NEWSLETTER 125 (August 12, 2013) HOANG THANH TRANG - THE 14TH EUROPEAN CHAMPION GM Hoang Thanh Trang (2467) is the new European Champion for 2013! She drew with Viktorija Cmilyte in the last 11th round and won the Championship with 9 points out of maximum 11. The curiosity is that Hoang Trang is the first woman to win both Asian and European Individual Women's Championships. Although Cmilyte had an advantage almost during the whole game, she still didn't manage to win, and with the unfortunate turn of events, she even stayed without the medal, and came 4th. Six players with 8 points tied for the second place, but according to tie-break (Average Rating cut-1) silver medal went to IM Salome Melia (2428) from Georgia, and bronze went to IM Lilit Mkrtchian (2454) from Armenia. Last round brought many exciting games. Monica Socko and Salome Melia played until the last atom of strength was squeezed. Socko was trying to materialize the advantage she had and win the game and the silver medal, but Melia defended well during the whole game and there was nothing more that Socko could do but to finally draw in 150 moves. © Ecuonline.net Page 1 With this draw Socko finished 7th with the worst tie-break among the 6 players. Final Ranking after 11 rounds – first 20 positions Rk. Title Name FED Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4 1 GM Hoang Thanh Trang HUN 9 2421 73 79 7 2 IM Melia Salome GEO 8 2452 73 77 5 3 IM Mkrtchian Lilit ARM 8 2404 71 76 5 4 GM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 8 2393 69 74 5 5 GM Kosteniuk Alexandra RUS 8 2393 67 72 7 6 IM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 8 2388 69 75 6 7 GM Socko Monika POL 8 2360 65 70 5 8 WGM Kashlinskaya Alina RUS 7.5 2433 70 73 6 9 WGM Arabidze Meri GEO 7.5 2432 74 78 5 10 WGM Pogonina Natalija RUS 7.5 2407 68 73 4 11 WGM Kovanova Baira RUS 7.5 2398 70 75 5 12 GM Muzychuk Anna SLO 7.5 2393 69 74 4 13 WGM Girya Olga RUS 7.5 2391 70 75 5 14 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 7.5 2362 65 70 6 15 WGM Ozturk Kubra TUR 7.5 2360 65 69 6 16 GM Cramling Pia SWE 7.5 2356 65 70 5 17 IM Javakhishvili Lela GEO 7.5 2324 59 64 5 18 IM Atalik Ekaterina TUR 7.5 2319 59 64 6 19 IM Milliet Sophie FRA 7.5 2298 61 65 5 Arakhamia-Grant 20 GM Ketevan SCO 7.5 2280 59 64 7 Lilit Mkrtchian defeated Valentina Gunina in a game full of turnovers. The advantage was first in Valentina's hands, but she made many mistakes which Lilit used to turn the game and eventually win the game, which brought her the bronze medal. Wins for the tied second place achieved Alexandra Kosteniuk, who came 5th and Bela Khotenashvili who came 6th. Congratulations to the winners, and to all the participants for the fair play and a great tournament! For results, standings and more information, you can visit the official website of the Championship http://belgrade2013.org © Ecuonline.net Page 2 Official website: http://belgrade2013.org EIWCC BELGRADE 2013 - EXCELLENT HOST AND THE BEST ORGANIZATION SO FAR The tournament started spectacularly, with a beautiful opening ceremony held on 22nd of July in hotel Metropol Palace. At the very beginning of the Championship, one record was broken - this year's number of participants was amazing 169! We witnessed many surprises in the first round already, and during the whole tournament there was a lot of excitement and many great games. Many of the players achieved norms. Salome Melia gained her second GM norm, nine players achieved IM norms, such as Natalija Pogonina, Olga Girya, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Baira Kovanova etc. Lisa Schut achieved WGM norm, and Lanita Stetsko, Sabina Inrahimova and Julia Novkovic won WIM norms. © Ecuonline.net Page 3 In such a strong and long open tournament, everything was „open“. That's why it was difficult to predict who would win, or who the favourites for the title were. GM Hoang played a very solid tournament, managed to stay focused enough not to lose a single game, and these were some of the reasons why she won the title. One of the things that marked this Championship was the sad news about the illness of Slovenian chess player Vesna Rozic. She was supposed to come to Belgrade, but due to her health condition, she had to cancel her participation in this tournament. For this reason the organizers cancelled the traditional „party“, which was supposed to be held on the night before the rest day, and decided to donate the funds reserved for the party for the purposes of Vesna's treatment. Also, the campaign „Let's help Vesna“was started, with the goal to encourage the participants and all the people who were visiting the tournament to donate the money for Vesna's treatment. Like the crown of great organization came the closing ceremony of European Individual Women's Chess Championship, which was held on 3rd August, in „Nikola Tesla“ hall of hotel Metropol Palace in Belgrade. Ms. Sava Stoisavljevic, Chief Arbiter of the Championship, announced the winners, while the trophies were awarded by Mr. Dejan Vasovic, Assistant Mayor of Belgrade, Mr. Miodrag Vukotic, President of Serbian Chess Federation, and Ms. Alisa Maric, © Ecuonline.net Page 4 Minister of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Serbia and Chairperson of the Organizing Committee of the Championship. After the anthem of Hungary, Alisa Maric declared the Championship officially closed. Apart from Alisa Maric, the guests were welcomed by Mr. Vladimir Sakotic, who addressed all those present on behalf of the European Chess Union. Belgrade is well-known for being a very good host, which was proven once again with the organization of this tournament. Everyone was satisfied with the playing conditions and organization. We got many positive comments and many players even said that this has been the best organized European Women's Championship so far. It is certain that they will remember it for a very long time. We surely will do so. Congratulations to the winners, and to all who participated in the tournament and contributed to making this tournament a successful and unforgettable event. SILVIO DANAILOV MEETS WITH THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH CHESS FEDERATION, MR. DIEGO SALAZAR On 1st August, 2013 in Paris the President of the European Chess Union, Mr. Silvio Danailov met with the President of the French Chess Federation, Mr. Diego Salazar. During their meeting, they discussed common projects between ECU and the French Chess Federation. Source of the information: www.danailov-for-president.com © Ecuonline.net Page 5 “POLITIKA” (BELGRADE): CLASHES AT THE EXPENSE OF BELGRADE AND CHESS The chess column of the most influential Serbian daily newspaper “Politika” published on 6th August an article written by the editor of the column, Marjan Kovacevic, International Solving Grandmaster. On the same day, the text was quoted in the best-selling sports daily newspaper in the region “Sportski Zurnal”, under the title: “Paying the price of political games”, and just above the title: “Strange attitude of FIDE towards the European Individual Women’s Chess Championship in Belgrade”. Here is the complete article: Why the European Individual Women’s Championship did not happen for the World Chess Federation and many international chess websites. – Copyrights on games transmission We expected to see at the official website of World Chess Federation (FIDE) some news about the European Women’s Chess Championship in Belgrade, at least after the end of one of the most important and strongest women’s championships in the world this year. But, no, it seems that for FIDE management this European championship did not happen at all. On the other hand, attention was paid to some small tournaments in Asia, America and Africa. The same goes for one of the most popular chess websites ChessBase, while on the website Chessdom, where Goran Urosevic regularly makes efforts to have some news from Serbia published, there was only the final news and standings. Still, on the same day and in a more extensive article, the latter website published the letter of former President of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici who declared the final standings from Belgrade invalid! The reason is of personal and local nature - Ekaterina Atalik (née Polovnikova), the wife of Turkish GM Suat Atalik, didn't play under the flag of Turkey, but as an independent representative of the European Chess Union (ECU). .. By the way, in the final rounds and the final standings there was the name of Turkey writen beside her name; the long-lasting dispute between Mr. Yazici and the Atalik family continues. © Ecuonline.net Page 6 These days the question of ignoring the European Individual Women's Chess Championship in Belgrade was also raised by GM Emil Sutovsky, President of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP), who pointed out that due to the conflict between leaders of the world and European organisations such an attractive tournament as the one in question remained in the background. He also pointed to another reason for the silence of electronic media - copyrights for the transmission of games. Mr. Vladimir Sakotic, Executive Director of the ECU provided us with more details about the whole matter: „Since 2011, our Statutes stipulate that we are the owners of copyrights on transmission of games during their progress and that we can sign contracts with a third party about granting these rights.