European Team Championship
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
October 10-21
Official Website

Scottish Results

Play over Scot games

The beautiful city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria hosts the European team championship from October 10th to 21st. 37 men's and 32 women's teams have confirmed their participation.

• Scottish Mens Team
• Board 1: John Shaw, IM 2465
• Board 2: Stephen Mannion IM 2348
• Board 3: Andrew Muir IM 2294
• Board 4: Tim Upton FM 2287
• Board 5: Neil Berry FM 2300

Rd9, October 20: Scotland 3½-Wales ½

Rd8, October 19: Scotland 1½-Italy 2½

Rd7, October 18: Scotland 2½-Austria 1½

Rd6, October 17: Scotland 2-Cyprus 2

Rest Day, October 16

Rd5, October 15: Bye

Rd4, October 14: Scotland ½-Bosnia 3½

Rd3, October 13: Scotland 1½-Iceland 2½

Rd2, October 12: Scotland 1½-Bulgaria B 2½

Rd1, October 11: Scotland 1-Azerbaijan 3

Oct 14: Neil Berry reports....Its been tough so far...we could have got something in round 2, and
certainly in round 3, but unfortunately we were on the wrong side of 2.5-1.5 scorelines, and have the bye today (typically its no longer sunny). Tomorrow is a rest day

Apart from having a complaint about the existence of a bye, the method of deciding who gets it is unsatisfactory. After yesterday I think we probably deserved it today, but other teams who have had it can consider themselves unfortunate. The bye falls to the team on the least number of match points
with the lowest rating. So it doesn't matter if you lose 1.5-2.5 or 0-4, its still a defeat and no points. I believe that game points will be used as a tiebreak for the final positions.

Round 1 proved as difficuilt as expected. I knew all about Radjabov beforehand, but not a lot about Mamedyarov, who was frankly awesome against Steve. John had a good position, but then went wrong in the complications. Tim and Andy had good draws, so overall the result was OK. The Azerbaijanis
have proved to be in good form, with three wins and a draw from their 4 matches.

Round 2: John had a very comfortable draw on board 1. I was offered a draw in a position that looked good for me, but was actually rather murky (I could have played more incisively earlier on). Anyway, Tim and Andy both looked under pressure, so I played on. Then the position went random in mutual time pressure, and my opponent played a series of good moves very quickly, and I found myself in what Dougie might call "1-ply mode", i.e. I was playing moves with the sole objective of not hanging anything. Pretty soon I was tied up in knots and was busted. The 30 second increment sounds a lot, but you have to keep recording, so its a lot harder than it looks. Tim and Andy both held the draw, so this proved to be the decisive match.

Round 3: John again was rock solid on board 1, another GM content to make a draw with white. When I drew my game things were looking good- Steve was a pawn up in an ending, and Andy had just landed an enormous tactic that swung the game back in his favour. Unfortunately, Steve only drew, and Andy used up most of his remaining time trying to find a mate (with his opponents king wandering around the middle of the board), but there was none - it later transpired that the best he could get was a better ending. He went astray and lost.

Yesterday started badly with the hotel's water supply packed in, with half our team not yet showered. Bosnia were a ridiculously hard pairing us - they had an all GM line up, and we were convincingly beaten. Steve played well, and was pressing for a win, but the rest of us can have no compaints. Steve's other notable achievement that day was falling asleep in the "Club Infinity" nightclub in the early hours.

Oct 11: Hello from sunny Plovdiv!
I've been left on the bench for Scotland's round 1 match against Azerbaijan. It's a tough assignment- they beat the Olympiad team 2.5-1.5 in Bled (I think), and contain Teimur Radjabov (victor over Kasparov in Linares) and world junior champion Mamedyarov.

Elsewhere, I would imagine that the big story will be that Ruslan Ponomariov has lost his game due to a rule stating that anyone even carrying a mobile phone during the game will automatically lose. The Ukranian board 1's phone went off during his game with Swedish GM Agrest.

Anyway, the hotel and venue are both very nice indeed. The one gripe we have is that it looks like there will be a bye each round, although there is a rumour of a "Bulgaria 3" team to be mustered from somewhere. I hope to be in the team tomorrow, but am a bit nervous about the time control (all moves in 90 + 30 sec increment each move), as it will be my first experience of a long game without the dash to move 36/40. I guess it's a question of getting used to it. (NB)