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2019 World Senior Team Championships finished in Rhodes, Greece. Russia 65+ team and USA team defended their 2018 champions titles winning the championship in 65+ and 50+ age categories respectively.
Russia 65+ team (Evgeny Sveshnikov, Yuri Balashov, Nukhim Rashkovsky, Vladimir Zhelnin, and Nikolai Pushkov) scored 14 points, one full point ahead of England 1, France and Israel. In the last round Russia 65+ drew against Sweden 1 to guarantee gold medals. England 1 defeated St. Petersburg with 3:1 score and was second on tie-break. Nicolas Giffard from France outplayed Gerhard Kiefer from Germany and helped his team to win the match with 2,5:1,5 score and bronze medals of the Championship.
Team USA (Alexander Shabalov, Joel Benjamin, Igor Novikov, Jaan Ehlvest, and Alex Yermolinsky) was superior in 50+ category, winning 8 matches and making 1 draw to score 17/18. Italy is 2nd with 14 points. Israel got bronze with a better tiebreak over Armenia, Iceland 1 and England 1 (all these teams scored 12 points). In the last round USA outplayed Argentina with 1:3 score, even though a draw in the match would guarantee the first place. Italy made a draw in the match against Armenia, which turned to be decisive for the medal distribution.
Russia Women team (Galina Strutinskaia, Tatiana Grabuzova, Valentina Kozlovskaya, Elena Fatalibekova,and Natalia Titorenko) achieved the best result among women teams in 50+ category, Mongolia Women in 65+ (Khandsuren Sandagdorj, Myagmarsuren Begz, Serjmyadag Damdin, Bujinlkham Purevdorj).
FINAL RESULTS
Seven rounds have been played at FIDE World Senior Team Championship Open 50+ and Open 65+ in Rhodes.
In the 50+ category, USA remains the sole leader after defeating Israel with a score 2,5-1,5. Italy defeated England 1 with a score 2,5-1,5 and Iceland 1 defeated Armenia with the same score. Three out of four games of each of these matches ended in a draw and it was Alex Yermolinsky (2508, USA), Fabio Bruno (2433, ITA) and Johann Hjartarson (2520, ISL), who brought the winning points to their teams.
Great performance of 3,5-0,5 was achieved by Germany against Argentina, Athens Vets against Finland 1, Scotland against Canada, Uruguay against VSG 1880 Offenbach and Ireland 1 against Finland Sisu.
As for impressive individual results, Bjorn Johansson (1888, SWE) defeated WIM Natalia Titorenko (2153, RUS).
In the 65+ category, Russia 65+ defeated Saint Petersburg by 2,5-1,5, while Germany defeated Iceland 2 with the impressive score 3,5-0,5.
Austria achieved a perfect score against Norresundby Skakklub.
Some tough struggles are expected in the 8th round, as the tournament is coming to an end. The top pairings for round 8 are: USA-Austria, Germany-Italy, Iceland 1-Russia Women in the 50+ category, while in the 65+ category: Russia 65+ - France, Israel-Germany and Iceland 2-England 1.
Live transmission is available for 10 out of 13 matches in 50+ category and 12 out of 14 matches in the 65+ category. The live broadcast of the event is available through the official website.
After six rounds at FIDE World Senior Team Championship, USA has emerged as the sole leader of the Open 50+ category, with five wins and one draw, while Russia 65+ leads the Open 65+ category with 10 match points, closely followed by Germany, Iceland 2 and Finland 3, with 9 match points each.
In the sixth round the first two matches of the 50+ category ended with a draw (2-2) between USA-Iceland 2 and England 1-Armenia.
Israel achieved another perfect score 4-0 against Russia Women, as did Scotland against Latvia Women.
One of the remarkable upsets was the game between IM Christian Maier (2325, GER) against Loukas Papadimitriou (1943, GRE), where Papadimitriou achieved an advantage shortly after the opening and successfully transferred it into a full point.
Of other notable individual results, Athanasios Mitrandzas (2055, GRE) drew with GM Uwe Boesch (2525, GER) and Joachim Wallner (2271, AUS) drew with Palermo Carlos Garcia (2407, ITA).
GM Alexander Shabalov (2510, USA) shows the highest performance in the tournament and has 4,5/5.
In the 65+ category, Russia 65+ defeated Israel with the impressive score 3,5-0,5, while Saint Petersburg achieved a perfect score against Austria.
GM Anatoli Vaisser (2482, FRA) remains the only player who has perfect score 5/5. GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (2481, RUS) and IM Valdimir V Zhelnin (2429, RUS) have 4,5/5, as well as two players from Belgium, IM Rooze Jan (2261, BEL) and Van Herck Marcel (2066, BEL).
In the meantime, a 7-rounds Blitz tournament, took place at the Olympic Palace Hotel in Rhodes. Among the 33 participants, IM Norayr Kalantaryan (2373, ARM) won the tournament with 6,5/7 points, while GM James Plaskett (2504, ENG) took the second place with 6/7 points. IM Christian Maier (2347, GER), IM Michael Barron (2256, CAN) and WGM Galina Strutinskaia (2205, RUS) tied for the third place with 5/7, but IM Christian Maier took the third place thanks to better tiebreaks.
The top pairings for round 7 are: Israel-USA, Italy- England 1 and Iceland 1-Armenia, in the 50+ category, while in the 65+ Saint Peterburg-Russia 65+, Germany-Iceland 2 and Finland 3-France.
All the results and pairings can be found here.
The first round of the World Senior Team Championships was played in the Olympic Palace Resort in Rhodes, Greece on 16th of April. During the opening ceremony, Mrs Marialena Hatzilazarou, Vice Mayor of Rhodes Municipality welcomed the participants to the island of Rhodes. Mr Jan Rooze, FIDE Senior Chess Director, expressed his gratitude to all players and welcomed all participants to make their proposals to improve the situation with Senior chess.
Mr Vadim Tsypin read the letter of FIDE President, Mr Arkady Dvorkovich. Mr Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, ECU Secretary General, wished all participants to enjoy the tournament and invited the Governor Mr Hatzimarkos to make the first move.
Mr Georgios Hatzimarkos, Governor of South Aegean region, declared the Championship opened and made the first symbolic move on the top board game between Jonathan Grant and Alexander Shabalov in the match Scotland-USA.
Three teams achieved a perfect score in the 65+ category: Russia 65+ against Switzerland, England 1 against Sweden 3 and Austria against Turku. Four teams Armenia, Iceland 1, England 1, Israel won all games in the 50+ category. Second round starts at 15:00 (local time) on 17th of April.
All the results and pairings can be found here.
Rhodes hosts World Senior Team Championships 2019
Rhodes Chess Festival 2019 continues with the World Senior Team Championships. The tournaments start on April 16th and will be held until 24th of April.
There will be two separate team championships for categories 50+ and 65+. 27 teams from 17 countries registered in 65+ age category, 26 teams from 20 countries are in the list in 50+ age category. The total prize fund of the championship is 10,000 EUR.
The defending champions – Russia 65+ led by GM Evgeny Sveshnikov and the team of the USA with GM Alexander Shabalov playing on the first board in the category 50+ – will be in attendance.
The live transmission of the top boards of each round will be available through the official website of the organizer: https://rodoschess2019.com
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich sent the letter for the participants and expressed his gratitude to the Greek Chess Federation.
Moscow, 15 April 2019
Dear friends,
It is a great pleasure for me to welcome the participants of the 2019 World Senior Team Championship 50+ & 65+, which is scheduled to be held in Rhodes, Greece, 15-25 April 2019.
On this occasion, I would like to send on behalf of FIDE, our congratulations and express our gratitude to the Greek Chess Federation for their continuous efforts in organizing high level international chess competitions, FIDE official events and promoting chess. World Senior Championships, individual and teams, are very important for our World Chess Federation as they demonstrate that chess has no age limits and can be exercised at any stage.
I am confident that all the participants will enjoy traditional Greek hospitality and will succeed in demonstrating their best chess skills and enjoy being among friends.
Gens Una Sumus
Yours sincerely,
Arkady Dvorkovich
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