Chaotic Spanish League reaches semi-finals
![Spanish League reaches semi-finals](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/proxy/www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/spanishteams10/shirov_pono2/http/4eb74da273.jpg)
Spanish Team Ch 2010 | Teams & Players
Rounds 3-4
In our previous report we stated that "the final two rounds will settle the qualification for the play-offs later this year", as it's always been. However, this is not true. In fact the Spanish federation changed the system completely, and after four rounds it has become clear that it hasn't been an improvement.A similar system is being used as in this year's U.S. Championship. After four rounds of Swiss, the first four teams play semi-finals and the winners play a final to decide the champion. The first four rounds we re paired according to the Swiss system.In team competitions this is asking for trouble, if you ask us, and indeed already in the fourth round the first problems arose. What was the case? After three rounds Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote, Reverté Albox and Solvay were on five points, Linex-Magic on four and the rest of the field on two points or less. The teams of Linex-Magic and Solvay had to play each other, and so a draw would secure a spot in the semis.And indeed the players agreed to draw all games before the first move - something the arbiters found out about. The round was delayed for fourty minutes and at some point the arbiters were threatening to declare one team as the winner and one as the loser. All this was told to us by one of the players in Sestao.Eventually the match was played and the teams drew quickly on six boards. Ironically, Linex-Magic and Solvay meet each other again, today.On Wednesday the teams of Solvay (with Indians Harikrishna, Ganguly and Negi on the first three boards) and Reverté Albox (with Dreev, Krasenkow and Mchedlishvili) drew on all six boards.![Indians Harikrishna, Ganguly and Negi](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/proxy/www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/spanishteams10/indians/http/6d0467820a.jpg)
L-R Indians Parimarjan Negi, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pentala Harikrishna
![Vachier-Lagrave, Short and Moiseenko of Sestao Naturgas](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/proxy/www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/spanishteams10/short/http/897ff2be67.jpg)
L-R Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nigel Short and Alexander Moiseenko
![Spanish Team Championship 2010 | Round 4 Standings](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/proxy/www.chessvibes.com/tabellen/spanishteams10_r4/http/705c4e2fe5.jpg)
Games rounds 3-4
Game viewer by ChessTempo![Gustafsson, Smeets, Vallejo and Gashimov playing for Escuela Int. Kasparov-Marcote](https://images.chesscomfiles.com/proxy/www.chessvibes.com/plaatjes/spanishteams10/vallejo/http/4f3357b1a7.jpg)
L-R Jan Gustafsson, Jan Smeets, Francisco Vallejo and Vugar Gashimov
Photos © FEDA