She was left without medals

World Team Chess Championship

On July 26, the World Team Chess Championship ended with the victory of the Armenian team in Ningbo, China. The Russian team took fourth place. Grandmaster YURI RAZUVAEV talks about the progress of the struggle and the results of the competition.

Team chess competitions have their own specifics and a long history. In Soviet times, our team almost always won the Chess Olympiads and twice defeated the world team in matches. However, since 2004, the winning tradition began to turn into a wonderful memory, although the Russian team still remains first in terms of the average rating of participants.

This year, careful preparations have been made. Head coach Evgeniy Bareev managed to assemble a first-class squad under the banner of the national team. The core of the team consisted of strong, young, ambitious grandmasters. The start of the championship was very successful for our team. The US and Hungarian teams were defeated with the same score of 3:1. We were also pleased with the high quality of play of our grandmasters. This was followed by a draw with a strong Armenian team, which also cannot be considered a failure. The crisis came in the fourth round. The Azerbaijani national team, coached by grandmaster Vladimir Tukmakov, defeated the Russians in three hours of play with a score of 3:1. Let me remind you that the Odessa grandmaster was the coach of the Ukrainian team that won the 2004 and 2010 Olympiads. The thought involuntarily arises: why bother so much, maybe it’s better to invite an Odessa resident to coach the Russians?

After this defeat, our team seemed to be replaced. Sluggish play in almost all matches led to a disastrous result: fourth place, or rather, sharing places from fourth to sixth with the teams of Hungary and the USA - four wins, three losses (!) and two draws.

Since 1992, most team tournaments have been similar to the Spartakiads of the peoples of the USSR. Then the Russians played in three teams (Moscow, Leningrad, RSFSR). Moreover, almost always all three teams played successfully. This year our team did not win a single (!) match against the teams of the former Soviet republics - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

The friendly Armenian team won a well-deserved victory. Particular mention should be made of the leader, Levon Aronian, as well as the permanent captain and coach of the team, grandmaster Arshak Petrosyan. Chess has been and remains a national sport in Armenia, and the chess federation is headed by the president of the country. Second place goes to the “home team” - the Chinese team. Bronze went to the Ukrainian team.

Let us remind you that a year ago our men’s team at the World Olympics in Khanty-Mansiysk was silver, and the women’s team was gold. Over the past year, results have gone down sharply. The formula “players win, coaches lose” has not been canceled, and the leadership of our chess federation has something to think about.

Ninth and final round

India-- Russia 2.5:1.5. Hungary--China 1.5:2.5. Azerbaijan-Egypt 2.5:1.5. Ukraine-Armenia 2:2. Israel-USA 1.5:2.5.

Final position of the teams. 1. Armenia - 14 points. 2. China - 13. 3. Ukraine - 12. 4. Russia - 10. 5. Hungary - 10. 6. USA - 10. 7. Azerbaijan - 9. 8. India - 7. 9. Israel - 5. 10. Egypt - 0.

The rating of the Russian team did not help