Italy Upsets Azerbaijan In Round 1 European Teams

The European Team Championship started on Saturday in Crete, Greece, The first round saw an upset on the high boards as one of the favorites, Azerbaijan, lost to Italy.

The European Team Championship takes place 28 October - 6 November in the Creta Maris Resort in Hersonissos, Crete, Greece. The Open section has 40 teams with in total 199 players, including 138 grandmasters. World Cup winner and newly wed Levon Aronian is the highest rated participant (but didn't play in the first round):

Top 20 Participants in Crete

Teams consist of four players but countries are allowed to bring one extra player. The tournament is a 9-round Swiss. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting from move one. Draw offers are only allowed after move 30.

In the open section the two teams with an average rating above 2700 should be considered the main favorites: Russia (playing with Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxim Matlakov, Nikita Vitiugov and Daniil Dubov) and Azerbaijan (Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Arkadij Naiditsch, Rauf Mamedov, and Gadir Guseinov).

Here's an overview of the 10 strongest countries playing:

2017 European Team Championship | Top 10 Teams

The women's tournament is also a 9-round Swiss. This will be covered in a separate report.

Back to the open section, where the first round started with a big upset as Italy managed to beat Azerbaijan 2.5-1.5. On the first three boards Vocaturo drew with Radjabov,  Brunello beat Naiditsch and Dvirnyy lost to Mamedov. The big hero was 17-year-old GM (in the tournament still listed as IM) Luca Moroni who won against GM Gadir Guseinov as Black on board four:

England started with a slightly disappointing 2-2 vs Moldova with two draws, Luke McShane winning on board four but Nigel Short, who just won a tournament in the Philippines last week, lost and endgame to Viktor Bologan that should have been a draw:

A young Norwegian team consisting of Jon Ludvig Hammer (Magnus Carlsen sadly isn't playing this year, unlike two years ago in Reykjavik), Johan Salomon, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen and Benjamin Notkevich tied 2-2 with Israel who played with Boris Gelfand, Maxim Rodsthein, Emil Sutovsky and Ilya Smirin. Here's the win by Christiansen:

At 27, Jon Ludvig Hammer is the oldest player in the Norwegian team. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

As the organizing country, Greece is playing with three teams: Greece 1, Greece 2 and Greece Crete. Their second team held Germany to 2-2. That was it, in terms of surprising results.

Germany's Georg Meier and Matthias Bluebaum. | Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Jorden van Foreest travelled straight from the Hoogeveen tournament to Crete, just like tournament director Loek van Wely, who is the Dutch team captain. Board 4 of the Netherlands won a very long game:

Tomorrow we'll see even bigger clashes. Basically every round this tournament guarantees interesting matchups!

ETCC 2017 | Top Pairings, Round 2

Games from TWIC.