The vagaries of daylight saving time (DST) had a major impact on the Euro Championships at Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Europeans push their clocks forward (0900 becomes 1000). The idea is to have longer hours of evening sunshine.
DST is confusing enough for locals, who are prone to miss flights, etc., on changeover day. For Trans-Caucasians like Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, etc., who are European only in sporting terms, it’s totally opaque.
So it was disaster waiting to happen when Bulgaria switched over during the Euro. The entire Georgian squad turned their personal clocks (more likely cellphones) back by one hour. As a result, they defaulted en masse in round six. This was especially tragic for IM Shota Azaladze, who was joint leader on 4.0/5 with a 2878 performance, and for the untitled Davit Lomsadze, who had 3.5 and a 2741 performance.
Round eight saw another lunatic default when Shakhriyar Mamedaryov was 10 seconds late iu sitting down and defaulted on the absurd zero-tolerance rule. Zero-tolerance has become one of those fads that would be silly if it wasn’t tragic.
After all this, Vladimir Akopian, Vladimir Malakhov and Maxim Matlakov shared the lead with 6.5 points from eight games. There’s a pack of 16 at 6 points. One major disappointment has been Anish Giri who has suffered three losses so far.
Meanwhile, the 2012 Candidates has been postponed to March 2013 to prevent clashes with the Grand Slam circuit and the London Classic. London remains the venue. This should make various players who were committed elsewhere happy.
The new sponsor, Agon, took note of the unhappy feedback from various players and organisers and decided to avoid conflicts with extant schedules. Incidentally, the newly announced schedule has a title match in late 2013, and another title match in 2014. If this is adhered to, it will mean three title matches in three successive years. That’s an odd cluster, given the billing as a two-year title cycle. It will put enormous pressure on the top eight who will perforce, be forced to focus on the candidates and title cycle.
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The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Naiditsch Vs Sokolov, Ivan, ECU-Ch Plovdiv 2012) is a “clear sky” combination. Black’s pieces are bunched on the Q-side and there are white square weaknesses.
So 27.Bxg6!! This strips the black king. White has to see his 29th. After the forced 27...Rxd1+ 28.Rxd1 hxg6. Refusal by 28...d5 29.Bb1 is no better. 29.Rxd6! Qc7. The fork on f7 allows white to pick up the g6 pawn. 30.Rxg6 Ra6 31.Rxa6 bxa6. For an instant, 31...Qc1+ 32.Kh2 Qxg5 seems a defence but 33.Rxa5 is crushing. Now 32.Qh5+ Kg8 33.Qh7+ Kf8 1-0. Black didn't wait for Ne6+.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
