Double Gold For Russia At European Team Championship

Leading from start to finish, Russia won gold in both the Open and Women sections at the European Team Championship.

Four draws against Hungary was enough for the Russian men on the last day; the ladies finished in style with a 3-1 win against Germany.

In an otherwise flawless event, the last round of the tournament started as early as 11 a.m. Players were spotted yawning, and in no time lots of crazy positions appeared on the board! At some point commentator Simon Williams was begging for a Berlin...

Perhaps the first victim of the early start was Vassily Ivanchuk, who blundered a full piece on move 18 and resigned immediately.

The crucial match on the top boards, between Russia and Hungary, had its own sidestory: the Marshall Gambit in the Ruy Lopez. Exactly the same variation appeared on boards one and three: Leko vs Svidler, and Almasi vs Tomashevsky.

After 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 O-O 8. c3 d5 9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Nxe5 Nxe5 11. Rxe5 c6 12. d3 Bd6 13. Re1 Bf5 14. Qf3 Qh4 15. g3 Qh3 the games deviated in this position:

Leko played 16.Be3 here, while his colleague Almasi chose 16.Bxd5. Both games reached an ending with a slight edge for White (Leko got the bishop pair, Almasi an extra pawn) but the Marshall is the Marshall: it wasnt enough for a tangible advantage.

Svidler was the last of the four players to hold the draw, and so the tournament was only decided after his game. Nepomniachtchi-Balogh was a very quiet Queen's Gambit Accepted, while the quickest draw was the most interesting at least visually:

After the victory was secured, two team members joined the Chess.com live broadcast for a nice chat with commentator Simon Williams. 

“Finally we won something,” said Svidler. “I've forgotten the feeling. I haven't won a team event with the Russian team in ages.”

Tomashevsky: “All members of our team at some moment played their best chess. That's why we won, so all five players contributed something nice. That was the key moment I think.”

One of the reasons for Russia's success might be the similar climate in Iceland; it's been pretty cold. “It feels like home,” said Svidler, who also made a remark about the famous Spassky-Fischer match held in 1972 in the same playing hall.

“I think without that match the problems we've had over the past ten years winning team events would not have happened because I think chess would not have boomed in the West without Fischer-Spassky.”

Hungary went home with the bronze medal; eventually Armenia had a slightly better tiebreak after finishing on 13 match points as well.

BRONZE MEDAL FOR HUNGARY AT THE EC! Well done boys! And not a bad debut for me in my new position as a captain:) pic.twitter.com/m1qrVqMal1

— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) November 22, 2015

In the last round the Armenians defeated Georgia convincingly: 3-1. Until then undefeated, Baadur Jobava couldn't make it against Levon Aronian:

Silver at Euro Team Champs! Congrats to Gabriel Sargissian for crossing 2700 mark and to Hrant Melkumyan for being consistent as a mule!

— Levon Aronian (@LevAronian) November 22, 2015

For France the tournament ended disappointingly. The team started wonderfully, despite having their minds on the terrible attacks in Paris. Eventually they ended on the same number of match points as Hungary and Armenia, but just missed out on the medals.

In the last round France defeated the Netherlands 2.5-1.5, where the game on the last board was decisive. Tkachiev demolished Tiviakov:

Playing chess at 11 AM it's really too early :) #ETCC2015 pic.twitter.com/QeQSxIHeZv

— Europe-Echecs (@EuropeEchecs) November 22, 2015

Germany had a medal chance as well, but finished their tournament with a 2-2 tie with Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijanis had come to Iceland with a huge delegation — about two dozen people in total — and leaving without a medal must have been tough!

Mamedyarov refuted very nice but incorrect sacrificial play by Nisipeanu:

Like Germany, Ukraine finished on 12 match points. Pavel Eljanov may have played the move of the tournament with 35...Qxd3!! in his round eight game against Gajewski, annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov:

Magnus Carlsen finished his tournament on a positive note. He beat Radek Wojtaszek to limit his rating loss to 16 points. For Wojtaszek the tournament was a compete disaster: he lost 24.8 points. Only Scotland's FM Graham Morrison did worse, with a 40.4 loss.

Here's the game annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov:

FM Tautvydas Vedrickas (2320) scored the biggest gain in Reykjavik: a whopping 47.2 points. In the women's section WFM Alessia Santeramo did even better with a gain of 92 points

2015 European Team Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Below are the individual board prizes, based on performance rating. To be eligible, players had to play a minimum of 60% of the game — in this tournament six rounds.

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The Russian women ended their tournament with a 3-1 victory against Germany. On board one, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Elisabeth Paehtz played a quick but spectacular draw:

Kateryna Lagno also drew, but both Aleksandra Goryachkina and Anastasia Bodnaruk won their games. “It was a tough tournament, especially for me, because I played all nine rounds,” said Lagno. “We were playing very well, but even if we would lose today, we could become even third.”

On the next boards there was an upset: Playing without Nana Dzagnidze, Georgia was held to a draw by Austria. The Ukrainian ladies grabbed their chance, defeated Netherlands 3.5-0.5 and clinched the silver medal.

2015 European Women's Team Championship | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Here are the individual board prizes scored in the women's section. World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk did really well and won gold with a 2772 performance. IM Jovanka Houska of England had an excellent tournament as well.

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The closing ceremony was a generous cocktail party held in Harpa, the magnificent concert hall that also hosts the Reykjavik Open every year.

Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson gave an entertaining speech, calling the European Chess Union “the best European Union there is.” After receiving a chess board with signatures of top players, he said: “The more chess we will play in the parliament, the better the politics!”

Alexander Grischuk joined the Russian ladies on stage to make a selfie...

Селфи чемпионов!;)) pic.twitter.com/XI5KTPdTfp

— Александра Костенюк (@Kosteniuk) November 22, 2015

...which worked out pretty well!

After the cocktail party many players and coaches went into town, or back to the hotel lobby, to party a bit more. Two Dutch grandmasters decided to take a one-hour nap before their bus would take them to the airport for an early morning flight. That was a tricky decision.

Both Ivan Sokolov and Loek van Wely slept through their alarms, and missed the flight that contained the rest of the Dutch players (including the women's team).