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Peristeri, with Ivanchuk & Polgar, retains Greek title

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Peristeri (with Ivanchuk & Polgar) retains Greek titleThe team of Peristeri retained their Greek title. With Vassily Ivanchuk on first board and Judit Polgar on the women's board (!) Peristeri won six matches and drew one, against S.O. Kavalas (with GMs Papaioannou, D. Antic and Skembris), who came second.

The Greek Team Championship took place July 3-8 in Eretria, which is about 100km north east of Athens. It was a 7-round Swiss team event with 34 teams participating.

Each team consisted of 8 boards and they had to consist of 3 men, 1 woman, 2 juniors (U-18 and U-12) and two girls (U-18 and U-16). Up to two non-Greek players were allowed.

Last year's champions of Peristeri were the big favourites with GMs Vassily Ivanchuk (2768), Judit Polgar (2699), Stelios Halkias (2600), Vassilios Kotronias (2588) and Hristos Banikas (2593) in their team. Other strong players in the competition included GMs David Navara (2722), Arkadij Naiditsch (2706), Peter Heine Nielsen (2681), Viktor Bologan (2678), Viktorija Cmilyte (2528), Antoaneta Stefanova (2524) and Cramling (2472).

Peristeri indeed won the league with six victories and one tie against S.O. Kavalas. On top board, Ivanchuk scored 4/6 - his only loss was against Czech GM Navara.

Navara-Ivanchuk Eretria, 2011



23...Nxg2!? Quite an interesting sacrifice. 24.Nxf5! 24.Kxg2 Bxh3+ was Ivanchuk's idea. 24...Qxf5 25.Kxg2



25... Re6? As GM Golubev points out in Chess Today #3895, this is a big mistake. Correct was 25... Qg6+ 26. Kh2 Rh5 27. Rg1 Qf5 28. Rg3 Qxf2+ 29. Rg2 Qf5 30. Rg3 with a draw (Golubev). 26. Rh1!



26...Rf6 27. Rh2! A wonderful defensive concept which completely refutes Black's 25th move. 27... Qxf2+ 28. Kh1 and White won on move 38.

Four players scored 100% in Eretria: Edouard Romain (2587, N.O. Kalamatas Poseidon) GM Stefanova Antoaneta (2524, SK. AK. Chalkidos Palamidis The Evvoefs) but also Drakaki Anna-Maria (1742, E.O.A.O. Fysiolatris Nikaia) and Papathanasiou Elisavet (1884, Chess Academy Thes. Galaxias)

Judit Polgar scored 3.5/4 against weak opposition, winning 3 rating points to cross 2700 again. Remarkably, she did so on board 4 - yes, the women's board. For the last two decades Polgar has only been playing in men's events - her last appearance at a team event on a female board was in the Novi Sad Olympiad back in 1990.

Selection of games



Game viewer by ChessTempo


Greek Team Championship 2011 | Round 7 (Final) Standings
Rk SNo Team Gms + - = TB1 TB2 TB3
1 1 Peristeri 7 6 0 1 13 323.5 42.0
2 2 CC Kavala 7 4 0 3 11 286.0 34.0
3 8 HRC Korydallos 7 5 1 1 11 237.5 32.0
4 7 E.O.A.O. Fysiolatris Nikaia 7 5 1 1 11 215.0 31.0
5 6 ES Thessaloniki 7 5 2 0 10 234.5 33.5
6 5 Chess Academy Thes. Galaxias 7 4 2 1 9 217.0 32.0
7 13 Heraklion CC 7 4 2 1 9 195.5 31.0
8 12 Chess Union Amfissa 7 4 2 1 9 192.0 30.5
9 10 Panionios G.S.S. 2210 7 4 2 1 9 170.0 30.0
10 3 Chania Chess Academy 7 4 3 0 8 213.0 31.0
11 4 AO Kydon Chania 7 4 3 0 8 212.0 30.5
12 24 N.O. Kalamatas Poseidon 7 3 2 2 8 177.5 29.5
13 19 Culture Club Florinas 7 3 2 2 8 169.0 26.0
14 16 Ptolemaida Ptolemaios CC 7 3 2 2 8 165.0 30.0
15 11 AEK 7 3 3 1 7 201.0 29.5
16 9 OS Triandria 7 3 3 1 7 196.5 29.0
17 22 O.A.A. Heraklion 7 3 3 1 7 179.5 28.5
18 20 SK. AK. Chalkidos Palamidis The Evvoefs 7 3 3 1 7 166.0 28.5
19 15 F.O. New Irakleion Attica 7 3 3 1 7 149.0 27.5
20 28 Peiraikos OS 7 3 3 1 7 121.5 26.5
21 17 Aigaleo CC 7 2 3 2 6 157.0 31.5
22 25 Ilioupolis CC 7 3 4 0 6 151.0 26.5
23 14 S.A.S. Koropiou 7 2 3 2 6 144.5 27.0
24 18 Kallithea CC 7 2 3 2 6 125.0 24.0
25 29 CC Patron 7 3 4 0 6 120.0 27.5
26 26 AO Zenon Glyfadas 7 3 4 0 6 98.5 24.0
27 31 CC Ikaria J. Tzelepis 7 2 4 1 5 130.0 26.0
28 23 Polichni CC 7 2 4 1 5 126.5 22.5
29 21 Chess Academy of Gazi 2099 7 2 5 0 4 140.5 29.5
30 32 CC Amfissa 7 2 5 0 4 81.0 19.5
31 34 Association of Chess Players of Ioannina 7 2 5 0 4 69.0 21.0
32 27 Papagou 7 2 5 0 4 67.5 19.0
33 33 Chess Union Kalamata 7 1 6 0 2 63.5 16.5
34 30 Aigialeias Chess Union 7 0 7 0 0 96.0 22.0



The team of Peristeri
Board Title Name Rating Federation Points Games
1 GM Ivanchuk Vassily 2768 UKR 4.0 6.0
2 GM Polgar Judit 2699 HUN 3.5 4.0
3 GM Halkias Stelios 2600 GRE 3.5 4.0
4 GM Kotronias Vasilios 2588 GRE 3.5 4.0
5 GM Banikas Hristos 2593 GRE 5.0 5.0
6 WIM Papadopoulou Vera 2210 GRE 4.0 5.0
7 Stathopoulos Ioannis 2122 GRE 2.5 3.0
8 Tzouganakis Panteleimon 2086 GRE 1.0 2.0
9 Papadopoulos Georgios 2029 GRE 0.0 0.0
10 Bellos Ioannis 1944 GRE 1.0 2.0
11 Fragkou Eleni 1864 GRE 4.0 6.0
12 Spirou Marina 1897 GRE 1.5 3.0
13 Ioannidis Evgenios 1838 GRE 3.0 3.0
14 Tsiros Fragkiskos Vlasios 1730 GRE 3.0 4.0
15 Kokossis Danae 1768 GRE 2.5 5.0
16 Kokkota Eleni 1515 GRE 0.0 0.0



Peter Heine Nielsen

Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen



Viktorija Cmilyte

Reigning European Champ Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania



David Navara

Czech Republic's number one David Navara



Vassilios Kotronias

Vassilios Kotronias, in the winning team...



...together with Judit Polgar and...

...together with Judit Polgar and...



...Vassily Ivanchuk on board one

...Vassily Ivanchuk on board one



The winning team of Peristeri

The complete winning team of Peristeri



Kotronias and Ivanchuk holding the cup

Kotronias (l.) with Ivanchuk holding the cup



Photos © Greek league, more here



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

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.

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