Dear chess friends,
The Greek League ended with a victory of the team of S.O. Kavalas, for the 4th time in its history (previous wins: 1999, 2005 and 2008).
Unfortunately, the top two matches of the last round ended in 6-6, after a “package agreement” of 12 draws. The team of S.O. Kavalas had already secured the title, before the last rd.,having scored 8 wins in its first 8 matches!
Top-players for S.O. Kavalas were: GM Tomashevsky (2689) 4 p. in 7 g., GM Papaioannou (2624) 5 / 8, GM Halkias (2564) 6 / 8, GM Skembris (2452) 7,5 / 9, Ant. Pavlidis (2360) 8.5 / 9! and WGM Botsari (2298) 6,5 / 9.
P.S. Peristeri (Ivanchuk, Macieja, Tzermiadianos, Gavrilakis) was 2nd, with 14 match-points (6 wins, two draws, one loss – to S.O. Kavalas) and E.S. Thessalonikis (Miroshnichenko, Wojtaszek, Mastrovasilis brothers) was 3rd, also with 14 m-p.
The last 11 of the 31 partcipating teams got relegated (but they’ll have the chance to qualify for next year’s A’ League, through preliminary matches).
The best scorers on 1st board were GMs Azmaiparashvili (2626) with 7 / 9, Navara (2687), 6,5 / 9, Radulski (2539), 6,5 / 9, Lenic (2565) 6,5 / 9 and Bologan (2689), 6 / 8.
Best regards,
Spiros Ilandzis
(chess-player and journalist)
Athens, Greece
So, the league was “fixed”??
The journalist who wrote this article misrespresents the truth (liar?). It is obvious to anybody who has access to Internet that S.O.Kavalas did not win their first eight matches. For the whole truth and nothing but the truth, see over here: http://www.chessfed.gr/teams2009/round8.asp
Such people could be banned from writing forever. Who is he to judge whether agreements were packaged/pre-arranged/faked or not?