Few would have thought of it, but yes - saving hard-fought draw v Cuba in the last round's top match of 8th Panamerican Team Championship the host team of Brazil took their first ever Panamerican trophy, while Cuba failed to win for the first time since 1985.

The 8th edition took part in Mendes, Brazil, after six year long break. Just six teams arrived, still some progress compared with mere four sides competing in 2003. The event was dominated by Cuba and Brazil with other sides being tangibly weaker. Cuba, led by GM Dominguez (2716) dropped couple of points in some early rounds while Brazil went flawlessly on to the finish. Cuba had to beat the host side, had they dreamt of defending the title, but they actually never looked even close; they must be happy to save the draw. Venezuela took surprise third having superior Berger than Argentina. It must be noted that Dominicana scored decent 5/20 on their premier appearance.

The historic win paved Brazil's way to next year's World Team Championship which is to be held in Turkey. Fortunately the year 2009 will be the very special one - all four continental championships will hopefully take place this year, something that never happened before! The good news is that Mozambique, following successful experience of last year's FIDE Zone 4.3 Team Championship will revive African Team Championship after long 12 years. European and Asian Team Championships are scheduled for late monts of 2009 as well.


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