Liburnija wins strong Croatian League
Not favourite Rijeka but rival Liburnija (also from Rijeka) won the very strong 19th Croatian Team Championship in Sibenik. In the A group players such as Pavel Eljanov, Vladimir Malakhov, Sergei Movsesian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vugar Gashimov, Arkadij Naiditsch and Viktor Bologan participated.St Jacques Cathedral in Sibenik | Photo fr:Utilisateur:Vyskocil | GNU Free Documentation LicenseThe 19th Croatian Team Championships took place September 4-12 in Sibenik, a political, educational, transport, industrial and the tourist center of the Sibenik-Knin county in central Dalmatia. The Croatian League was played over 9 rounds in three groups: an A group (85 players), a B group (84 players) and a Women group (47 players). The teams consisted of six boards. The rate of play was 90 minutes for 40 moves and then 30 minutes to finish the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move, from move one.The clear favourite this year was the Rijeka team, which had Vugar Gashimov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on boards 1 and 2. This made the average rating of the team as high as 2645. However, their rivals Liburnija (also from Rijeka) took the title with 16 match points and staying undefeated. The individual encounter was won 4-2 by Liburnija on boards 5 and 6.
It's always interesting to have a look at which top players participate in these country leagues. Below you'll find a list of the twenty strongest players playing in Sibenik, and how they performed. We see that the strongest player, Pavel Eljanov, had a tough week and lost no less than 20 points whereas Arkadij Naiditsch, top board of the champions, won 12 points.
Also note that former super GM Zoltan Ribli did quite well: for his DURO DAKOVIC HOLDING team from Sl. Brodhe he scored 4.5/5 and a 2803 performance. From the same generation, Alexander Beliavsky performed on 2724 with 5.5/9 against strong opponents.
Selection of games
Game viewer by ChessTempoLinks
- Official website
- Details at Chess Results
- Games in PGN: Group A | Group B | Women Group via TWIC
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