07-11-2017, 06:04 PM
A quick report from Crete (I will be doing a full write-up with annotated games, photos and various adventures for the December CS mag)...
The event finished yesterday with Azerbaijan taking gold in the Open event (apparently amid controversy according to some [chess.com for instance] , but it was a nothing to see here moment tbh) and the Russian team in the women's event (a more miserable bunch than the Russians at the prizegiving ceremony it's hard to imagine - not a happy bunch at all).
As for Scotland, we finished with an unfortunate heavy loss to Belgium but still outperformed seeding - and played a much stronger field than many teams around us.
Graham (who had no idea he had secured his 100th cap) played excellent chess all week, Jonathan played well and was raring to play more (and flew off to Acqui Terme today at 6am for the seniors, so can happily do so!) Alan and Neil were super-solid against really strong opposition and were unlucky not to score more points, while I (despite a horrible captaining error early on) was happy to play some decent chess and delighted to draw a very difficult endgame to secure victory in the Kosovo match.
Overall there was great team spirit, the Cretan organisers, staff and people were wonderful - as was the venue - and the experience of playing against and around such tough professionals and strong amateurs was one we won't forget!
The event finished yesterday with Azerbaijan taking gold in the Open event (apparently amid controversy according to some [chess.com for instance] , but it was a nothing to see here moment tbh) and the Russian team in the women's event (a more miserable bunch than the Russians at the prizegiving ceremony it's hard to imagine - not a happy bunch at all).
As for Scotland, we finished with an unfortunate heavy loss to Belgium but still outperformed seeding - and played a much stronger field than many teams around us.
Graham (who had no idea he had secured his 100th cap) played excellent chess all week, Jonathan played well and was raring to play more (and flew off to Acqui Terme today at 6am for the seniors, so can happily do so!) Alan and Neil were super-solid against really strong opposition and were unlucky not to score more points, while I (despite a horrible captaining error early on) was happy to play some decent chess and delighted to draw a very difficult endgame to secure victory in the Kosovo match.
Overall there was great team spirit, the Cretan organisers, staff and people were wonderful - as was the venue - and the experience of playing against and around such tough professionals and strong amateurs was one we won't forget!