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Azerbaijan and Ukraine Are The New European Champions

Azerbaijan and Ukraine Are The New European Champions

PeterDoggers
| 7 | Chess Event Coverage

On Sunday Azerbaijan won the European Team Championships in Warsaw, Poland. With a 2.5-1.5 win against Greece in the penultimate round followed by 2-2 against Armenia, the team consisting of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Eltaj Safarli, Rauf Mamedov and Gadir Guseinov finished on 14 match points, one more than France, Russia and Armenia. Ukraine won the women's section ahead of Russia and Poland.

Photo courtesy of the ETC

For most of the tournament France was in the lead, but in the last two rounds it went wrong. Well, the 2-2 against Armenia on Saturday wasn't that bad. Boards 3 and 4 were drawn; Vachier-Lagrave beat Movsesian with black:

On board one Bacrot overpressed and was nicely outcalculated by Aronian:

In the same round Azerbaijan defeated Greece with three draws and one win:

Russia defeated the Netherlands 2.5-1.5 but this match could have ended differently. Giri got a nice advantage against Grischuk but failed to find a good plan and then chose a spectacular way to draw:

Van Kampen got a theoretically winning endgame, but failed to convert it:

As Smeets and Andreikin also drew their game, Svidler was the one who decided the match:

The final round saw the clash between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Black was rather solid in all games, and in the end all ended in draws. This was good news for France, who were having good tiebreaks, but in the end they couldn't hold themselves against Russia. The decisive game in this match was the following.

And so, just like for years ago in Novi Sad, Azerbaijan clinched the gold medals. They didn't lose a single match, and of the 36 individual only 4 games were lost.

The following text was posted on Facebook by Teimour Radjabov dedicated to Vugar Gashimov, who is still under treatment in Baku.

Very pity that Vugar Gashimov wasnt here with us, part of this victory belongs to him! We hope OUR WIN will help him to recover faster! We raised a toast in Vugar's (Gashimov) honor. Our team will be extremely strong when he will be back. AZERBAIJAN!

Despite their last-round debacle, France played a excellent tournament and won silver, while top seed Russia went home with bronze.

European Team Championship 2013 | Final Standings

Rk. SNo Team + = - TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4
1 6 AZERBAIJAN 5 4 0 14 212 21 178,5
2 3 FRANCE 5 3 1 13 210,5 20,5 181,5
3 1 RUSSIA 6 1 2 13 202 22,5 177
4 2 ARMENIA 5 3 1 13 195,5 20 172
5 7 HUNGARY 4 4 1 12 200,5 21,5 171
6 14 GEORGIA 4 4 1 12 178,5 20 177
7 15 GREECE 4 3 2 11 199,5 20,5 178
8 9 CZECH REPUBLIC 4 3 2 11 192,5 20,5 179
9 4 UKRAINE 4 3 2 11 188,5 20,5 173,5
10 5 ENGLAND 3 5 1 11 184,5 20 176
11 8 NETHERLANDS 5 1 3 11 167 23,5 144,5
12 13 ITALY 4 3 2 11 142 19 169,5
13 20 SERBIA 3 4 2 10 173 21 163
14 19 ROMANIA 3 4 2 10 159,5 21,5 149
15 17 BELARUS 4 2 3 10 155,5 18,5 174,5
16 12 POLAND 3 4 2 10 154 19,5 161,5
17 16 CROATIA 3 4 2 10 151 18,5 169,5
18 30 MONTENEGRO 4 2 3 10 124,5 17,5 159
19 11 SPAIN 3 3 3 9 144,5 18 162,5
20 10 GERMANY 3 3 3 9 142,5 18 163
21 22 SLOVENIA 4 1 4 9 138 16,5 171
22 23 POLAND FUTURES 4 1 4 9 121,5 18 158,5
23 34 LITHUANIA 4 1 4 9 112 19 154
24 18 TURKEY 3 2 4 8 145 17,5 166,5
25 21 BULGARIA 3 2 4 8 134 18 164
26 25 SWEDEN 3 2 4 8 127,5 18 155
27 26 DENMARK 3 2 4 8 115 18,5 151
28 29 ISRAEL 3 1 5 7 124 16,5 162
29 28 ICELAND 3 1 5 7 112 17,5 158,5
30 27 AUSTRIA 2 3 4 7 110,5 14 172,5
31 24 POLAND GOLDIES 3 1 5 7 110 16 153
32 31 SWITZERLAND 3 1 5 7 103 14,5 164,5
33 33 BELGIUM 3 1 5 7 95,5 18,5 139
34 32 FINLAND 2 2 5 6 94 16,5 139,5
35 36 NORWAY 3 0 6 6 68,5 14 134,5
36 37 SCOTLAND 1 2 6 4 67,5 13 140
37 35 FYR MACEDONIA 2 0 7 4 66,5 14 137,5
38 38 WALES 0 0 9 0 13,5 2 155,5

Below you can find the best scoring players — all who performed 2800+.

No.   Naam Rtg Team Rp Pts. Partijen % Bo.
1 GM SOKOLOV Ivan 2625 NETHERLANDS 2941 6,5 7 92,9 2
2 GM TOPALOV Veselin 2774 BULGARIA 2900 5,5 7 78,6 1
3 GM NAIDITSCH Arkadij 2727 GERMANY 2854 5,5 7 78,6 1
4 GM BARTEL Mateusz 2626 POLAND 2836 7,5 9 83,3 3
5 GM ARONIAN Levon 2801 ARMENIA 2813 6 9 66,7 1
6 GM SVIDLER Peter 2752 RUSSIA 2806 6,5 9 72,2 1

For Veselin Topalov there is good news: the Bulgarian jumped back to the world number 5th place in the live ratings.

Ukraine secured the gold medals with a round to spare, beating Armenia 3-1. Board one of this match went as follows:


The 3-1 loss against Russia in the final round didn't matter for Ukraine while the Russian ladies secured the silver medals. Former World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk performed the best of all players with 7.5/8 and an impressive 2766 TPR. Here's her game from the final round:

 

European Team Championship 2013 | Women | Final Standings

Rk. SNo Team + = - TB1 TB2 TB3
1 1 Ukraine 7 1 1 15 222,5 24
2 2 Russia 6 2 1 14 267,5 25
3 4 Poland 6 2 1 14 203 21,5
4 3 Georgia 4 4 1 12 226 23
5 6 Armenia 5 2 2 12 215,5 24
6 8 Hungary 4 3 2 11 173,5 21
7 5 Germany 5 1 3 11 167 20
8 16 Lithuania 5 1 3 11 164 20,5
9 13 Poland III 5 1 3 11 160 19
10 18 Czech Republic 5 1 3 11 158 21
11 9 Spain 5 1 3 11 157 19
12 10 Romania 4 2 3 10 175,5 22,5
13 25 Poland Futures 5 0 4 10 132,5 18,5
14 14 Netherlands 4 2 3 10 115 18
15 11 Bulgaria 4 1 4 9 158 17,5
16 12 Serbia 4 1 4 9 137,5 18
17 19 Austria 4 1 4 9 109,5 14,5
18 27 Slovenia 3 3 3 9 108,5 17,5
19 15 Israel 3 2 4 8 158,5 19
20 17 Azerbaijan 4 0 5 8 129 17
21 24 Belarus 2 4 3 8 125 16
22 28 Turkey 4 0 5 8 118 19
23 23 England 4 0 5 8 56 12
24 7 France 3 1 5 7 119 17,5
25 20 Italy 3 1 5 7 117,5 19
26 21 Greece 2 3 4 7 116,5 15,5
27 30 Belgium 3 0 6 6 87 12,5
28 26 Switzerland 2 2 5 6 85,5 16
29 29 Norway 2 2 5 6 67,5 11,5
30 22 Croatia 2 0 7 4 59,5 12,5
31 32 Iceland 0 3 6 3 77 12
32 31 Finland 0 3 6 3 70,5 12
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