The 2016 world title challenger sat out three rounds when he needs ranking points to challenge Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So for a Candidates place

The European Club Cup in Antalya, Turkey, has its seventh and final round on Saturday, when all the games can be viewed live and free on the internet (1pm start). Matches are decided over six boards and, as has become traditional, the 36 competing teams are a mismatch. Genuine clubs fielding mostly amateur experts face an unequal battle against the handful of sponsored elite grandmaster squads who will fight for the title and medals.

The top seeds are Globus, formerly Siberia but now with a different backer. Globus’s average rating is 40 points higher than that of their nearest rivals Alkaloid Macedonia, and the Russian team’s star line-up includes Vlad Kramnik and, on fourth board, the 2016 world title challenger Sergey Karjakin.

However, these super-talents have misfired badly. Following a narrow 3.5-2.5 third round win against the Czech team Novy Bor, the 2013 champions, Globus could only draw 3-3 in rounds five and six, all 12 games being halved, against both Alkaloid and the unconsidered Azeri sixth seeds, Odlar Yurdu, who thus have 11 points going into the final round against Globus’s 10.

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Yet in the early rounds the talking point was rather the strange behaviour of the former world champion Kramnik, who is supposed to be battling with the Americans Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So for the two rating places in the 2018 Candidates, the eight-player event to decide Magnus Carlsen’s next world title challenger.

There are persistent and growing rumours that London in November 2018 will shortly be announced as the venue and date for the championship match itself.

After his terrible start at the Isle of Man Open last month, when he lost to Caruana and to 65-year-old James Tarjan and drew with IM Lawrence Trent, Kramnik fought back, regained most of his lost rating points, and declared that he would take the fight with Caruana and So down to the wire by playing not just the Eurocup, but also the European national teams championship in November which is the final event before the 1 December ratings cut-off date.

But Kramnik sat out round one in Antalya against an Icelander more than 200 points lower, then bizarrely also missed round two and White against a 2672-rated GM. If he had played and won both, he would have kept on schedule in his race with So and Caruana. Kramnik then made a tame draw with a 2740 player before again missing round four.

It seems that he has given up the race without a fight. Is he, then, out of the Candidates? Not quite. Though the tournament is in Berlin, the likely sponsors are Russian as they were in 2016, so Kramnik could yet be awarded the final wildcard place.

The two English teams in the Eurocup, 3Cs and White Rose, were the highest available finishers in last season’s national 4NCL league. Starting out as an Oldham children’s club, 3Cs has blossomed into the strongest club in North-West England, with an impressive record in developing young talent.

Results in the early Eurocup rounds did not disappoint as 3Cs defeated an Icelandic team 4.5-1.5, then crushed Kosovan opponents 5-1. Before that the team lost heavily to the No5 seeds, Legacy Square Capital of Moscow, but even here there was a fine individual performance as Adam Ashton drew with GM Vladimir Malakhov despite a rating gap of over 500 points.

Daniel Abbas, 18, is top board for 3Cs. The Manchester Grammar schoolboy, one of the best English juniors, had a baptism of fire in this week’s game against the 2016 European champion but recovered well in later rounds. His play below was a touch too passive. At move 13, a4-a5 is a more active plan, while 16 Qc1? loses the thread where 16 Ng3 Qf7 17 Nxh5 Qxh5 18 f4 keeps White in the game. As played, GM Inarkiev, who got his first name Ernesto from Che Guevara, built up a logically remorseless multi piece attack which eventually broke through for mate.

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Daniel Abbas v Ernesto Inarkiev

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 g6 4 Bxc6 dxc6 5 d3 Bg7 6 h3 b6 7 Nc3 e5 8 Be3 Qe7 9 0-0 Nf6 10 Qd2 h6 11 b3 Nh5 12 Ne2 Bd7 13 Nh2?! f5 14 exf5 gxf5 15 Rae1 0-0-0 16 Qc1? Rhg8 17 Kh1 Be6 18 f3 Bf6 19 a4 Bh4 20 Bf2 Bxf2 21 Rxf2 Qh4 22 Ref1 f4 23 Qe1 Rg5 24 Rg1 Rdg8 25 Rff1 Ng3+ 26 Nxg3 fxg3 27 f4 Rh5 28 Qe4 Bd5 29 Nf3 Qg4 30 Qxe5 Rxh3+ 31 gxh3 Qxh3 mate

3516 The false trail is 1 Rd8?? Qxa6 2 c8Q Qa1+ 3 Kg2 Qf1 mate. Instead White wins by 1 Rc1! Qxa6 2 Rxc4! bxc4 3 Qh3! and queens.