Azerbaijan and Ukraine Are The New European Champions
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 |
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.
Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013.
As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!
Company Contact and News Accreditation:
Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!
Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827
Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397, Orem, UT 84097
