Ural Ekaterinburg - Russian Team Champions 2008
The Russian Team Championships being held in Sochi, on the shores of the Black Sea, came to an end on Sunday with team Ural from Ekaterinburg emerging victorious.
The event was a very strong all-play-all affair with 12 teams of the very best players in the world battling for the title. Teams comprised of 8 players, of which 6 were picked to play in each round.
The Ural players were:
| Teimour Radjabov | 2751 |
| Alexei Shirov | 2755 |
| Gata Kamsky | 2732 |
| Alexander Grishuk | 2711 |
| Vladimir Malakhov | 2689 |
| Vladimir Akopian | 2700 |
| Alexei Dreev | 2633 |
| Alexander Motylev | 2644 |
Well known names on the other teams included Ivanchuk, Svidler, Ponomariov, Morozevich, Karjakin, Gelfand, Rublevsky, Karpov and Korchnoi. Quite a list of also-rans!
The final table after 11 hard fought rounds was:
| 1 | Ural (Ekaterinburg) | 17 | 39.5 |
| 2 | Economist 1 (Saratov) | 15 | 37 |
| 3 | TPS (Saransk) | 14 | 37 |
| 4 | Finek Gazprom (St.Petersburg) | 14 | 35.5 |
| 5 | Spasio (Moscow) | 12 | 34.5 |
| 6 | Shatar (Buryatia) | 12 | 34 |
| 7 | 64 (Moscow) | 11 | 32 |
| 8 | SHSM (Moscow) | 10 | 33.5 |
| 9 | Tomsk 400 (Tomsk) | 10 | 31 |
| 10 | Polytechnic (Niznhi Tagil) | 9 | 31 |
| 11 | South Ural (Chelyabinsk) | 5 | 27.5 |
| 12 | Economist 2 (Saratov) | 3 | 23.5 |
Gata Kamsky (pictured), playing board 3 for the victorious Ural team defeated the veteran Korchnoi (South Ural team) in the 8th round.
