Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Radjabov’s Misery
The 2023 European Team Chess Championship took place in Budva, Montenegro, from November 11 to 20. 38 teams took part in the Open section and 32 in the Women section. Four players composed each team and they competed over nine rounds.
The powerful Russian teams didn’t take part. It’s worth recalling that Russian teams are not eligible to play for two reasons. First, because they are banned from official FIDE team events since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Second, because the Russian Chess Federation switched from Europe to the Asian Chess Federation.
Theoretically, Azerbaijan was the favorite team for winning the competition that year. However, they suffered painful defeats against Denmark in round 1 and Croatia in round 5. And after two more defeats against Greece and Moldova in rounds 6 and 7, respectively, they lost all chances.
Their match against Greece was particularly heartbreaking with Radjabov resigning his game against the young Nikolas Theodorou (23) in only 19 moves. Radjabov’s opponent came well prepared. It’s worth mentioning that the time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, 30 minutes to the end of the game, and a 30-second increment from move one. And, at the end of his game, Theodorou’s remaining time was 1 hour and 28 minutes. It means that in average he spent less than 1 minute per move of his available time.
Serbia won the 2023 European Team Chess Championship in the Open section while Azerbaijan finished in 17th position.
In the Women’s section, Azerbaijan proved to be more competitive finishing second behind Bulgaria.
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