Weeks after conclusion of European Team Championship World's ten leading chess nations met in Antalya, Turkey in the run for World's most prestiguous trophy - The World Team Chess Championship. Eligible to participate were a.o. continental champions and top teams from Istanbul Olympiad. Sadly, Norway, India, Israel and the likes did not qualify so we could not see the magic of Carlsen, Anand, Gelfand, Caruana and others. There were still 18 players rated 2700+.

As Ukraine had a perfect take-off of 5/5, beating USA, China, Azerbaijan on their way, Russia - top seeds - struggled from the very beginning scoring 0.5/2 (Nakamura beat Kramnik and so US beat Russia 3-1). China were no better - 1/3. Newly crowned European Champions Azerbaijan were missing top two boards Radjabov and Mamedyarov, literally reducing their chances to the minimum.

Ukraine's chances broke on day 6 when they unexpectedly lost to the Netherlands. Meanwhile third seeds Armenia lost to Germany to the surprise of many 3-1 and were out of the game. The hit clash occured on penultimate day: Ukraine were in one point lead yet were defeated by the Russians 2.5-1.5 and so the title went to Russia - at last (no gold in Warsaw, no gold at Istanbul Olympiad in 2012, no gold in WTCh in 2011), China spurted to silver reaching sixth consecutive win, while Ukraine won bronze.

Best individual results were achieved by Armenia's top board GM Aronian: 6/8 and the Russian reserve Nepomnyaschy (or Nepomnatchtchi as he is commonly known) 5.5/7.

For more information you can visit the official website of the Championship http://wctc2013.tsf.org.tr/

See results of 2013 World Team Championship

See all-time summary