First Round in European Club Cup

Upsets in the First Round

23rd European Club Cup for Men and 12th European Club Cup for Women started with the first round in Antalya, Kemer. Ther big suprise in the team results was the Kosovian Club Prishtina winning against Strasbourg Chess Club with a field including grandmasters despite having much lower ratings. See the link below to see the individual upsets including a former world champion and two former world championship contender.

You can see the videos prepeared at VIDEOS link of the Tournament Page. A video from the Opening Ceremony is available on the link.

Furthermore, among the individual results there were some upsets such as former World Champion GM Kasımdzhanov and former contenders GM Short and GM Kamsky made draws with their opponents IM Maki(2405), Briscoe(2273), GM Johannessen(2536), respectively.

All of the Turkish teams lost but there were some successful individual results such as IM Erturan who gained a GM norm in Italy last month made a draw against GM Vadim Milov. IM Erdoğdu made a draw against GM Tomashevsky to score his team's only point against their strong opponents.

There are six teams that won their first round match by the largest margin possible leading the event: Ural Sverdlovskaya, Alkaloid, Hamburger SK, Herzilya Chess Club, Vilnius Chess-Bridge Club, Scachfreunde Reichenstein ve Utrecht.

In Women's European Clup Cup, there were no surprises in team results. The most sensational individual upset was former world champion legendary Maia Chiburdanidze's draw against WIM Bendsorp. Two-time Under 16 European Champion WFM Kübra Öztürk of Beşiktaş faced a star of women's chess former European Individual Champion for Women WGM Natalya Zhukova and got close to a draw. All of the Turkish teams lost their first round struggles. Looking at the individual results WIM Betül Cemre Yıldız won against IM Sopio Gvetatze of Interplast Tbilissi. The three teams having 2 match points are ; AVS Krasnotourinsk, Southern Ural Cheliabinsk and Economist Saratov and they have 4 board points after the first round.

Tournament Page