Russian wins World Team Championship

Russia wins World Team Chess Championship
Thursday, 05 December 2013 08:58
www.fide.com

With the closing ceremony today, 2013 World Team Chess Championship has come to an end. With a quite fine dinner, your reporter must confess.

After the speeches given by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and TCF President Gulkiz Tulay in which they basically underlined the organizational successes of Turkish Chess Federation, the special dinner was eaten at the ceremony hall and who can say no to a few drinks after such an exhausting competition? As you can guess practically no one did. When finally players got full and a little chill, it was time to give the cups and medals the successful teams and players deserved. Of course Ukraine and China were happy too about getting third and second places but Russians as winners had the most fun obviously. Especially Sasha Grischuk, as you can see from the photos. The Russian coach Dokhoian, who had quite a few nervous moments in the championship found himself finally relaxed and flying in the air when all Russian team were present on the stage. Congratulations guys! Well done, it was time to remind everyone that Russia still is the leading chess country in the world.

Also congratulations to China and Ukraine and all the other teams who have participated! Things didn’t go well this time for the Armenian team who got used to winning almost everything in the last years and they were not in the best mood but one can be sure that this is just one tournament off and the super strong Armenian national team will continue to shine. As a consolation however world number 2, Levon Aronian, got the gold medal on first board with his wonderful performance. Special congratulations to Levon, who was always willing to spend some time for chess fans around the world by commentating upon his games; just like another legend, Vladimir Kramnik. A personal thanks for their kindness!

So the World Team Chess Championship is over and it’s finally time to go back to real life after the magical atmosphere of top-level chess. See you all at another beautiful show of illusion on sixty-four squares and greetings from Antalya for the last time, at least for this year! May the Caissa be with you, like she has been with Russians for the last two weeks!