SO Kavala still the best in Greece
By GM Dejan Bojkov
In the past ten years, Kalithea has become an important part of European chess
life, and it is no wonder that the Greeks recently made use of the facilities
of the wonderful sea resort, combined with the experienced organizing skills
of the Tsorbatsoglu family.
Greek Youth Chess Championships
The youth championships were perfectly organized. The access of trainers and
parents was forbidden in the venue, while the many arbiters were responsible
for the young players. The children themselves were also quite well organized
– in case of a conflict or mistake, they raised their hands and waited
patiently for the arbiter to come and solve the problem. The top boards of the
tournaments were broadcast live on the official site. This year, I was a chief
coach for the Kavala Chess Club, and I was left with good impressions of the
play of the leading young players.
After seven days of tough fights, these were the champions:
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Boys under 8- Evgenios Ioannidis 8.5/9.
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Girls under 8- Loukia Pramateftaki 6/7.
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Boys under 10- Nikolas Theodorou 8/9.
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Girls under 10- Stavroula Tsolakidou 8/9. There was drama in the girls
U10, when the long leading Aleksia Moshou lost in the final round, and the
title went to her teammate Stavroula.
-
Boys under 12- Georgios Papadopoulos 8.5/9.
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Girls under 12- Elisavet Papathanasiou 8.5/9. Here, Eleni Tsolaki (silver)
and Nelli Serefidou (bronze) are also very talented, and you may hear about
all three girls soon.
-
Boys under 14- Emmanouil Kazakos 8/9. Together with Pantaleimon Tsouganakis,
Emmanouil seems to be a leader of his generation.
-
Girls under 14- Eleni Fragkou 5/7. There was a tie for the first three
places, with the other two girls being Asimenia Vafiadou and Ageliki Papathanasiou.
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Boys under 16- Charalambos Skoulakis 8/9. This age group was a personal
triumph for me, since all my students occupied places in the top five. Third
was Antonis Pavlidis, fourth was Theodoros Hrisomalis, and fifth was Ilias
Kazantsidis. The silver medalist, N. Galopoulos, is also a future Greek
hope.
-
Girls under 16- Ekaterini Pavlidou 8/9. The superiority of Ekaterini was
obvious-both by her initial rating, and by her play.
The championship showed that there are many young talents in Greece, and it
also showed the relatively good preparation of the young players.

Angeliki Kafetzi, 1644, competing in the Girls U12

Dimitra Vatkali, 1865, competing in the Girls U16

Ekaterini Pavlidou, 2179, who won the Girls U16 with 8/9

Elisavet Papathanasiou, 1638, who won the Girls U12

The champions of the Boys U8 celebrate

The Boys U14 winners are all smiles

The champions of the Boys U16, where facial hair starts to appear

The champions of the Girls U8, celebrating their victory

The Girls U12 winners being given a hand

The champions of the Girls U14, pleased with what they have accomplished

The champions of the Girls U16, ready to face the heat outside
Greek Cup
The final four matches of the Greek Cup took place on 30 June and 1 July.
The teams that qualified were SO Kavala, OFS Kavala (the second team of Kavala,
for which I compete), Kidon Chania and Maro Keravnos (Thessaloniki). As was
expected, the Elo favourite, SO Kavala, did not give any chances and won both
matches with great ease by 3.5-0.5. Four GMs competed for the team – Kotronias,
Papaioannou, Halkias and Skembris, with Kotronias winning both his games playing
as black. The actual final for the cup, however, was the quarterfinal between
the future champions, Kavala, and last year’s winners, ES Thessaloniki.
For the Thessaloniki team, the following GMs competed: Miroshnichenko, D. Mastrovasilis,
A. Mastrovasilis, and Zakharian. In this match, I. Papaioannou lost as White
for the first time since 2004, on board one, against Miroshnichenko. Nevertheless,
Kavala won the encounter by 2.5-1.5, thanks to the lucky win of Skembris (who
was a clear exchange and a pawn down).
Here is the time to mention the playing system of the cup- up to the quarterfinals,
the so-called Berlin system is used, in which the points on the front boards
of the team are more valuable (four points for a win on board one, three for
the second board, and two and one, respectively, for the remaining). However,
in the case of a tie 2-2, and Berlin tie 5-5, the host team proceeds into the
next stage.
In the finals, this system is no longer applied, and, in case of a tie, the
teams continue to play blitz matches, until one of them proves to be better.
This determined the match strategy of some teams. Thanks to this strategy, the
team Maro Keravnos managed to make it to the final and to achieve one of their
best successes so far.

GM Vasilios Kotronias, 2613, who won both of his games in winning the Cup

GMs Stelios Halkias, 2564, and Ioannis Papaioannou, 2624, representing OS
Kavala
Greek National Team Championship
The 37th National Greek Team Championship started on 3 July. 31 teams competed
for the medals, and the right to stay among the best. The first ten teams would
receive, as a bonus, coverage of their expenses by the Greek Chess Federation,
while the last 11 would be relegated from the Master League. Let me remind you
that the Greek League is played on 12 boards (five men, one female, two girls
under 16 and 18, and four boys - under 18, 16, 14, and 12). The battle for the
title was supposed to be between last year’s winner, SO Kavala (with good players
on all the boards, strong juniors, and, as a leader, the European Champion Evgeny
Tomashevsky), PS Peristeriou (with the incredible Vassily Ivanchuk on board
one, B. Macieja, and strong juniors on the back boards), and ES Thessaloniki,
also a very reasonable team. However, GM Kotronias decided not to take part
in the championship, and it looked like O.S. Kavala was seriously weakened.
From the team, a risky decision was taken to include more, partly because they
are strong enough, but also because of the university bonus that they might
win. Yes, there is such a bonus in Greece for very talented juniors, but it
is only for students older than 15 years, and it is only for one team – the
winner! That is why the young players do their best when they compete for their
club. The extra 10% that they might win almost inevitably secures them entry
in a prestigious university.
Kavala left practically no chance for the other teams, after winning the first
seven matches, though success did not come easy. The male boards, which usually
kept the balance in the previous years, this time fought hard and typically
led the team forward. Among them, the best was Antonis Pavlidis, a junior who
played on the last male board, and who scored a remarkable 8/8 (and, with the
captain’s draw in the last round, finished with 8.5/9 - the best result in the
whole tournament), as well as Spiridon Skembris (7.5/9 on board four). Tomashevsky,
Halkias and Papaioannou also added valuable pluses (I believe the male boards
ended up unbeaten). So, with reasonable support from the female board (Anna-Maria
Botsari 6.5/9), and the juniors – they won the title easily.
PS Peristeriou and ES Thessaloniki tied for second place, and the better tie-break
gave silver to the players from Athens. Vassily Ivanchuk scored +3 on board
one, without losing a game. I had the pleasure of facing the genius, but it
did not last long, since he finished me off quite quickly. Nevertheless, Vassily
Mihailovich was very kind and accepted my invitation to analyse – the man is
a real treasure for the entire chess world. Among the other teams, a fresh impression
was made by the team of Kidon Chania. For many years, this team had great financial
support and was always fighting for the title, but this year its stability was
shaken. Nevertheless, thanks to their good chess school, they continue to have
strong teams, with only their final two losses throwing their team to fifth
place this year. A chess comeback was also made by one of the most talented
Greek females - Maria Kouvatsou.
The best result on board one was showed by Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Kalamata
Poseidon) - 7/9.
The pairings for the last round pitted the first and second Kavala teams against
each other. O. S. had already secured the title, and we could get a well deserved
rest. Even the European Champion, Evgeny Tomashevsky, could afford a glass of
red wine, while one of our juniors, Ilias Kazantsidis, entertained us by playing
the guitar, with Aggelos Sourgkounis helping him. Meanwhile, Papaioannou kept
his promise, and played a game with the German champion under 12, Dennis Wagner
(the second foreigner in SO Kavala). Young Dennis was also tested by E. Tomashevsky.
The Greeks are a very artistic people, and soon Ilias went to the waiters’ table,
where he found more support from the staff. Finally, the guitar was taken by
the most experienced musician, S. Skembris, a man who once play in a band.

A lot of players enjoyed the hotel swimming pool...
but WIM Elitsa Raeva, 2236, prefers the Mediterranean

Ani Krumova, 1904, representing OFC Kavala

GM Evgeny Tomashevsky, 2689, current European Champion

GM David Navara, 2687, top Czech grandmaster

WGM Svetlana Cherednichenko, 2347, playing on board one

German U12 Champion Dennis Wagner, 2061, playing blitz with GM Papaioannou

Ilias Kazantzidis, 2106, serenades us