Lithuania Wins Revived World Senior Team Championship
With so much emphasis placed on junior chess throughout the world, the resurrection of an event for seniors is unique. At the 2013 FIDE Congress in Tallinn, Estonia, the World Senior Team Chess Championship found new life in fellow Baltic country Lithuania.
FIDE agreed to have the 2014 edition in the capital Vilnius from July 12-21, 2014, while the 2015 and 2016 editions will be in Dresden, Germany. The first event of this kind was held in 2004 on the Isle of Man in the British Isles, but it hasn't been organized since.
The tournament concluded on Monday by crowning two winning teams. In the 50+ division, host Lithuania went undefeated in its nine matches and held off England. In the 65+ division, Russia-St. Petersburg edged Russia for the gold.
The hosts called the event "the most prestigious international chess event in the history of Lithuania."
The top two finishers in the 50+ division were also ranked 1-2, and were a healthy measure above the remaining teams.
Notable was the third place finish overall by the Russian women's team (and thus the first place women's team). Four WGMs (and a single game played by their alternate) went +5=2-2 to take bronze on tiebreaks.
Other nations also had all-female teams, including Georgia (led by the first woman to become a full grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili), Latvia, and Lithuania. WGM Valentina Kozlovskaya, widow of GM Igor Bondarevksy and Women's Senior World Champion (in 1996!) led all players with 8 points (her seven wins and two draws gained her 42 rating points).
The Russian women were also the only team keeping the champions from a perfect score. Lithuania went +8=1-0 in matches, with the only blemish a draw to the Russian women in round three (despite Lithuania using two GMs and having a rating advantage on all four boards).
The winners were "led" by GM Eduardas Rozentalis, top-rated player in the event. He actually only played the final round (a win for him and the team).
Pivotal was round four, when Lithuania, down one match point, met still-perfect England. English GMs Keith Arkell and James Plaskett drew Lithuanian GMs Aloyzas Kveinys and Vidmantas Malisauskas, respectively, on the top two boards.
A draw on board four meant that the winner of board three would decide the match. Likely White just overlooked Black's 16th move.
The host's win switched the top of the tables and effectively ended the event. After round four, Lithunia won the matches in rounds 5-9 (all by at least 3-1) and thus could not be caught.
Here's the final crosstable.
Here's the final crosstable for the 65+ section.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to more than 85 countries.
