After the opening ceremony finally it was time for action in Ankara!
The first round saw two heavily fought matches in Ankara: Asia vs. Africa and Europe vs Russia-Turkey with Team America resting today. The competitive spirit of the players was absolutely laudable, in fact on two boards games lasted almost until the fifth hour. The fighting spirit didn't mean the lack of friendliness obviously, on the contrary the friendly exchanges between players outside the tournament hall, usually by the coffee break stand where there are delicious cookies to be found, were also worth seeing.
If we look at the games from the first round we see that on lower boards where the difference in playing strength proves to be more crucial the games mostly came to a quick end, with the exception of the hard-fought game Masoud (Africa) - Kozhakhmetov (Asia) in which the Kazakh player played quite a decent game to score the full point in a crucial victory. Zabeib (Africa) - Bairamov (Asia) on the second board of the same match was a positional masterclass from the Egyptian player, it's definitely one of the most instructive games of the round. On third board Messela (Africa) spotted a great move in this critical position, a fine example for line clearance:
Arstanbekov - Messela
Black to play
In this Sveshnikov position Messela punished Arstanbekov for his recklessness with a thematic line clearance move 13...d5!! Qb4+ threat is simply too strong and Messela went on to win a fine game afterwards.
Another interesting turning point was witnessed on the first board. Six-times IPCA Women's World Champion Jennitha Anto was paired against the strong IM Campos from Angola and it seems that she missed a win:
Jennitha Anto K. - Campos White to play
33.Rd6? The six-times IPCA Women's World Champion falters against her strong opponent
[33.Rd3! was winning. The dual threat of Rxc3 and Rde3 is decisive. 33...Nxa4 (33...Ne4 is the best but not quite enough: 34.f3 b6 35.Nb7 Ra7 36.fxe4 Rxb7 37.exf5 Bxf5 38.Rxe8 Bxd3 39.Bxc6 White is a comfortable pawn up, the rest is a matter of technique as they say.) 34.Rde3 Kf7 35.Nxb7 Now after Kf7 this move comes with the threat of Nd6. It's all over.]
33...Bf7 [After this the game simplifies to an inevitable draw. The queenside pawns perish and with it any hope of winning for both sides.]
However this miss didn't have any significance on the final result as Team Asia beat Team Africa 3,5-2,5 anyway!
In the other match of the day, two of the highest rated players of the championship IM Yarmonov and FM Babarykin played against each other. The clash of titans proved to be too evenly matched and the game always revolved around equality despite lasting 5 hours. On the third board Choroszej - Sahin game had seen the Turkish player pressing for a win for a while but in the end it didn't prove to be enough. The sole win for the team Russia - Turkey came from IM Obodchuk on the second board. The final position is quite picturesque:
Obodchuk - Draghici Flutur
The march to the victory! Black is absolutely helpless.
With Team Europe sweeping the lower boards 3-0 with victories of Moldovanovic, Scheffner and Gerasimova the score was decided in favor of Team Europe: 4-2!
Tomorrow the championship will continue with the second round at 15:00 local time. Stay tuned for the Russia-Turkey vs Asia and Americas vs. Europe matches!
Various scenes from the round, more to find in the Photo Gallery (Photos:Dora L Martinez, Event Photographer)
Obodchuk (White) vs Draghici Flutur
First board in the Asia - Africa match. The chief arbiter Dirk Jordan watching the games in the back
Classy on and off the board: Jamal Messela from Morocco pulled a nice move out of his hat today
Games With Short Analyses
[Event "1st FIDE Confederation Cup for the Disab"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2019.12.09"] [Round "1.1"] [White "Jennitha, Anto K."] [Black "Campos, Eugenio"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A05"] [WhiteElo "1972"] [BlackElo "2259"] [Annotator ""] [PlyCount "104"] [EventDate "2019.??.??"] [WhiteTeam "India"] [BlackTeam "Angola"] [WhiteTeamCountry "IND"] [BlackTeamCountry "ANG"] [WhiteClock "1:30:00"] [BlackClock "1:30:00"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. d3 O-O 5. O-O d6 6. Nbd2 e5 7. e4 Nc6 8. Re1 Re8 9. Nf1 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Ne3 Nb6 12. Nd2 Nd4 13. Ndc4 c6 14. Nxb6 axb6 15. c3 Ne6 16. Nc4 f6 17. Be3 Ra6 18. b4 b5 19. Na5 Nc7 20. Qd2 Nd5 21. Bc5 Qd7 22. c4 Nc7 23. Qe3 f5 24. Rad1 Ne6 25. d4 exd4 26. Bxd4 Nc7 27. Be5 Qf7 28. Qc3 Be6 29. Bxg7 Qxg7 30. Qxg7+ Kxg7 31. cxb5 Nxb5 32. a4 Nc3 {The critical moment of the game} 33. Rd6 $2 {The six-times IPCA Women's World Champion falters against her strong opponent.} (33. Rd3 $1 {was winning. The dual threat of Rxc3 and Rde3 is decisive.} Nxa4 (33... Ne4 {is the best but not quite enough:} 34. f3 b6 35. Nb7 Ra7 36. fxe4 Rxb7 37. exf5 Bxf5 38. Rxe8 Bxd3 39. Bxc6 { White is a comfortable pawn up, the rest is a matter of technique as they say.} ) 34. Rde3 Kf7 35. Nxb7 {Now after Kf7 this move comes with the threat of Nd6. It's all over.}) 33... Bf7 {After this the game simplifies to an inevitable draw. The queenside pawns perish and with it any hope of winning for both sides.} 34. Rxe8 Bxe8 35. Nxb7 Rxa4 36. Bxc6 Rxb4 37. Bxe8 Rxb7 38. Rd7+ Rxd7 39. Bxd7 Kf6 40. f4 Ke7 41. Bc6 Kd6 42. Be8 Ne4 43. Bf7 Kc5 44. Kf1 Kd4 45. Ke2 Nc3+ 46. Kf3 Ne4 47. Ke2 Nf6 48. Kf3 Kd3 49. h3 Ne4 50. Bg8 Nf6 51. Bf7 Ne4 52. Bg8 Nf6 1/2-1/2
[Event "1st FIDE Confederation Cup for the Disab"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2019.12.09"] [Round "1.2"] [White "Obodchuk, Andrei"] [Black "Draghici Flutur, Gavril"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D22"] [WhiteElo "2296"] [BlackElo "2131"] [Annotator ""] [PlyCount "73"] [EventDate "2019.??.??"] [WhiteTeam "Russia"] [BlackTeam "Spain"] [WhiteTeamCountry "RUS"] [BlackTeamCountry "ESP"] [WhiteClock "1:30:00"] [BlackClock "1:30:00"] 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 Bg4 5. Bxc4 e6 6. Nc3 a6 7. h3 Bh5 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 c5 10. d5 b5 11. Be2 b4 (11... Nxd5 12. Nxg6 hxg6 13. Nxd5 exd5 14. Bf3 Ra7) 12. Qa4+ Nbd7 13. dxe6 fxe6 14. Nxg6 hxg6 15. Nb1 Kf7 16. g5 Nb6 17. Qd1 Ne4 18. Qxd8 Rxd8 19. Nd2 Nxg5 20. Bxa6 Rxh3 21. Rxh3 Nxh3 22. Nf3 Kf6 23. b3 Ng5 $2 {The deadly fianchetto development of c1-bishop needed to be avoided even at all costs.} (23... c4 24. bxc4 Na4 {with counterplay}) 24. Bb2+ Kf5 25. Ne5 (25. Nxg5 {was quite instructive} Kxg5 26. Ke2 {Black king is absolutey homeless!}) 25... c4 26. Bd4 Bd6 $2 {Inviting exchanges which only lead to a lost endgame for black} (26... Nd7 27. Nc6 Ra8 28. Bxc4 e5 {was the last chance }) 27. Bxb6 Bxe5 28. Bxd8 Bxa1 29. Bxc4 Nf3+ 30. Ke2 Ne5 31. Bd3+ $1 { Simplifying} Nxd3 32. Kxd3 e5 33. Kc4 Bc3 34. a4 Be1 35. Bh4 Kg4 36. Bg3 Kf3 37. a5 {The pawn is marching all the way to become a queen. A nice win from Obodchuk.} 1-0
[Event "1st FIDE Confederation Cup for the Disab"] [Site "chess24.com"] [Date "2019.12.09"] [Round "1.3"] [White "Arstanbekov, Dzhanysh"] [Black "Messala, Jamal"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B33"] [WhiteElo "1713"] [BlackElo "1982"] [Annotator ""] [PlyCount "48"] [EventDate "2019.??.??"] [WhiteTeam "Kyrgyzstan"] [BlackTeam "Morocco"] [WhiteTeamCountry "KGZ"] [BlackTeamCountry "MAR"] [WhiteClock "1:30:00"] [BlackClock "1:30:00"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Bxf6 gxf6 9. Na3 b5 10. Nd5 Bg7 11. Qh5 Ne7 12. Nxe7 Qxe7 13. c4 $2 d5 $1 { Messala doesn't miss his chance to open the diagonal for his queen. Qb4 check is a lethal threat} 14. O-O-O (14. Nc2 {was better but in any case Black has a significant advantage}) 14... dxc4 {Black went on to win a fine game:} 15. Nc2 Be6 16. Ne3 c3 17. Nd5 Bxd5 18. exd5 Qb4 19. bxc3 Qxc3+ 20. Kb1 Qb4+ 21. Ka1 f5 22. Qg5 O-O 23. Rb1 Qc3+ 24. Rb2 e4 0-1
After the opening ceremony finally it was time for action in Ankara! 
