Sunday, May 15, 2011

European Senior Teams Championship

A quick peace treaty with Austria in the last round of the European Senior Teams Championship handed the gold medal to the team of Russia. Congratulations!
Russia won six matches, tied three and collected a total of 15 match points.

In the match between two teams on the shared second place, Germany started off with two draws against Denmark 1 and then GM Wolfgang Uhlmann scored to give his team a lead. FM Clemens Werner later finished the job for the overall 3-1 victory and a silver medal for German team.

Denmark - Germany

Montenegro was battling Scotland in an attempt to win the bronze medal. Austria's draw and Israel's lower sum of individual points lifted their spirits. FM Momcilo Raicevic opened the match with one of his trademark swift victories. GM Bozidar Ivanovic increased the margin, but soon after IM Ljubo Zivkovic lost on the second board.

The whole team was trembling as FM Srdja Dragasevic, also president of the Montenegro Chess Federation, was searching for the way out of inferior position. He eventually succeeded to make a key draw for his team to grab the bronze.

Italy started well versus Israel 1 as IM Stefano Tatai crushed GM Mark Tseitlin on the first board in only 16 moves. IM Tatai commented that this sharp Sicilian Naidorf line was well known to him as he had played it 30 years ago and analysed in his opening book that was published last year.

GM Yair Kraidman struck back on the fourth board and equalised the score. The teams exchanged victories on the 2nd and 3rd board to finally settle the result at 2-2.

Results and full standings

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