Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Round Trip
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.
With the absence of the Russians, other second-file teams had a chance to shine. One of them was Germany. After 3 rounds, the German team scored three victories. Round 3 against Serbia finished with a score 2,5-1,5 to Germany.
In that round, chess fans could admire an incredible “king walk” that happened in the game Indjic-Bluebaum.
In past posts we have seen Short’s ‘Legendary King Walk’. And also the ‘Steel King’ in the Steinitz Gambit. Although both are extraordinary, today’s game has the particularity that the king walk is a round trip and Black’s king endures 18 consecutive checks from his opponent’s queen.
Ironically, despite Serbia’s defeat in the third round against Germany, they won the 2023 European Team Chess Championship. Germany finished unbeaten in second place.
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