Lokomotiv Sofia wins open and women's team championships
17.06.2009
– Even without Topalov and Cheparinov it was the strongest team competition ever in Bulgaria. The team of Lokomotiv Sofia scored a double victory, winning in both groups. The Team Championships for men and women was held from 8-14 June 2009 at Sunny Beach, a resort with a remarkable mixture of styles. GM Dejan Bojkov, who played in the event, has sent us a report and pictures.
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Lokomotiv Sofia with a double
By GM Dejan Bojkov
The Bulgarian Team Championships for men and women (first and second divisions)
took place in Sunny Beach from 8-14 June. This was the strongest team competition
that I have ever seen in our country. With the exception of Veselin Topalov
and Ivan Cheparinov, all the best Bulgarian players took part in the event.
Some of our players represent other countries – Vladimir Georgiev plays
for Macedonia, Evgeny Ermenkov for Palestina, and Silvia Collas represents France.
But all of them were here, taking part in the event. Except for these “foreigners”
some teams were strengthened by the real thing from Romania, Croatia, Serbia,
Germany and Ukraine – the family Vlad Nevednichy and Gabriela Olarashu
from Romania represented CSKA, M. Manolache played for Vidin, Dejan Antic (Serbia)
fought well for Shumen, Sebbie Bogner for Lukoil.
Atanas Kolev leading CSKA
Momchil Nikolov (Pleven) facing Kiril Georgiev (Lokomotiv Sofia)
One of the perspective Bulgarian hopefuls: Donika Shivacheva, right
Kiril Georgiev, playing for Lokomotiv Sofia
Milen Vasilev from Lukoil
Sebbie Bogner
Sebastian Bogner
The Women's A group
Antoaneta Stefanova, male board of Lokomotiv Sofia
Svetla Yordanova
Emilia Djingarova, Lokomotiv Sofia
Veneta Petkova
After some years of experiments with the playing system in which various preliminary
groups, open Swiss championships and even knock-outs were tried it looks like
that we found the best formula for a small country like Bulgaria. It is a round-robin
tournament with the best eight teams, where the last two withdraw from the Master
group to second division. The men teams are represented by six players plus
two reserves, while in the ladies section three women are supported by one substitute.
This tournament had the status of a qualification for the World Club Cup that
will take place in Plovdiv the next year, and it is no wonder that the men field
brought together 22 GMs and 16 IMs (six WGMs and eight WIMs respectively for
the women championship).
The average Elo of the rating favourite, Lokomotiv Sofia, was 2512. We played
according to the Dresden rules, when all the players had to be at the boards
at the start of the round. Also the Sofia rules were applied, and draws could
only be offered after the thirtieth move (except with an arbiter’s permission).
The captain’s arrangements were forbidden. Match points were counted.
In the men section three teams competed for the medals Lokomotiv Sofia (K.
Georgiev, N. Ninov, A. Stefanova, P. Genov, P. Velikov , Kr. Georgiev, substitutes
B. Andonov and J. Ivanov), “Lukoil Neftohimik” Burgas (V. Iotov,
Vl. Georgiev, D. Bojkov, S. Bogner, V. Lilov, M. Vasilev, A. Angelov, Zh. Zhekov)
and “CSKA” Sofia (V. Spasov, A. Kolev, V. Nevednichy, I. Enchev,
E. Ermenkov, G. Filev, I. Tsvetkov, A. Jovchev). All these teams were composed
mainly of GMs, and they were the rating favourites. Lokomotiv Sofia managed
to win both the crucial matches with optimal score 3.5-2.5 and became champions,
while “Lukoil” won the direct match against “CSKA” to
grab silver. The underdogs “Pleven 21” and “Shumen 2005”
had to leave the Master Group. Here the final rankings:
Men's section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 MP Pts.
1 Lokomotiv, Sofia * 3,5 3,5 3,0 3,5 3,0 4,0 4,5 12 25,0
2 Lukoil-Neftohimik, Burgas 2,5 * 3,5 3,5 4,5 3,0 3,5 3,5 11 24,0
3 CSKA, Sofia 2,5 2,5 * 4,0 3,5 3,5 3,0 3,5 9 22,5
4 Lokomotiv, Plovdiv 3,0 2,5 2,0 * 4,5 3,0 3,5 4,0 8 22,5
5 Nayden Voynov, Vidin 2,5 1,5 2,5 1,5 * 3,5 4,0 4,5 6 20,0
6 Lokomotiv 2000, Plovdiv 3,0 3,0 2,5 3,0 2,5 * 2,5 5,0 5 21,5
7 Shumen 2005, Shumen 2,0 2,5 3,0 2,5 2,0 3,5 * 1,5 3 17,0
8 Spartak Pleven XXI, Pleven 1,5 2,5 2,5 2,0 1,5 1,0 4,5 * 2 15,5
Participants
– individual
results – games
Board winners:
1st board – V. Iotov (Lukoil) and A. Delchev (Vidin) 4.5/ 7
2nd board – N. Ninov (Lokomotiv- Sofia) 4/6
3rd board – M. Mrdja (“Lokomotiv”- Plovdiv) 4.5/7
4th board – I. Enchev (CSKA) 5.5/7
5th board – S. Kozhuharov (“Lokomotiv 2000” Plovdiv) 5/7
6th board – Kr. Georgiev (“Lokomotiv”-Sofia) 5/ 7
The team of Lukoil Neftohimik Burgas in second place
Part of the Nayden Voynov Vidin team
As usual the fight in the ladies’ group was tenser. Except for the winners
“Lokomotiv Sofia” (L. Genova, E. Djingarova, E. Collas, St. Bednikova)
who practically secured the win within a spare round, only the final round determined
the silver and bronze medallists – and those who had to leave the group.
The young and perspective team of “Lokomotiv 2000 Plovdiv” (I. Videnova,
A. Nikolova, D. Sirkova, M. Yaneva) won their last match with a perfect score
3-0 to grab Silver, and in the big tie for the third place succeeded “Lokomotiv”
Plovdiv (M. Voiska, S. Maksimovic, P. Chilingirova, T. Baninska). From the final
twist suffered the team of “G. Daskalov”- Varna who withdrew together
with “Rokada”- Plovdiv. Here the final rankings:
Women's section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 MP Pts.
1 Lokomotiv, Sofia * 2,0 1,5 1,5 1,5 2,5 2,0 2,0 11 13,0
2 Lokomotiv 2000, Plovdiv 1,0 * 1,5 0,5 2,0 2,5 3,0 2,5 9 13,0
3 Lokomotiv, Plovdiv 1,5 1,5 * 1,0 1,0 3,0 2,0 2,0 8 12,0
4 Shah XXI, Sofia 1,5 2,5 2,0 * 1,5 1,0 1,5 1,5 8 11,5
5 CSKA, Sofia 1,5 1,0 2,0 1,5 * 1,0 2,0 2,5 8 11,5
6 Spartak Pleven XXI,Pleven 0,5 0,5 0,0 2,0 2,0 * 1,0 3,0 6 9,0
7 Georgi Daskalov, Varna 1,0 0,0 1,0 1,5 1,0 2,0 * 2,5 5 9,0
8 Rokada, Plovdiv 1,0 0,5 1,0 1,5 0,5 0,0 0,5 * 1 5,0
Participants
– individual
results – games
Board winners:
1st board – D. Artyonova (Spartak Pleven) 5.0/7,
2nd board – E. Djingarova (“Lokomotiv” Sofia) 5.0/7,
3rd board – Silvia Collas (“Lokomotiv” Sofia) 5.5/6.
The Champions
The president of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, Dr Stefan Sergiev, covered
the championship daily for the official site of the BCF.
The resort Sunny Beach is a remarkable mixture of styles. For the past ten
years it grew enormously, and many new luxury hotels were built. The variety
of styles is seen everywhere – from typical folklore motives, to oriental,
eastern (Russian orientated), European (English and Irish pubs) – all
of these can be seen in the resort. Live music can be heard everywhere. There
is a vast variety from bars and restaurants, and exclusive number of touristic
attractions (mini-golf, water-skiing, cruises, extreme jumping, carting, parachute
jumping – anything you may think of you may find here. It might look a
bit overcrowded, but young people adore it.
Sunny Beach
The recreational pool
Unusual figures at the pool-side
Really unusual figures
Tennis is a very popular between-game activity
The traditional Sunny Beach tournament Memorial Georgiev-Kesarovski (part of
the Balkan Gran-Prix) will take place in September 7-13 at the same Hotel Continental.
Be free to join it.
Our author Dejan Bojkov, playing for Lukoil (visit Dejan's
Blogspot)
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