola Djukic (2503) ..1-0
Bd 2. Richard Dineley (2270) ..- GM Milan Drasko (2527). ..0-1
Bd 3. Tim Kett (2238)..........- GM Dragan Kosic (2495) ..1/2-1/2
Bd 4. Alan Bennett (2108)......- IM Blazo Kakezic (2459)..1/2-1/2

Games Here
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Tim's report

Following yesterdays tense and not entirely convincing win over Scotland, a really well-deserved good result for the boys today.

Outgraded by around 200 points a board we held Montenegro to a draw with a comprehensive win for Richard J on board 1 on the White side of a Taimanov Sicilian and two lots of stubborn resistance lower down.

Richard J's really got going now with two good wins in a row and hopefully he can build on this and produce some more fireworks in the closing stages.

Richard D got slowly ground down by some really consummate positional technique, after his long struggle yesterday it was the last thing he needed to face such an examination.

On the bottom two boards it wasn't pretty and there wasn't much get excited about apart from the results but Alan and I hung in there for dour draws in contrasting styles.

I enhanced my reputation for mastery of rook & pawn endings (!) by eventually forcing a slightly worse one down to K v K while Alan successfully blockaded his opponents Bishop pair with his own more passive but defensively effective B & N. Alan's tournament performance continues to hover around the 2500 mark ... sensational - and just a pity he can't now play enough games to qualify for a norm !

Tim

Round 6 Pairing

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Wales v Montenegro (26th seed)
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Round 5

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Scotland v Wales
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Bd1. FM Graham Morrison (2353)..- FM Richard Jones (2321)....0-1
Bd2. IM Andrew Muir (2327)......- FM Ioan Rees (2336).....1/2 - 1/2
Bd3. Alan Tate (2175).......... - Richard Dineley (2270) 1/2 - 1/2
Bd4. James Stevenson (2089).... - Tim Kett. (2238)........1/2 - 1/2

Games here


Bd1. Graham Morrison v Richard Jones

Tim's report

We celebrated long into the night last night toasting the two Richards who had brought us victory over our biggest rivals here in Serbia.

Richard J always looked confident after Morrison's somewhat bizarre Kg1-g2-g3 manoeuvre in the Kings Indian (cue lots of jokes in the bar about former Scottish Kings leading their troops into battle). He kept some tension on both sides of the board and used the Q-side distraction to break through with doubled rooks on f3. Hopefully this will get his head back together for the rest of the tournament after the unfortunate loss of his computer to a spilt bottle of beer a couple of days ago.

Ioan's game was, as usual, full of some heavyweight modern theory as he grabbed a pawn but then had to avoid a perpetual attack on his queen. Unfortunately Mr Muir was up to the task though.

My game was also a short draw after my early attacking intent with g4-g5 started to look like fizzling out into what could have been a worse ending. Very wimpy though - I promise a bit more action in the last few rounds !

But that all set the stage for the heroic rearguard action of the tournament so far as Richard D battled away for 87 moves to save a slightly worse endgame against a tenacious and determined opponent. Just when all finally seemed completely lost he conjured a miraculous stalemate with just K&P vs K,B&P. This was in fact the last game of the whole round to finish so there were quite a few spectators crowded round. The gasps of admiration and chattered explanation from many other (non-Welsh) chess fans were clearly audible as everyone gradually realised what was going on.

Round 5 Pairing

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Scotland (37th seed) v Wales
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Round 4

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Wales v Slovenia
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Bd1. Ioan Rees (2336).......- GM Alexander Beliavsky (2656).0-1
Bd2. Richard Dineley (2270).- GM Luka Lenic (2575)..........0-1
Bd3. Tim Kett (2238)....... - GM Jure Borisek (2575)........0-1
Bd4. Alan Bennett (2108)....- IM Matej Sebenik (2489).......0-1
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Ioan Rees on top board today

Games here
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Round 4 Pairing

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Wales v Slovenia (16th seed)
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Round 3

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Luxembourg v Wales
Bd1. IM Berend Fred (2371)...- FM Jones Richard(2321)...1-0
Bd2. Jeitz Christian(2253)...- FM Rees Ioan (2336)... 1/2-1/2
Bd3. Serban Vlad(2206).......- Kett Tim (2238)....... 1/2-1/2
Bd4. FM Mossong Hubert(2179).- Bennett Alan (2108)......0-1
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Games here
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Round 3 Pairings

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Luxembourg (36th seed) v Wales (35th seed)
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Round 2

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Wales v Bulgaria
Bd1 FM Jones Richard S (2321).- GM Cheparinov Ivan (2667).....0-1
Bd2 FM Rees Ioan (2336).......- GM Delchev Aleksander (2635)..0-1
Bd3 Dineley Richard (2270)....- GM Iotov Valentin (2578)....1/2 - 1/2
Bd4 Bennett Alan (2108).......- GM Bojkov Dejan (2528)........1-0
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Welsh team on left, nearest is Richard J, Ioan, Richard D & Alan

Games here

Report from Tim Kett

A new hero of Welsh Chess takes the stage !

Alan today recorded one of the biggest ever wins by a Welshman in an international shirt as he downed GM Dejan Bojkov (2528) and Wales almost pulled off the shock of the tournament so far against 4th seeded Bulgaria.

With Richard D always looking solid in his draw on board 3 it all came down to Ioan after Richard fell to the razor-sharp theory of Topalov's second, Ivan Cheparinov.

Ioan had looked lost in the early middlegame but staged a resourceful fightback and at one stage a draw was almost in touching distance. Sadly though his opponent retained just enough composure to clinch the point and win the match by the narrowest margin.

Although the match generally will put us all in even better frame of mind for the next rounds, tonight will be all about celebrating Alan's sensational debut. Admittedly there was a blunder by the GM (....Qc4??) but by then Alan had negotiated White's slight early pressure and had a fully equal endgame anyway. For his first ever match at this level a remarkably composed and solid performance.

One last thing .... something some Welsh players have complained about recently at these tournaments is how the top players are "roped off" / up on stage or otherwise "protected" from the rabble of ordinary players like us who can't get close to their boards to watch them in action. Well at least these guys still have to earn that status. Thanks to their bad results yesterday it was pretty amazing today for Wales to be seated inbetween Russia and the Ukraine ! Not only could we get up and look over the shoulder of Svidler, Morozevich and co but they enjoyed observing us in action too. The best bit of course were their double-takes when they stopped by Alan's board, had a quick glance, then suddenly looked again as they realised Black really was a piece up !!

Tim

Round 2 Pairings

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Wales v Bulgaria 4th seed
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Round 1

Playing order today is :
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Wales v Netherlands
Bd 1. FM Richard S Jones (2321)- GM Jan Smeets (2642)....... 0-1
Bd 2. FM Ioan Rees (2336)......- GM Daniel Stellwagen (2630).0-1
Bd 3. Richard Dineley (2270)...- GM Erwin L'ami (2606).......0-1
Bd 4. Tim Kett (2238)..........- GM Jan Werle (2563).........0-1
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Games here

Report from Tim Kett

It all seemed OK for a while against the Orangemen as well. As Alan B commented from the sidelines at his first appearance for Wales ..."I thought that top GM's like these guys would be (threatening to) blow you away in the opening .... but in fact it was notable how relaxed they were just to let the games take their course and win them later on".

Richard J reeled off 15 moves or so on the W side of a Ruy Lopez and casual glance might have led you to think he had the advantage with Black's isolated d-pawn. But Smeets soon showed that flexible, active pieces are much more important.

Ioan told us on the plane that he was going to play the French Defence for the first time in his life here. He said he was happy with all his prep except for one dangerous line in which White sacs his b-pawn in return for the initiative and potential K-side storm. Mr Stellwagen must have read his mind.

Richard D got the prize for lasting longest in another Ruy Lopez but after duffing an exchange around move 30 was finally ground down in what was still a fairly blocked position.

I was fine for about 20 moves defending a QGD but somehow the game just became slightly unbalanced and once he got his passed pawn on d5 and I couldn't move mine on c5 the end was fairly inevitable.

Oh well. Of course we're disappointed not have got something but morale and determination will stay high - have no doubt about that and whatever battering we get from the big boys in the first few rounds we'll still be fighting when it comes to the key matches against our fellow-strugglers.

The big mystery right now is .... where is Topalov ? Is he here or not ? If he is he's clearly too scared to come out and play Richard this afternoon ! Joking aside thats obviously a shame. Welshman beats World's No.1 rated player could have been a top headline tomorrow !!

Other news...

England drop a point to Monaco as Luke McShane loses with White to Efimov (200 points+ below him) after the wimpiest anti-Sicilian line we've seen in ages !

In contrast Scotland's 2300 board 1 almost beat a 2600

Russia and Ukraine had disastrous first rounds. Russia (contrary to widespread public belief) have been rubbish at these events lately - they haven't won an Olympiad or Euro Teams since 2003 !

Morozevich had to bail them out with a tricky late win to save a 2-2 draw vs Croatia while Ukraine went down to Korchnoi-led Switzerland (who we so nearly upset at the last Olympiad). The Armenians and Azerbaijanies headed for the bus chortling with barely disguised glee.

Bulgaria also went down to a shock defeat after an instructive endgame loss by Cheparinov against a recently resurgent Italy led by schoolboy Fabio Caruana. Their reward is of course a 2nd round fixture with us.

Tim

Round 1 Pairing

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Wales v Netherlands 15th seeds

The Welsh Team

Richard Jones (2321)
Ioan Rees (2336)
Richard Dineley (2270)
Tim Kett (2238)
Alan Bennett (2108)