GM Alexey Sarana (FIDE, 2668) defeated GM Anton Korobov (UKR, 2658) in today’s 9th round to take the sole lead in the European Individual Chess Championship 2023 with only two rounds to go.
European Individual Chess Championship 2023 live games / European Individual Chess Championship participants
Alexey Sarana was better in a very dynamic position which shortly after transposed into a pawn-up endgame for the 26-year-old grandmaster. Korobov fought but Sarana showed a perfect technique and delivered a victory to get closer to the EICC2023 throne.
It was a draw in the clash of generations which was played on the second board between 23-year-old GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2637) and 54-year-old Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2674). Gledura had a slightly better position out of the opening and grabbed the pawn afterwards. However, the pawn-up wasn’t enough for a better result as Gelfand had very active pieces and easily kept the equality.
Scoring 7 points (each), GM Anton Korobov (UKR, 2658), GM Etienne Bacrot (FRA, 2659), GM Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2637), GM Kirill Shevchenko (ROU, 2668), GM Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2680), GM Valentin Dragnev (AUT, 2561) and GM David Paravyan (FIDE, 2584) tie for the second place.
The 10th penultimate round starts tomorrow at 15:00 CEST with the clash between the two youngsters on the top board. GM Andrey Esipenko will have white pieces against the new leader GM Alexey Sarana. The top 10 pairings are:
Live broadcast of the games can be followed with commentaries by IM Miodrag Perunovic through the ECU YouTube Channel.
