Chessdom » ETCC 2011

Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch after winning the European team gold

chessdom — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 07:30:16 +0000

Grandmasters Georg Meier and Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany after winning the team GOLD medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras, Greece.

Interview with Vugar Gashimov

chessdom — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:32:06 +0000

Grandmaster Vugar Gashimov from Azerbaijan after winning the team silver medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras, Greece.

Csaba Balogh and Zoltan Almasi Interviewed

chessdom — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:20:36 +0000

Grandmasters Csaba Balogh and Zoltan Almasi from Hungary after winning the team bronze medal at the European Team Chess Championship in Porto Carras, Greece.

ETCC 2011 Closing Ceremony

chessdom — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:06:36 +0000

The closing ceremony of the top event of the year, the European Team Chess Championships, focused on prize giving to the winners of the competition.

Germany with Arkadij Naiditsch, Georg Meier, Daniel Fridman, Jan Gustafsson, and Rainer Buhmann received the winner’s trophy in the Open section. Azerbaijan walked out with silver and Hungary with bronze.

The first place trophy in the women section was awarded to the fantastic team of Russia – Nadezhda Kosintseva, Tatiana Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Natalija Pogonina. The silver medals go to Poland and bronze to Georgia.

Board medals were awarded to 30 more players (see full list here) and 16 players achieved international title norms (see full list here).

Large photo album

A special photo album from the closing ceremony with all medal winners has been uploaded in the photo gallery. Click at this link to start at the first photo, and use the slide show button or the arrows to enjoy all the pictures.

Tip: browse the closing ceremony album here or view all albums arranged by rounds here

Video closing ceremony

More information of interest

All videos from the competition / Complete pgn files / Photo albums / All results / Final standings / Replay the games

Germany - European Team Chess Champion 2011

Russia - European Women Team Chess Champion 2011

Silver medal (open section) - Azerbaijan

Silver medal (women section) - Poland

Bronze medal (open section) - Hungary

Bronze medal (women section) - Georgia

Interview with Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson

Goran — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:24:28 +0000

FM Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson from Iceland has earned a GM-norm at the 2011 ETCC, which coming from the official ECU event counts as 20-game norm. In this interview Gretarsson speaks about the 1st round victory against Alexei Shirov and his overall performance.

Iceland team also claims that they are the Nordic champions, as their traditional opposition finished behind in the final standings.

Germany, Russia take gold medals at the European Team Championships!

chessdom — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:04:13 +0000

In the final round of the ETCC Open Section Armenia exercised the well known strategy of neutralising opponent’s white pieces in the decisive match against the co-leading Germany. On boards one and three Levon Aronian and Vladimir Akopian quickly drew with Arkadij Naiditsch and Daniel Fridman, respectively.

On the 2nd board German rising star Georg Meier applied pressure on Sergei Movsesian’s setup, achieved a substantial advantage and consequently converted into the full point.

Jan Gustafsson eventually pulled a draw in the exhausting game against Gabriel Sargissian and marked a huge celebration for the German team. Congratulations!

Germany - Armenia

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s swift victory against Levente Vajda from Romania put the Azerbaijan team in comfortable position. His teammates decided not to take any chances and routinely drew on the top board. Vugar Gashimov later also won for the final score 3-1 in favour of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan moved into the second position and took a silver medal.

Azerbaijan - Romania

Meanwhile, Bulgaria was under pressure in the match against the charging Hungary. Zoltan Almasi was the first to score against Ivan Cheparinov, and then everything fell apart as Veselin Topalov and Alexander Delchev also lost.

Update: Hungary crushed Bulgaria by 4-0, overtook Armenia in the final standings and claimed a bronze medal!

Russia assumed an early lead against Slovenia and calmly brought the victory home.

Hungary - Bulgaria

Full results / Final standings / Replay games / Photo gallery / Videos

Russia quickly dissipated all uncertainty on the final standings in the Women ETCC as Valentina Gunina signed a snappy victory on the 2nd board in the match against Austria. By the end of the day Russia claimed their third consecutive title of the European Women Team Champion. Congratulations!

Russia - Austria

In a similar manner, Poland took an early lead against the tough team of Armenia, but then Lilit Galojan struck back and equalised the score. The match finished in 2-2.

Armenia - Poland

Ukraine and Georgia were racing for the bronze medal, possibly eying the silver in case of Poland’s failure. However, Ukraine, without Kateryna Lahno in the roster, fell behind when Sophie Milliet from France defeated Natalia Zhukova on the top board. France even extended the victory to 3-1.

France - Ukraine

In such development, Georgia, who were still playing, needed a match victory to claim the bronze medal. A victory of 3.5-0.5 or 4-0 (3-1 might be sufficient, when Buchholz Tie-Breaks come into account) would even propel them ahead of Poland and earn them silver.

Romanian team had different plans and Irina Bulmaga defeated the Georgian Nino Khurtidze to further increase the tension. Georgia managed to turn the result but the narrow 2.5-1.5 victory was sufficient only for the bronze medal.

Full results / Final standings / Replay games / Photo gallery / Videos

Video by Vijay Kumar

Interview with GM Christian Bauer

Goran — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:33:31 +0000

GM Christian Bauer speaks about his fantastic result at the European Team Chess Championships.

Interview with GM Alexander Beliavsky

Goran — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:23:20 +0000

GM Alexander Beliavsky from Slovenia speaks about his performance in the European Team Chess Championships and briefly comments on Russia’s failure to take the medal.

Interview with WGM Andjelija Stojanovic

Goran — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:21:26 +0000

WGM Andjelija Stojanovic from Serbia talks about her 8th round game with Lilit Galojan and the European Team Chess Championships in general.

Interview with GM Arkadij Naiditsch

Goran — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 20:20:13 +0000

GM Arkadij Naiditsch speaks about the victory against Teimour Radjabov, the European Team Chess Championships in general, the commentator role on Chessdom and about the Chess Evolution books.