The national teams of Russia have completely dominated the 2015 European Team Chess Championships, winning the gold medals in both Men’s and Women’s tournaments.
In the final round of the Men’s section Russia tied the match against Hungary to complete the race with 15 points and take the winner’s trophy. This is Russia’s first gold in the European Team Championships since 2007.
Two points behind the champions are Armenia, Hungary and France on the shared second place. According to the tie-break, Armenia won the silver medal, while Hungary took the bronze.
In the last round of the Women’s section Russia defeated Germany 3-1 and convincingly took the trophy with 17 points (from 18 possible). Silver medal goes to Ukraine on 15 points and bronze to Georgia on 14 points.
The Organizer rewarded the individual prizes to the best players on each board. The list is below:
Open Section
Board 1 GM Viktor Bologan (MDA 2630) ratP 2845
Board 2 Richard Rapport (HUN 2693) ratP 2828
Board 3 GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO 2567) ratP 2868
Board 4 GM Hrant Melkumyan (ARM 2632) ratP 2770
Board 5 GM Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS 2735) ratP 2756
Women Section
Board 1 GM Mariya Muzychuk (UKR 2542) ratP 2772
Board 2 WGM Jovana Vojinovic (SRB 2295) ratP 2576
Board 3 IM Lela Javakhishvili (GEO 2479) ratP 2559
Board 4 WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS 2478) ratP 2668
Board 5 WGM JOanna Majdan-Gajewska (POL 2378) ratP 2423
The European Team Chess Championships were held from November 12-22, 2015, at the historic Laugardalshöll in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Photos by Maria Emelianova