Round 1: The first round of the European Team Chess Championship launched off at 15:30 local time. Some of the teams weren't playing with the strongest line-ups, others were resting top boards and some, like Bosnia and Herzegovina, didn't appear at all. The tournament director IA Sotiris Logothetis explained that Bosnian team gave no notice about missing the first round and they also can't be reached on the phone. Even if they do show up, they won't be allowed to continue the Championship. The introductory speeches were given by Mr. George Mastrokoukos, CEO of the organizing committee, and Mr. Boris Kutin, ECU president.

Russia, top seeded, had a long match against Sweden but eventually pulled the 3½-½ win, while Azerbaijan neutralised Turkish national team with 4-0 on the third table. Powerful Bulgaria faced tough resistance from Lithuania and scored 2½-1½, while motivated Montenegro, playing at the international scene for the first time, demolished Poland 3½-½. Levon Aronian, Michael Adams, Etienne Bacrot and Peter Heine Nielsen skipped the first round. Vasyl Ivanchuk had to arrive after his rapid match with Peter Lékó. The weather was still warm, but with the exception of Michael and Tara Adams, no one of the chess players tried to swim in the sea.

Round 2: Russia and Armenia created a real show on top table on day two. After a quick draw between GM Asrian and GM Yakovenko, all attention was directed to the WCC Mexico 2007 flashback - Aronian against Svidler. In an equal game, Svidler got half a point away with black. It was another WCC participant who brought a decisive point for Russia. GM Morozevich won against GM Akopian. GM Alexeev secured the win for Russia with a draw on board 3. Ukraine got a kick start against Spain, with NH tournament winner Serhyi Karjakin winning his game against Alexei Shirov. However, the Spanish team did not give up and equalised the score with GM Illescas scoring an important victory against GM Moiseenko. Vallejo held Volokytin to a draw and as it happened in many matches, the last board was decisive for the final outcome. It was the longest game of the day, but GM Areschenko and GM Khamrakulov split the points. Thus, Ukraine-Spain was one of the few tied matches of the day. The Dream Team of Bulgaria faced the higher rated team of Azerbaijan. The former world champion Veselin Topalov had a constant slight advantage against the Essent 2007 winner, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. However, the Azeri player found the precise moves and could hold the draw. On board 2, the magic of Linex, Ivan Cheparinov, drew with Radjabov in the battle of the youngsters. The same result was produced on the last board between Delchev and Guseinov. The match was decided on board 3, where Kiril Georgiev fell into extreme time trouble against GM Gashimov and lost. Thus Azerbaijan continue with full match points and show their serious intentions. The hosts Greece engaged in an interesting battle with Hungary. After two quick draws the final outcome was left to the top boards. GM Almási and GM Kotronias could not find the way to a decisive score after close to four hours of play. It was GM Gyimesi who brought the full match points to Hungary with a win over GM Halkias. Norway, who lost 2½-1½ to Spain the day before, ran over the team of Wales. With a 4-0 score Norway got back in the competition. The team of Luxembourg almost brought the big surprise of day 2. Pierre Gengler (ELO 2195) won the game on board 4 against GM Andrei Murariu (ELO 2503). However, Romania recovered quickly by winning two match points. Luxembourg fought to the end, but Romania secured a draw in the game IM Bakalarz-GM Lupulescu, thus winning the match 2½-1½

Round 3: Third round was marked with narrow 2½-1½ wins on the top four tables. Peter Svidler beat David Navara in the Anti-Marshall line and with other games drawn, Russia took most of against Czech Republic. Azerbaijan had different hero on each day, this time it was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's turn to shine and blast Peter Heine Nielsen off the board with a beautiful rook sacrifice. Russia won with one point advantage over the Czech Republic. Azerbaijan gained one point victory over Denmark and were to meet the Netherlands next round. Defending champions Netherlands and Serbia played a highly interesting match when Damljanović's blunder in the time trouble decided a winner. Slovenia continued upsetting big guns, this time they beat Hungary and Beliavsky-Almási is a must see game. Slovenia accomplished a 2½-1½ win over Hungary. Another man to praise is modest GM Michael Roiz. He beat Serhyi Karjakin with black pieces to save the day for Israel. During the dinner we had with Michael, he explained what happened in the game: "I think I have surprised Serhiy with Breyer variation of Ruy Lopez as I haven't used it for several years. We reached an equal position, but Serhiy found a nice piece sacrifice with allowed him to create some pressure. In one moment, he missed a better move that would have kept things unbalanced, and I gained the initiative which won me the game".

Round 4: Slovenia was finally stopped on day four as Russian power-machine proved to be too strong. Full points by Morozevich and Yakovenko were good enough for comfortable 3-1. GM Tiviakov and GM Radjabov quickly drew their game, then Gadir Guseinov beat Erik Van den Doel and after Vugar Gashimov held Daniel Stellwagen to a draw, Azerbaijan celebrated 2½-1½ win against Netherlands. Israel gained early advantage against Hungary on the third table thanks to, who else than Michael Roiz. Zoltan Almási, however, beat Boris Avrukh in a marathon to set the final 2-2 tie. FYROM was very close to upsetting Ukraine after Nedev's blitzkrieg on Moiseenko. Ivanchuk and Volokitin remained concentrated to turn the tables and secure narrow 2½-1½. Armenia and Denmark showed a smooth and equal game all the way - four tied games, total score 2-2. In the last game of ex world champion GM Topalov, Bulgaria scored an outstanding victory against Croatia with wins on the first three boards and a draw on the forth, which amounts to Croatia-Bulgaria ½-3½. Powerful France triumphed against Norway with GM Bacrot getting a draw from GM Carlsen on board one. The Czech team outplayed Serbia with a minor advantage because of a mishap in the game on board one where GM Damljanović was winning against his younger opponent GM Navara but made a critical mistake leading to 2½-1½. England and Sweden finished at 2 points each in a very interesting and variated match. Spain reached the desired win against Germany with a minor one point advantage thanks to GM Vallejo Pons who won his game against GM Naiditsch, while the other three games drawn. Turkey clearly outperformed Romania with two wins and two ties. Austria really showed what they're made of against Poland, with IM Ragger, IM Atlas (former Liechtenstein player) and IM Weiss drawing against the much stronger GM Soćko, GM Mitoń and GM Gajewski respectively. Nevertheless GM Bartel gained victory on board four and produced the final 2½-1½ for Poland.

Round 5: Russia blew out Azerbaijan 3½ points to ½ with three fantastic wins of GM Svidler, GM Morozevich and GM Alexeev, while GM Grischuk drew on third board. Russia extended its lead up to two match points from all other teams and it was very unlikely that they would lose this advantage in the consecutive games. Ukraine and France did not manage to give us a winner as the match finished 2-2, where GM Bacrot won against GM Ivanchuk, probably still very tired after the rapid with GM Lékó played one week before, GM Karjakin won against GM Tkachiev and the other two games finished a draw. Bulgaria made a hard draw with the Czech Republic - after GM Cheparinov lost his game on board one to the quickminded GM Navara and the games on board two and four were going for a tie, GM Delchev saved the day for the Bulgarian team by winning against GM Babula. In a rather mixed game Israel managed to overtake team Netherlands with the minor one point advantage mostly thanks to GM Michael Roiz (on board three), who won his fourth game in a row. Sweden vs. Slovenia ended 1½-2½ - Slovenia won with minor advantage with a total of 3 draws and a win by IM Lenić against GM Hillarp Persson on board three. Turkey and Armenia showed almost equal strength with tree draws, but GM Akopian succeeded in taking the game against GM Atalik and the higher rated team of Armenia won by one point difference. England, lead by GM Adams and Spain, headed by GM Shirov, finished in a 2-2 draw. The games on board one (Adams v Shirov) and four were tied and GM Vallejo Pons (ESP) and GM Hebden (ENG) won their games on boards two and three respectively. Serbia-Poland was ½-3½ - Poland played an outstanding match and crushed Serbia. GM Markus managed to take a draw from GM Wojtaszek in order to make the loss a little less painful.

Round 6: Russia's men team was firmly holding the lead after storming through Israel in the sixth round. Evgeny Alexeev finally stopped Michael Roiz's winning streak, while Yakovenko and Svidler scored full points for the final 3-1 win. Slovenia continued with upsetting big wigs. This time their victim was Azerbaijan, as the top three boards were drawn and IM Borišek won against GM Guseinov. Slovenia proved to be a tough opponent for Azerbaijan and thanks to IM Borišek who won on desk four came victorious with 2½-1½. Ukraine, Armenia, and France played safe, scoring three draws and one win against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria respectively. More excitement was seen in Spain-Greece match. Alexei Shirov won his first game, while Francisco Vallejo Pons won third game in a row holding his Elo performance at 2874. Norway and Netherlands have split the cake after IM Espen Lie beat the much higher rated GM Stellwagen.

Round 7: Russia won seventh consecutive match and probably reserved gold medal as they needed only one match tie in the remaining two rounds. The victim was France, Morozevich beat Tkachiev and other games were drawn. However, the fearless battle for silver and bronze was still open - ten teams were within only 2 points distance, anything could happen. Slovenia capitulated to the Olympiad winner Armenia, but remained tied on third place. Israel outclassed Norway, while Azerbaijan pulled important victory on Ukraine thanks to Mamedyarov's brilliant game against Ivanchuk. Poland-Spain and Netherlands-Czech have ended up in draws. Bulgaria took advantage of the Swiss system to achieve solid 3-1 win. Even without the unbeatable GM Michael Roiz, powerful Israel left very little chance to Norway and came victorious 3-1 with two wins and two draws. GM Sutovsky drew GM Carlsen on the board one. England won over Germany with the minor one point advantage thanks to GM Hebden's win on board three.

Round 8: Russia's men team conquered the ETCC 2007 title one round before the end. With 15 match points Svidler&Co grabbed the gold medals after a draw with Spain. However, the battle for silver and bronze medals was still exciting since many teams were in position to get them. Israel's win against Slovenia, thanks to the victory of GM Rodshtein on the last board, catapulted them to second place with 12 MPs. Armenia were third having the same score after a tough battle with Azerbaijan, which finished 2-2, with decisive games by GM Radjabov and GM Sargissian. Bulgaria went up to the 4th place after storming through Hungary with 3-1 as top boards GM Cheparinov and GM Georgiev won. France continued their winning streak by defeating the tough team of the Czech Republic. GM Ivanchuk won on board one against GM Soćko, but the rest of the Polish team did not give up without a fight and the final result was a 2-2 draw. Hungary could not keep up with the Bulgarian attack and lost 1-3 with GM Cheparinov and GM Georgiev winning for Bulgaria on boards one and two. The Czech Republic and France finished 1½-2½ with draws on the first three boards and GM Bauer winning for France on board four. Standings: RUS 15, ISR and ARM 12, BUL, FRA and AZE 11.

Round 9: Modest win over Bulgaria sealed Russian dominance. Silver medals went to the 2006 Olympiad winners Armenia. This ultra solid team took a slow start, but broke through to the second place with the series of narrow wins. They managed to outplay Israel 2½-1½ on the final day to take second spot. Quite the opposite happened to the bronze medalists, the explosive team of Azerbaijan. They started furiously in the first few rounds until they were stopped by the Russians. Still, the third place was a fantastic achievement for this young team. Poland took every chance of their lucky draw to beat FYROM 3-1 and move up to undeserved fourth.

Summary: Russia took the trophy with ease, wiping out all the opposition. They came back to the top after dismal 2005 appearance. Svidler's magic 6/7 contributed to a 2989 Elo performance. Only Grischuk failed to take individual medal. Armenia's solid play was ample to take second spot. Sargissian's 6½/9 was best of the team, however not enough to take individual medal. Aronian did not disappoint either at top board. Azerbaijan took their first ever Euro team medal, despite of poor shows vs Russia and Slovenia. Poland recovered greatly after horrific start; still, it is only up to a nonsense regulations (match points first, than game points) that a team of 12th best Elo performance was millimetres from reaching podium zone. Ukraine's leader Ivanchuk wasn't perfectly well-shaped (too tired probably), which along with Moiseenko weakness left the Ukrainians with just three firm players on the field. Fifth position isn't so poor, though. Israel were really unlucky. With excellent Roiz at board #3 they had all the chances to take third consecutive silver, but they lost badly to Armenia on the last day. Bulgaria's 7th place would no doubts have been much better unless two bad lucks: last round pairing vs Russia and Topalov's early departure. Other notable results are: Carlsen (NOR) took silver at top board (it would have been gold unless last round's loss), Liiva of Estonia won individual gold at board #4 scoring 6½/9. GM Carlsson of Sweden took bronze at reserve board to become first ever black medal winner in the history of the event. It was a terrible time for Romania and Turkey, which finished in miserable 33rd and 34th respectively.

/ Reports taken mostly from chessdom.com /