Ukrainian Team Chess Championship
Alushta, April 10-18, 2000 (9 rounds)
 

1. Law Academy(Juridical Academy) Kharkov 40,5
Moiseenko, Alexander (IM 2573) 6 (9); Zubarev, Alexander (IM 2476) 5,5 (9); Eljanov, Pavel (IM 2455) 8,5 (9); Maly, Alexey (IM 2411) 6,5 (7); Sharapov, Evgeny (IM 2387) 6 (7); Andreev, Eduard (IM 2385) 6 (8). Reserve players: Savon, Vladimir A. (GM 2423) 1 (3); Zakharov, Vladimir (IM 2368) 1 (2).
 
2. Danko-Donbass Donetsk 40,5
Savchenko, Stanislav (GM 2574) 6 (9); Timoshenko, Georgy (GM 2584) 5,5 (9); Kruppa, Yuri (GM 2561) 6 (9); Shneider, Aleksandr (GM 2551) 7 (9); Kuzmin, Gennadi P. (GM 2466) 8,5 (9); Gurevich, Vladimir (GM 2502) 7,5 (9). Reserve player: Malakhatko, Vadim (GM 2568) 0 (0).
 
3. A.V.Momot Regional Donetsk Chess Club 37
Ponomariov, Ruslan (GM 2627) 7 (8); Efimenko, Zahar (2332) 6 (9); Matjushin, Gennady (2275) 5 (8); Ivanov, Oleg Vladimirovich 8 (9); Dmitrenko, Victor 4 (7); Polivanov, Anatoliy (2306) 3 (6). Reserve player: Veliev, Siavush 4 (7).
 
4. Azovstal Mariupol 32,5
5. Grandmaster's School 29,5
6. A.V.Momot Regional Donetsk Chess Club women's team 29
7. Chaika (Grandmaster's School) 25
8. Ladia(Tura) Pavlograd 23,5
9-10. Chess for all (Shakhi Dlia Vsikh) Kherson 22,5
9-10. Polisianka Rivne 22,5
11. Khimik Sumy 21,5
12. Caliostro Crimea 20,5
13. Ferrum Kryvy Rih 20
14. Carbon Alushta 13,5
 

Surprises of the Ukrainian Team Championship
Mikhail Golubev, www.kasparovchess.com
The Ukraine Team Championship is traditionally played in Alushta, on the Crimean Peninsula. in the middle of spring. For this championship, 14 teams competed for nine rounds.
Unfortunately, not all the important Ukrainian chess centers were represented. As usual, this is caused by the general problem of getting sponsors for sports teams in the Ukraine. The absence of Ukrainian number one Vassily Ivanchuk is in the same tradition.
The main surprise was the second-place finish of the team that reigned from 1994 to 1999, DANKO-DONBASS (till 1998 this team was referred to as DONBASS Alchevsk.
The considerably less prestigious team JURIDICAL ACADEMY, from Kharkov, managed to collect the same number of points, and because it beat DANKO-DONBASS in its match, by a score of 3.5-2.5, it was awarded first place in the competition.
Another unexpected result was the team joined by the strongest player under 20 in the world, Ruslan Ponamariov (2627), who won 7 points out of 8 playing on first board for a modest team of the new A.V. Momot Regional Donetsk Chess Club, which took third place because of his excellent result.
Certainly, the loss of Ponomariov, who had played for DANKO-DONBASS in the past, appears to have been a miscalculation of its leaders, who were probably confident of victory because of its many strong GMs. Nevertheless, this miscalculation will help Ukranian chess, since the pepetual domination of the team championships by one team, however brilliant, bored the chess public.
You can bet that DANKO, the heavyweight champion sponsor in Ukrainian chess, will try hard to recruit Ponomariov back to its team.

 
three games commented by Ruslan Ponomariov (22.4)
all games in pgn format added on 4.6
detailed results with scores of all matches added on 4.6
article in Vysoky Zamok newspaper (in Ukrainian)
article on KasparovChess (28.4)
more about the chess tournaments in Alushta
Ukrainian Team Championships 1993-2000
Ukrainian Team Ch 1999