Leaders Survive the Thrilling Ninth Round

After the thrilling ninth round that Manisa Doruk College and Adana Truva won their thrilling encounters against Beşiktaş and Turkish Airlines, the two teams are still leading with 18 points followed by Servergazi and Turkish Airlines having 14 points. In the tenth round, Turkish Airlines has to win against Doruk College if they want to remain in the fight for the top two spots. You can see the results&pairings, crosstable, standings, games, lots of pictures,  rating performances and board standings from the tournament page.

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Round 8: Turkish Airlines Outscores Beşiktaş

THY squad: GM Gagunashvili, IM Can, IM Erdoğdu and on the far right end wee see IM Muzychuk.

The two successful clubs of recent years, THY and Beşiktaş met with each other this time not for the championship contest but rather to survive in the fight for the top three. THY won the close match by 5.5-4.5 as they did last year. Manisa Doruk College, continued winning this time against Tarsus Zeka with 7-3.

Adana Truva Chess Club, the other team which has won all of its games crushed Antalya Çallıspor with 9-1 with the only win for the Antalya side coming from Koç against WIM Yıldız, who has been performing well on junior board.

Both teams had 16 points after the eight round, but board points creates the difference between the two sides, since Truva (the Turkish name of Troja of course) has 63.5 board points and Manisa Doruk College has 56.5, the Adana side protected its shared lead.

Servergazi won its match comfortably with 8.5-1.5 against Antalya Deniz Gençlik and now has 12 points.

Note that THY has only single loss while the top two teams won all of their games so far.

Denizli Erbakır won a crucial mid-table match against Bursa Tophane with 5.5-4.5.

İstanbul Technical University won 6-4 against Selçuk University.

Mersin Ezgi - TED College was another important game but for the struggle for avoiding relegation. Mersin side won the match 7-3 and now has 4 points as their opponents. İSEK Aquamatch won comfortably against Pamukkale University by an 8-2 score.

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Round 9: Surivors

One of the most thrilling rounds of the Turkish İş Bank Chess League was the round nine. THY-Truva and Doruk Koleji-Beşiktaş games would clarify the race for the championship and the first three spots.

Turkish Airlines had to win against Truva in order to rejoin the championship contest. Truva seemed a slight favourite on paper but the match was going to be close for sure. GMs Gagunashvili vs. Huseynov, IM Erdoğdu vs. IM Haznedaroğlu and IM Kılıçaslan vs. IM Esen games ended as a draw. GM Seferli won against IM Can. You see the remaining three games of the match. Ertan-WIM Yıldız; Karayaylalı-WGM Muzycuk and Yargıcı-Çoban.

WGM Muzycuk won and narrowed the gap to one point while Ertan-WIM Yıldız ended as a draw. Now, the fate of the two teams are not in the hands of GMs or many of stars of the teams. They are the spectators now and watching under16 General game between Çoban and Yargıcı. The game was a dead draw and if there was a side to win by a miraculous blunder that would be black, so Truva was very close to victory and they eventually got it.

Even more dramatic match was between Manisa Doruk College and Beşiktaş.

You see the final two games in the picture above. Everyone watching them...On the first board IM Atakişi trying to save a losing endgame against GM Mamedov while Yaramış (2007 İstanbul Champion) and FM Ata Seçer (won an IM norm in European Club Cup last year) are playing an equal and probably drawn endgame position.

Then, GM Mamedov went on to win and the score was even...

Now everyone in the hall held their breath and started watching the deciding board between Yaramış and FM Seçer. It was rook vs. rook+pawn endgame and Yaramış was playing the correct moves leading to a draw, however, in the zeitnot things went wrong and a fatal mistake by Yaramış decided the game, FM Seçer made the famous bridge maneuvre without mistake and Doruk College won the match 5.5-4.5. hat a drama for both sides, one losing hopes and the other survives...

And there is the final score....Doruk College: 5.5 - Beşiktaş: 4.5

Another thriller was between ITU and Tarsus where the last game was between WIM Topel and IM Matnadze. Turkish champion was able to held her opponent o a draw helping her team to grab the point by drawing 5-5.

Bursa Tophane won against Antalya Çallıspor 5.5-4.5, which was contributed by the crucial victory of GM Spasov on board 1 against Georgian GM Shanava.

Mersin Ezgi won its second consecutive vital game against Antalya Deniz Gençlik with 5.5-4.5 and now has 6 points. This game might be one of the deciding games for determining the relegating clubs. TED College won comfortably against Selçuk University 7.5-2.5 while Servergazi won against Pamukkale University to regain the third place after leveling its match points with Turkish Airlines but surpassing them on board points.

Denizli Erbakir hold İSEK Aquamatch to a 5-5 draw and İSEK now has 11 points.

In the end of ninth round, Truva and Doruk Koleji still leads the league by 18 points followed by Servergazi and THY at 14 points. THY has to win against Doruk College today in order to have a chance to gain the second ticket for European Club Cup by taking the second place. Adana Truva's opponent is Bursa Tophane today. And what happens after that?Oh, the big match comes: Doruk College-Truva!