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European Team Championships 2017 Crete
#1
Hi all,

Scotland start their campaign today against Romania... pairings and results can be found below

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr304480.a...984&snr=40

Live boards here...

http://www.euroteams2017.com/en/live-open

Andy Burnett
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#2
Good luck everyone.
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#3
(28-10-2017, 10:46 AM)Matthew Turner Wrote: Good luck everyone.

Thanks Matt - much appreciated! Smile

Round 1 report

Everyone arrived safely in Crete although Graham Morrison had some flight delays which meant he didn't get here until very late last night, and sat out today to give him time to get his bearings. The Creta Maris resort is stunning, but was designed by a mad person and it is very easy to get lost on the way to our villas.

The first round saw a difficult match against a strong Romanian side (20th seeds and average rating of 2590 compared to our 2288 average - all the teams are strong here!) and we were unfortunate not to take something from the day's play. Neil and me made life tough for ourselves early on but both Alan and Jonathan played very well - narrowly missing out on holding draws. So, 4-0 to the bad guys, but tomorrow will see us playing the Faroe Islands and we'll be hoping to put up another strong fight.

In other news, Chelsea Liang is continuing her autumn travels by playing in the World Youth Rapid and Blitz events, also being held here in Creta Maris and I'll try to keep you all updated on her progress as ell as the week goes on.

Andy Burnett (captain, Team Scotland)
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#4
Forget Rd 1. Just keep looking forward. Good luck!
PS: can't we have a simple 'new post' option in addition to 'reply' ... or am I missing a trick on the new set-up?
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#5
Scotland vs Faroe Islands in round 2 of the European team Championships in Crete today. Play starts at 3pm Crete time, so 1pm UK time.

Link to live games...
http://www.euroteams2017.com/en/live-open

Link to chess results...
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr304480.a...=30&wi=984
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#6
Well the Faroe Islands was just the hors d’oeuvre, now we are really cooking, keep it going guys.
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#7
Following yesterday's free day, trust the team, playing yet another much higher rated team on all boards, have a few tricks up their own sleeves! Go for it!
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#8
Following the match vs Kosovo today. Draws on top 2 boards for Tate and Morrison. Looked pretty bad when Burnett was about -8 (the exchange down and his opponent had unstoppable passed pawns) and Grant was about -25 (with Q+N vs 2Q+R and no forced perpetual). 

However as the late William Lombardy said, no one ever won a game by resigning. Play over the games and see what happens...
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#9
Congratulations to the team on finishing above seedings.
Graham looked very comfortable throughout and gained his 100th cap during the tournament.
Jonathan must be congratulated for scoring that vital win in the big match v Kosovo and helped preserve Scotland's record of never finishing last in the event.
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#10
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!
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