Gawain Jones Leads In Euro Individual 2012

25 March 2012, Kuala Lumpur – In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Gawain Jones of England has taken sole lead after round 4 in the 13th European Individual Chess Championship 2012. He beat Boris Savchenko of Russia on fifth board.

The official website of the European Individual Chess Championship 2012 reported that Gawain Jones 2635 (ENG) defeated Boris Savchenko 2580 (RUS) on board five and has become a sole leader with a perfect score after today’s fourth round achieving the fantastic rating performance of 3317. All other games on the first twelve boards were drawn, however not without lots of interesting collisions lasting for more than five hours.

 
In the Plovdiv hall of Novotel Plovdiv there was not a single game to finish before the first two hours. The first score was registered in the "Moscow" Hall  on  board 117 between Romain Edouard (FRA) and Nicolas Grandadam (SUI), which ended in less than 1.5 hours.

The game that  focused the attention of the  local fans was  played on board  six between Bulgarian champion Julian Radulski  and  top seed Fabiano Caruana  from  Italy. In  a worse position, playing black, the Bulgarian  GM  defended  cleverly  and drew the game in 72 moves.
Most of the  top  Bulgarian GMs also had a successful day today.

Aleksander Delchev 2622 (BUL)performed active play with the black pieces and drew his game against Etienne Bacrot  2706 (FRA).  Ivan Cheparinov 2664  (BUL)  won convincingly against Aleksandr Shimanov  2591 (RUS). Also Kiril Georgiev 2671  (BUL) defeated  with the black pieces Alexander Ipatov 2561 (TUR).

 
Boris Chatalbashev  2570 lost against Vladimir Malakhov  2705 (RUS) while  Petar Drenchev 2499 (BUL) drew against Viktor Erdos 2631 (HUN). Julian Radulski and Ivan Cheparinov have 3.5/4.0 points  followed by Kiril Georgiev and Alexander Delchev with 3 etc.

Romanian WGM  Irina Bulmaga 2307  continued her  successful race by winning this  time against Hungarian  Robert Ruck 2579. Bulmaga  has  now 3.0/4.0 points and is the best performing woman so far.

Antoaneta Stefanova  2531 (BUL) has 2.5/4.0 after defeating with  the  black pieces Asaf Givon  2340 (ISR) in only 18 moves.

Bartosz Socko 2647 from Poland played unconvincingly and lost against Hovhannes Gabuzyan 2441  (ARM).  Also  Vladimir Onischuk  2516 (UKR) suffered defeat against  14-year-old youngster Alexander Donchenko 2309 (GER) while Dragan Solak 2602 (TUR) lost against Kirill Alekseenko 2367 (RUS).

Gawain Jones  2635  (ENG)  takes sole  lead after the fourth round  with 4.0/4.0 followed by  nineteen  players with 3.5/4.0 etc.

In the fifth round Gawain Jones will play against Nikita Vitiugov. Some other pairings:
Kiril Georgiev 2671 - Illya Nyzhnyk 2585
Julian Radulski 2552 - Ivan Cheparinov 2664
Alexander Delchev 2622 - Francisco Vallejo Pons 2693
Momchil Nikolov 2550 - Eltaj Safarli 2645
Antoaneta Stefanova 2531 - Andrei Istratescu 2633

Here is the fourth round game between Savchenko and Jones which gave Jones an unassailable 4.0 points from four games of play. Jones plays black.

Official website: http://www.eicc2012.eu

13th European Individual Championship 2012 (Plovdiv BUL)
Tue 20th Mar 2012 - Sat 31st Mar 2012 - Official Site - Results - Live

European Individuals (11 Rds Swiss Indiv TC:90m:30m+30spm(1)) - Games in PGN: Games |Live