Astana: Russia & China dominate

Quick 1-Minute Summary

Congrats to the Russian men’s team and to the Chinese women’s team for winning gold in their respective sections.

This year’s World Team Championship was organized literally at the last moment (Makropoulos in 2018 could have but did not consider this a priority) and as a result many of the top teams were not able to field their strongest players because of prior committments. This was especially noticeable for team USA.

Final Rankings

England’s result (silver medal!) was well deserved and ranks as one of its best ever results.

China’s bronze medal in the men’s section was actually something of a success considering the two consecutive losses in the first half of the event (China won the gold medal in the 2018 Olympiad).

India did well (its team was also not the strongest possible) and shows that its up and coming players will soon be able to compete for the top places.

In the women’s section, China completely dominated, winning all 9 matches! Russia and Georgia got ‘normal’ results. Special mention should be made of the young Russian talent, Alexandra Goryachkina, who scored an amazing 8 points from 9 games!

Final X-tables

Russia back on top!

When was the last time the Russian men’s team finished on top of this team meet?  Answer : 2013. For the Olympiad it is even longer: 2002.

So there is no doubt that there will be a full week of continuous partying in Russia starting tonight! Igor, Vodka! We need lots of Vodka!

Some scenes of the playing hall