Old Hands Defeat Snowdrops
The fourth annual "Snowdrops versus Old Hands" tournament was won by the Old Hands by a convincing margin of 21-11.
The tournament was organised by the Prague Chess Society with sponsors Czech Coal and pitted a team of veteran chess players (the Old Hands) against a team of young women players (the Snowdrops).
The venue was the spa town of Mariánské Lázně in the Czech Republic, and a previous half-way report in the event can be found here.
Each team consisted of four players and the format was a double Scheveningen (each team member plays each player on the other team twice). The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, and then 30 minutes to finish with a 30 second increment from the start.
The Old Hands team were Vlastimil Hort (pictured), Boris Gulko, Robert Hübner and Rafael Vaganian.
The Snowdrops team were Maria Muzychuk, Natalia Pogonina, Tania Sachdev and Eva Kulovana.
The final results table:
| Snowdrops | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | O1 | O2 | O3 | O4 | 11 | |
| S1 | Pogonina Natalia | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 3 |
| S2 | Sachdev Tania | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 2½ |
| S3 | Muzychuk Maria | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5 |
| S4 | Kulovaná Eva | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ |
| Old Hands | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | 21 | |
| O1 | Hübner Robert | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 6 |
| O2 | Gulko Boris | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| O3 | Vaganian Rafael | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 5 |
| O4 | Hort Vlastimil | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5 |
The top individual scorer and former world #3, GM Robert Hübner
The best performing snowdrop, IM Maria Muzychuk
WGM Natalia Pogonina scored a creditable 3 points
GM Boris Gulko has a lifetime plus score against Garry Kasparov!
IM Tania Sachdev from India scored 2.5 points
GM Vlastimil Hort
GM Rafael Vaganian
WGM Eva Kulovana at the closing ceremony with tournament director Pavel Matocha
Robert Hubner offering his glass snowdrop trophy to Tania Sachdev
