Another really huge project has seen the sunlight today: the history of USSR team championships. Very little has been written on the topic and even less in available online. Too bad - the Soviet Championships for decades had attracted Soviet best players; one may safely claim they were then World's strongest team events.

Karpov, Spassky, Petrosian, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Keres, Boleslavsky, Korchnoi, Gaprindashvili, just to name a few were frequent guests.

The new folder on the left (can you spot it?) is devoted entirely to the history of team chess in the Soviet Union. It is divided into three parts:
- the almost annual USSR Team Championship (34 editions were played all in all)
- other team championships, including junior, farmer, trade union and republics' championship
- friendly tournaments, matches and match-tournaments


Before you start digging up the archives it is recommended that you read the About section to learn some basics of the complicated system of team events in the Soviet Union.

It has to be noted that the project would never succeed without the excellent RUSBASE run by A.A.Popovsky who collects all possible results of Soviet individual and team events.

Because a lot is yet to be found (many game results from USSR Team Championship are missing; a lot of data from minor team championship is still unknown) readers, especially from ex-Soviet republics, are asked for support.

"Yinzhou Cup" 2011 World Team Chess Championship today ended in Ningbo New Century Grand Hotel. Armenia drew 2-2 with Ukraine and successfully secured their title, the Chinese team won 2.5-1.5 over Hungary, defending championship Russian team lost 1.5-2.5 to the India team, and U.S. team 2.5-1.5 won over Israel, while the Azerbaijan team 2.5-1.5 won over Egypt.

The Chinese team behaved outstanding and won four consecutive rounds. Today's game against Hungary, the Chinese team showed great ambition and determination. Wang Yue played some quite instructional moves in the ending, gained tiny advantage by sacrificed a pawn, and gradually extended it to victory. Another eye-catching game was Li Chao versus female genius player Judit Polgar. The young talented Chinese teenager withstood great pressure and triumph on the difficult ending and took one valuable point, helped China to be the runner-up ultimately.

>> click here for detailed OlimpBase results & statistics of the 2011 event <<

Defending champions Russia team had another bad today toward India team and ended the tournament with an very unsatisfied 4 win, 2 draw, 3 lose. Russian famous player Peter Svidler obviously out of his status today and he lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly in only 24 moves.The unexpected quick lost had significantly struck Russian players morale.Young talented player Ian Nepomniachtchi had to risk his game for a try to win, but the result came very grim. Fortunately, he still managed to surpass Akopian to get board gold medal, due to his outstanding personal performance.

The final rankings as follows: champion the Armenia team, runner-up the Chinese team, third place the Ukraine team, fourth the Russian Team, fifth the Hungary team, the United State team finished sixth, the Azerbaijan team finished seventh , the eighth Indian team and the ninth Israeli team, the tenth Egyptian team. The board gold medal won by Wang Hao from China (Board 1), Wang Yue from China (Board 2), Yan Nepomnyaschy from Russia (Board 3), Alexander Moiseenko from Ukraine (Board 4).

/ Taken from http://ningbo2011.fide.com /

See World Team Champoinship summary (1985-2011)

The 17th Asian Cities Championship was held from 22nd to 28th April in Kartika Chandra, Jakarta, Indonesia. 24 teams from 17 countries competed, with 18 Grandmasters and many titled players attending the event. The tournament format was 9-round Swiss and the prize fund amounted to 24000 US$.

Shi Jiazhuang City from China, also top seeded prior to the beginning, convincingly took the first place and the Dubai Cup by winning all nine matches. Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al-Nehayan, Asian Chess Federation President, presented the champions with the trophy.

GM Li Chao B from the winning team was the top performing player in the whole tournament, recording 8 points from nine games and 2763-elo playing level. Local fans are thrilled that WFM Chelsie Monika Sihite has earned her first IM norm. Final standings and top individual scores are listed bellow.

/ Taken from www.chessdom.com /

See Asian Cities Champoinship summary
See external reports: FIDE, ChessDom, Asian Chess Fed

The Asian Cities Championship takes place every two years and is open for city teams from affiliated chess federations in Zones 3.1 to 3.7. The format is nine round Swiss for teams composed of 4 players plus 1 reserve. The winning city is awarded custody of the Dubai Cup, which cannot be acquired in perpetuity.

The championship was first held in the Hong Kong in 1979 (won by Singapore) and quickly became popular and strong chess meeting held on biennial basis. Of 16 editions held so far, Chinese cities won six times, Kazakhstani three times, and Indonesian teams twice. Shanghai and Pavlodar made it three times each.

The event saw many top-class GMs like GM Vladimirov, GM Kotsur, GM Graf, GM Kasimdzhanov or GM Ghaem Maghani, just to list a few. The 2011 edition is scheduled in April in Jakarta.

Along with the Asian Cities history we added detailed coverage of the World Cities which took place only twice (1997 and 1999). As it saw little intereset outside Asia the series is no longer continued.

See Asian Cities Champoinship summary
See World Cities Championship summary

By the way, there is brand new chess history/result site available, and it is the only and excellent source of chess info&data from Indonesia.
See IndonesiaBase

5 days before the start of the World Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, international mainstream media has launched multiple reports on the most important national teams event of the year. Guided by hope for medals and inspired by the strong participation, teams are preparing for the 2010 Olympiad all over the world.

A total of 1380 player will participate in the two sections for the medals of the top team event in chess. The statistics are impressive - 772 titled players will be present, out of them 247 GMs, 63 WGMs, 160 IMs, 87 WIMs, 81 FMs, and 80 WFMs.

And all this accompanied by on the spot commentary by Blue Gene super computer, Stockfish analysis at Chessdom Chessbomb live games platform, live commentary by IM Ipatov, GM Bauer, IM Perunovic, and invited guests at Chessdom.com.

***
Cuba will carry the flag and travel 11 000 km to the Olympiad
***
India questions the absence of Anand and Koneru Humpy
***
Philippines at the Olympiad without GM Antonio
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Botswana happy to be at the Olympiad
***
Pakistan women for the second time at Olympiad
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Peru worried about captain


Read more at Chessdom.com

Russia beat Israel 3:1 in the last round of the World Team Chess Championship to successfully close the campaign and take home the gold medal. European Champion Evgeny Tomashevsky and Nikita Vitiugov brought the key points on the boards with white pieces. The team Russia collected 15 match points, having only lost against Greece in round two and tying the match against Armenia in round seven. Vitiugov brought 5.5 points from six games and Vladimir Malakhov contributed 5 points from seven games.

The United States and India finished with 13 match points, but the silver medal goes to the United States thanks to the higher sum of individual points. It was a fantastic run for the young American team, who even held the lead in the Championship until succumbing to the Olympiad winners Armenia in round eight. Hikaru Nakamura was in marvelous form and scored many beautiful wins on the top board. With 6 points from 8 games, he took the gold individual medal, while his teammate Alexander Onischuk achieved the same feat on the second board, with 6.5 out of 9 games. The success is even greater because the US played without Gata Kamsky, one of their best players, who in the meantime won the strong Reggio Emilia tournament.

The well rounded team of India fought hard and deservingly reached the third place and bronze medal. Krishnan Sasikiran held the top board well in the competition with the world's top players, while Asian Champion Ganguly Surya Shekhar contributed a lion's share of points on the third board, where he also claimed the individual gold medal.

Greece played each match until the bare kings and signed four wins and five losses, without draws. They stunned the new World Champion Russia and 2008 Olympiad winner Armenia. The inexperienced but quickly progressing home team of Turkey finished the last, but they are boosting the victory against Olympiad silver medalists from Israel.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan had the best individual result in this Championship, with incredible 8 points on the fourth board.

Final standings:
Russia 15
USA 13
India 13
Azerbaijan 12
Armenia 12
Greece 8
Israel 8
Brazil 4
Egypt 3
Turkey 3

See games, complete results and statistics at www.olimpbase.org

/ taken from FIDE website /

The Tata Steel Asian Chess Team Championship today came to a close in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, at a grand prize giving and closing ceremony at Town Hall, Kolkata, with Asia powerhouses India and Vietnam emerging champions in their respective categories.

Organized by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy with All Sport Management India for the All India Chess Federation from 20-29 December 2009, the championship involved 19 teams from 9 countries including host India, and in competition over 7 successive days using the Swiss tournament system, the men's championship was won by India A, and the women's championship by Vietnam.



Gracing the event that was made possible by financial and logistical support from the Government of India and of West Bengal together with title sponsorship from Tata Steel, was Dr Ashim Das Gupta, State Minister of Finance, West Bengal.

Dr Ashim congratulated the organizers, stating that it was the duty of the state to support the organization of an event such as the Asian Team Championship, and going on to say that he understood and appreciated the benefits chess could bring and looked forward to receiving a proposal from Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and the West Bengal Chess Association for a chess in schools program in West Bengal so all children could benefit from the game.

Other guests of honour included Mr Peeyush Gupta, Chief Marketing & Sales, Tata Steel, representatives from the city of Kolkata and various sponsors together with sports personalities such as Indian Cricket Legend Madan Lal. The participants were billeted at the excellent 4 star The Peerless Inn, conveniently located in central Kolkata in the bustling New Market shopping district and near major tourist attractions like Eden Garden, Howrah, and the Victoria Memorial.


In the men's championship, India "A", with an all grandmaster line up including four players rated 2600+, was the runaway winner, getting all 14 points possible and defeating second placed Vietnam 2.5-1.5, and third placed Iran 3.5-0.5.


Vietnam, while a deserving winner with 13 points, however had a little help from India "B" who beat India "A" 2.5-1.5 in their individual encounter. Before that Vietnam had drawn its match with India "A". So India "B" finished second with 11 points and India "A" third with 10 points.

On the final two days, chess lovers from all over India were treated to live broadcast of the games by Doordarshan (National TV) Sports of the last two rounds together with commentary provided by the organizers.

The final standings:
Men:
1. India "A" 14/14; 2-3. Vietnam, Iran 11/14; 4-5. India "B", Indonesia 8/14; 6-7. Bangladesh, Singapore 6/14; 8. Sri Lanka 3/14; 9. Yemen 2/14; 10. Nepal 1/14.

Individual Board Medals: 1. Le Quang Liem (VIE), 2. Sasikiran Krishnan (IND), 3. Ganguly Surya Sekhar (IND), 4. Negi Parimarjan (IND), 5. Nguyen Anh Dung (VIE).

Women:
1. Vietnam 13/14; 2. India B 11/14; 3. India A 10/14; 4. Iran 7/14; 5-7, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh 6/14; 8. Sri Lanka 3/14; 9. Nepal 1/14.

Individual Board Medals: 1. Harika Dronavalli (IND), 2. Paridar Shadi (IRI), 3. Nguyen Thi Thanh an (VIE), 4. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (VIE), 5. Hoang Thi Nhu Y (VIE).

Official Website: www.asianteamchess09.com

Tournament Blog: www.kolkata2009.blogspot.com

/ taken from FIDE website /

The 2009 European Rapid Chess Championship took place in Warsaw, Decmber 19-20. With ca. 700 players participating and GM Gashimov being top seed, GM Malakhov of Russia took gold ahead of GM Ivanchuk and incumbent champion GM Wojtaszek of Poland. The tournament happens to be Stanislaw Gawlikowski Memorial too.
see details at http://www.poloniachess.pl/amplico2009/

Photo: Chair of Polish Chess Federation Mr. Tomasz Sielicki hands silver medal to GM Vasyl Ivanchuk. Malakhov on the left. Smiling in the back Wojtek Bartelski, owner of olimpbase.org