GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Viswanathan Anand, the 2 greatest names in motion on the 2022 European Club Cup in Mayrhofen, Austria, needed to accept attracts within the first spherical. The event is a seven-round Swiss occasion for European membership groups, with open and ladies sections.

Mayrhofen, a city within the Austrian state of Tyrol, was purported to welcome the European golf equipment two years in the past, when the Austrian Chess Federation celebrated its a hundredth anniversary. Alas, the pandemic made that unattainable however now, in 2022, the occasion is happening in any case.

The Austrians are internet hosting a file variety of 87 golf equipment: 70 within the open part and 17 within the girls’s part. That would most likely have been much more if Russian groups might have participated.

Open event

The open event is additional particular because of the participation of two world champions. Carlsen, who’s at a chess occasion in Austria for the primary time since he was 10 years previous, performs for his Offerspill Chess Club from Norway, the seventh seeded workforce with GM Aryan Tari alongside 5 extra Norwegians, but in addition Chessbrah GM Eric Hansen on board three.

Now a FIDE Vice President, Anand performs for the highest seeds, CSU ASE Superbet, the Romanian membership with the identical sponsor because the tremendous event that has been held within the nation lately. The workforce additionally consists of GM Richard Rapport, who has accomplished his switch to the Romanian Chess Federation. Interestingly, GM Gukesh D., the beginning of the Chennai Olympiad, can be on this workforce.

Other robust gamers within the discipline embrace GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Schachclub Viernheim), GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier), and GM Arjun Erigaisi (SK Ljubljana).

As it occurred, each world champions performed with the black items in spherical one and each needed to accept attracts.

The Latvian GM Nikita Meshkovs performed a really stable sport towards Carlsen, who by no means had lifelike probabilities to play for a win and misplaced 3.4 Elo factors with this outcome.

In this match vs. Vammalan Shakkikerho, all different 5 boards gained for Offerspill, which isn’t shocking since golf equipment of very totally different ranges are paired towards one another within the early rounds. In this case, Meshkovs was the one GM alongside two FMs, a CM, and two untitled gamers.

It was the identical state of affairs for CSU ASE Superbet, who additionally gained 5.5-0.5 vs. Iceland’s Viking Chess Club whereas Anand performed an uneventful draw with former prime GM Johann Hjartarson.

Five groups did win with a 6-0 rating: Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier, SK Ljubljana, Schachclub Viernheim, Kfar Saba Chess Club, and De Pluspion Wachtebeke.

Asnieres Le Grand Echiquier’s prime board GM Andrey Esipenko gained a fast and good sport towards IM Frode Elsness of Bærum Schakselskap, one other membership from Norway.

Those early rounds are particularly attention-grabbing for beginner gamers, who generally get an opportunity to play towards a powerful grandmaster. In the match Novy Bor vs. Apeldoorn, the Dutch, untitled participant Tom Meurs (2250) outplayed his 2600-opponent fully within the opening however did not win a successful endgame:

Women’s event

The girls’s part is far smaller, but in addition has two world champions taking part in. GM Mariya Muzychuk, the 2015-2016 girls’s world champion and taking part in for  SK Ljubljana, confronted her older sister GM Anna Muzychuk (taking part in for Monte Carlo) within the first spherical—a sport that, not unexpectedly, resulted in a draw.

Fully named Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo, the highest seeded workforce has the opposite former world champion on board two: GM Antoaneta Stefanova. She additionally drew her sport and so did board three GM Pia Cramling, nevertheless it was IM Elisabeth Paehtz who determined the match on board 4.

As there aren’t any Russian workforce right here both, Monte Carlo’s greatest rival is CSU ASE Superbet, who play with IMs Irina Bulmaga, Dinara Saduakassova, Ekaterina Atalik, Marsel Efroimski, and WGM Jovana Rapport. Leaving Bulmaga out for this primary spherical, the workforce scored a convincing 3.5-0.5 win vs. Sirmium (Serbia).

Saduakassova’s knights should have pushed WGM Jovana Eric loopy on this sport.

The thirty seventh European Club Cup and the twenty sixth European Women’s Chess Club Cup takes place October 3-9, 2022 in Mayrhofen, Austria. Both occasions are a seven-round Swiss with groups of six gamers within the open part and groups of 4 within the girls’s part. The time management is 90 minutes for 40 strikes plus half-hour for the remainder of the sport with an increment of 30 seconds per transfer, ranging from transfer one.