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Update Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo in the Women's section and URAL Sverdlovskaya in the Open section won the European Club Cup tournaments. An astounding fact - Vladimir Malakhov and Artashes Minasian won every single round and ended up with rating performances of 3187 and 3002 respectively. Note that Minasian played in 6 rounds of the possible 7 rounds. ____________________________________________________ After the 6th round of the European Club Cup being held at Kallithea, OSG Baden-Baden e.V and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo lead the standings in the Open and the Women's sections respectively. Carlsen, who is a member of OSG Baden-Baden, lost to Ivanchuk yesterday. Here's the game. Note the mistakes by Carlsen at move 26 and 27. 26 ... Qc7? (27 g5 Nh7 28 f4 gives long term advantage. Ivanchuk chose another, equally sound line with 27 c5) 27 ... Rcd8 ?. Its the beginning of the end. Ivanchuk - Carlsen 1-0

Here's an interesting game from the European Club Cup. Sasikiran, who is relatively new to the 2700+ club, is up against Radjabov. Even though Teimour Radjabov is much younger, he has tremendous experience playing at the highest levels and it shows. Sasi (as he is affectionately called), is nervous at accepting pawn sacrifices twice (heard - when in doubt, accept sacrifices?), and eventually blunders. Radjabov finishes off Sasi in style in the end. Note that Radjabov offers a pawn on moves 13 and 32. Although the offer at move 13 can prove dangerous, Sasi could have taken the pawn offered on move 32. Sasikiran - Radjabov 0-1

The European Club Cup (ECC) which had amazing success last year, has started now. The 2008 edition of the championship boasts who's who of the chess world except of course, Anand and Kramnik. 64 teams participate in the Open even and 18 in the Women's section. We'll bring the games as they happen. Expect some beautiful games. Round 2 is on October 18, 2008. The cash rich European clubs have heavyweights in their teams. Sample this list in the Open team event. Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Carlsen, Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Shirov, Svidler, Aronian, Yue, Adams, Grischuk, Karjakin, Kamsky, Gelfand, Ponomariov, and many other stars. In the women's section, the top five are rated so high that they can form a strong team together even if they competed in the Open section! Humpy, Xie Jun(!), Hou Yifan, Stefanova, Cramling, Xue, Cmilyte, Lahno, Muzychuk, Chiburdanidze, Zhukova, and others.