Sestao Bizkaialde takes Spanish Team Championship
8/16/2018 – Sestao Xake Taldea's team narrowly won the Spanish team championship in Linares with one point lead, relegating Cac Beniajan Duochess and Solvay A. Elisabeth Pähtz was the best player of the tournament. | Photos: FEDA
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Extra Spanish Team Championship
Last week Linares hosted the Spanish Team Championship. In the honorary group, which determines the national title, eight teams participated, each playing on six boards in a team-round-robin format. The league rules require that one board must be played by a woman. This year, each team also had to use a roster that allowed them to put forward three Spanish players per round. After seven rounds the tournament winner and champion was Sestao Bizkaialde (also known as Sestao Xake Taldea), which took the title for the third time in a row and for the fifth time overall.
The team prevailed with a lone team point advantage and scored 12 of 14 possible points in all ahead of the two co-favourites by rating: Cac Beniajan Duochess and Solvay A.
Cac Beniajan Duochess
The top teams played to a 3 : 3 draw with each other; Solvay also gave up a point by drawing in the first round against Ajoblanco Extremadura. Sestao and Cac Beniajan Duochess were on par in the last round, with Cac Beniajan Duochess drawing and scoring one team point against Magic Extremaduro, while Sestao scored a clear win over Jaime Casas Monzon 4½ : 1½.
The highest scoring player overall was Elisabeth Paehtz, who scored 6 out of 7 points for the team of Cac Beniajan Duochess.
Elisabeth Paehtz
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Winning team roster
| 1 | GM | Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2730 | 3.0 |
| 2 | GM | Rodshtein, Maxim | ISR | 2678 | 3.5 |
| 3 | GM | Jones, Gawain C B | ENG | 2666 | 4.5 |
| 4 | GM | Edouard, Romain | FRA | 2638 | 1.0 |
| 5 | GM | Santos Ruiz, Miguel | ESP | 2517 | 4.5 |
| 6 | GM | Del Rio De Angelis, Salvador G | ESP | 2525 | 4.5 |
| 7 | FM | Iruzubieta Villaluenga, Jesus | ESP | 2430 | 0 |
| 8 | IM | Vega Gutierrez, Sabrina | ESP | 2390 | 4.0 |
| 9 | FM | Trigo Urquijo, Sergio | ESP | 2374 | 0 |
| 10 | Garcia Bolanos, Irene | ESP | 1394 | 0 | |
| 11 | Tamayo Aguirre, Inaki | ESP | 0 | 0 | |
| 12 | Del Olmo Alonso, Miguel Angel | ESP | 0 | 0 |
Final standings
| Pos. | Rank | Name | FED | Points | Game Pnt | SB_MG | Rating average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | SESTAO BIZKAIALDE | ESP | 12.0 | 25 | 149 | 2626 |
| 2 | 3 | CAC BENIAJAN DUOCHESS | ESP | 11.0 | 27 | 149 | 2649 |
| 3 | 1 | SOLVAY "A" | ESP | 11.0 | 25 | 144 | 2642 |
| 4 | 5 | MAGIC EXTREMADURA | ESP | 8.0 | 22 | 135.5 | 2529 |
| 5 | 8 | AJOBLANCO EXTREMADURA | ESP | 8.0 | 21.5 | 125 | 2600 |
| 6 | 7 | ESCOLA D'ESCACS DE BARCELONA | ESP | 4.0 | 21.5 | 134 | 2587 |
| 7 | 6 | JAIME CASAS MONZON | ESP | 2.0 | 14 | 87.5 | 2545 |
| 8 | 4 | OROMANA SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC | ESP | 0.0 | 12 | 94 | 2438 |
Georg Meier plays for the chess school Barcelona and scored 3½ points
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Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
