Euro Teams 2: Giri wins stunner

Anish Giri played the game of Round 2 of the European Team Championship in Batumi, scoring a stunning win with the black pieces over Greece’s Ioannis Papaioannou. There was an upset victory for the Czech Republic over 3rd seeds Poland, but elsewhere order was restored. Top seeds England and Russia bounced back from their draws the day before to swap opponents and this time convincingly beat Denmark and Austria 3:1, with Grand Swiss heroes Kirill Alekseenko and David Howell getting back to winning ways.

Giri's game was the one to watch... | photo: official website

You can replay all the games from Round 2 of the 2019 European Team Championship using the selector below:

And here’s the day’s live commentary from GM Valeriane Gaprindashvili and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili:

Radek Wojtaszek joined Jan-Krzysztof Duda for the first time in Batumi, but his win over Viktor Laznicka wasn’t enough to see Poland avoid a surprise 2.5:1.5 defeat to the Czech Republic. Jacek Tomczak and Kamil Dragun had only lost one game combined as Poland just missed out on medals in the Olympiad a year earlier in the same city, but they both lost in Round 2. Jacek was well-beaten by Thai Dai Van Nguyen, but Kamil Dragun was just a couple of moves away from a deserved victory over Jiri Stocek:

As someone pointed out, it’s no less relevant that the f7-pawn is also attacked – Black would have had to resign or give up a full rook, and Poland would have won the match. Instead Kamil picked 26.Rxc5?, when the advantage had gone, and then after 26…g6 he played 27.Rdc1?! but 27…d3!! let Black take over due to the brilliant point 28.Rc8 Bd4+! 29.Kh1 Re1+.

It looked as though Azerbaijan targetted 12-year-old Marc Maurizze as the French team's weak link | photo: official website

Elsewhere at the top the favourites largely won smoothly. Azerbaijan took a professional and some might say even cynical approach to beating France – Rauf Mamedov quickly got a winning position against 12-year-old Marc Maurizzi and then the other three games were all drawn in 31 moves or less. Levon Aronian’s first game in Batumi saw him beat Ivan Saric as Armenia defeated Croatia 3:1, while Paco Vallejo also played his first game as Spain defeated Romania 3:1. Alexei Shirov’s brilliant eye for tactics saw him turn a tricky position around after Mircea-Emilian Parligras’ 25.Bh6!?

25…Rxf3! 26.Rxf3? (26.gxf3 was better) 26…Bxf3 27.gxf3 g5! 28.f4 Qc6+ 29.Kg1 gxf4 30.Bxf4 and White would still be better if not for a final sting in the tail:

30…Qe4! If White exchanges queens now the black rook would be left attacking both bishops. Instead he went for 31.Qd2!? Qxe2 32.Qd8+, which actually came close to earning a draw, but in the end it was a second win in two games for Shirov after his return to the Spanish team.

There were notable recoveries for top seeds Russia and England, who had drawn with Denmark and Austria in Round 1. They swapped opponents, but it seems the Isle of Man “jetlag” had been overcome. Kirill Alekseenko shrugged off a first loss in around 20 games to come straight back and beat 17-year-old Felix Blohberger, who had missed a win against David Howell the day before. Nikita Vitiugov completed a 3:1 win for Russia.

Vassily Ivanchuk is on 2/2 in Batumi before he faces Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Round 3 | photo: official website

England were bolstered by the appearance of Luke McShane, who ground out a trademark 72-move win over Sune Berg Hansen, who had defeated Alekseenko the day before and joked about giving England Brexit. That proved no easier to "deliver" than the political version, as 20-year-old Jesper Thybo, who had beaten Maxim Matlakov a day earlier, was defeated by David Howell – it’s good to see David getting back to winning ways after the tough and expensive end to the Grand Swiss!

Continuing the theme of redemption we have Rasmus Svane, who had been the weak link the day before as Germany were held to a draw by the Republic of North Macedonia but bounced back to score the only win as Germany beat Montenegro in Round 2. Actually the draw with Macedonia also looked better, since the same team also scored a surprise 2:2 draw with Israel in the second round.

A second win for the men in orange! | photo: official website

That brings us to Greece-Netherlands, where there were some early signs of trouble on Jorden van Foreest’s board:

It looked as though he was determined to avoid any draws after 11 on the Isle of Man, but somehow he survived, and his brother Lucas also drew despite having an extra piece. It all came down to Anish Giri to show how it was done, and he managed to do it in stunning style against Ioannis Papioannou. 24…b5!! (the exclamation marks are the World Champion's) invited White to give up a piece for two pawns and what looked like a powerful attacking position:

Play continued 25.Nd6! Rh5 26.Qe3 cxd6 27.Rxd6 Qe7 28.Bxb5, but it would soon turn out that Black was going to do all the attacking in the game, with one of the most of the dominant and picturesque final positions you’re ever likely to see!

No doubt it's all down to the influence of Captain (Radio)Jan!

A game that’s great fun to play through (no quick analysis here could do it justice).

Up next for the Netherlands is a closely balanced match with Spain, with Anish Giri taking on David Anton on top board, after David finished 5th, one spot above Magnus, on the Isle of Man. At the top it’s Ukraine-Azerbaijan and Ivanchuk-Mamedyarov, after Vassily started with two wins. Armenia-Czech Republic and Aronian-Navara also promises to make it a great Saturday in Batumi, while there’s also England-Sweden:

In the women’s section 3rd seeds Ukraine, playing without the Muzychuk sisters, had stumbled in Round 1 and fell in Round 2 to 11th seeds Italy after wins for Marina Brunello and Daniela Movileanu. Spain’s reward for an upset win over Azerbaijan is to face the might of Russia on the top table in Round 3!

Spain face the toughest of tests against Russia, with Sabrina Vega taking on Women's World Championship Challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina | photo: official website

You can follow all the action here on chess24 from 13:15 CEST each day: Open | Women

See also:

• Official website
• All the games with computer analysis on chess24: Open | Women
  
• European Team Championship 1: The Isle of Man Hangover