Team Ukraine Wins Live Chess World League Season 4
Season four of the Live Chess World League has wrapped up with an impressive win for Team Ukraine. Once again, they defeated Team Russia in an epic match struggle.
This year, 329 players including dozens of titled players and GMs Dobrov, Golubev (who blogged about the season here), Popov, Gasanov, Oleksiyenko, and Ovetchkin battled for Ukraine and Russia in the critical match. Ukraine's recruitment efforts again paid off as they pulled a larger and stronger team than their Russian rivals. Despite the national tension between the two countries, the two teams displayed great sportsmanship and pride in their players.
Team UKR https://t.co/1bUQES1alP again won @chesscom WorldLeague, beating RUS in the decisive match: 1+1 bullet (316-210), 5+2 blitz (382,5-275,5), 960 (205-155). In the final group, pts from the previous stage are counted. UKR had 509 players https://t.co/wGAVmYr9ty this season! pic.twitter.com/sC1t7OdrXB
— Mikhail Golubev (@mikhail_golubev) October 21, 2019
Ukraine's success was also picked up many national news stations; here are some:
Coming in third place in division one was Team Iceland who narrowly outperformed Serbia. Both Iceland and Serbia are relatively small countries, at least compared to Russia and Ukraine, but they successfully recruited plenty of titled players lower-board depth to win their matches against the other four teams in division one.
Divisions 2, 3, and 4 were won by Iran (who recently faced some unique off-the-board challenges), Phillipines, and Uzbekistan respectively. These teams are eligible for promotion to higher divisions with tougher opponents and increased prizes in the next season.
The Bangladeshi admin, @ME_Mosharrof, compiled some excellent statistics on the season in his blog:
- 2 unbeaten teams: Ukraine and Uzbekistan
- 35 total teams
- 216 titled players
- 4,930 total players
Want to play in the Live Chess World League? Join your national team at chess.com/clubs and watch for updates from your admins about upcoming matches!
Final Standings:
Note: Each team played one time against all other teams. Then the top and bottom halves in each division played the teams in their half once more in stage two with matches carrying a double weight.
Division 1
Division 2
Division 3
Division 4
