GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan (Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture) and Adela Velikic (University of Belgrade) are the winners of the European Universities Chess Games, which were held in Zagreb/Croatia, 12-15 July in Pauk Hall.
In the Open section GM Gabuzyan scored 8 points out of 9 games and convincingly triumphed ahead of his compatriot GM Zaven Andraisian and IM Maksim Chigaev (Ural State Mining University) who both scored 6.5 points and took silver and bronze respectively.
Draw was enough for Adela Velikic in the final round of the Women’s section to score the victory with 7.5 points. Silver medal went to the top seed WGM Baira Kovanova (Ural State Mining University) with 7 points, while WIM Jovana Eric (University of Belgrade) took bronze with 6.5 points.
Women’s section Final Standings
In the team ranking Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture won the Open competition with 14.5 points, silver went to Ural State Mining University with 12.5 points, while University of Belgrade took bronze with 11.5 points.
University of Belgrade won in team ranking in Women’s section with 14 points, second place went to Ural State Mining University with 12 points, and University of Ljubljana came third with 11.5 points.
Before the penultimate round a Blitz competition took place, played in two groups – Open and Women.
GM Zaven Andraisian (Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture) won in Open section with 8 points, followed by Russian compatriots GM Pavel Ponkratov and GM Maksim Chigaev (Ural State Mining University) with 7.5 and 7 points respectively.
Women’s section was won by WFM Anastasia Travkina (Ural State Mining University) with 7.5 points. Second place went to Adela Velikic (University of Belgrade) with 6 points, while her compatriot WIM Mila Zarkovic took third place with 5.5 points.
The medal awarding ceremony for the chess event was held on 15th July. The medals to the winners were presented by Mr. Adam Roczek, EUSA President, Mrs. Ivana Ertlova, Chair of the EUSA Technical Commission and member of the EUSA Executive Committee, Mr. Oleksandr Sulypa, EUSA technical delegate, Mr. Alojzije Jankovic, Organising Committee’s technical delegate and his assistant Mr. Vid Brzica. The chess event in Zagreb was fully supported by the European Chess Union.