Alexey Sarana – the new European Chess Champion
GM Alexey Sarana (2668) becomes the new Champion after winning the European Chess Championship 2023 in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. The tiebreak criteria decided the final standing, with 3 players having 8,5 points.
The European Chess Championship 2023 from 2nd to 14th March was an 11-round tournament with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment from move 1. There was no free day. The players had to set their minds to mentally and physically handle 11 consecutive rounds.
Over 480 players, from 40 federations, were fighting for the top 23 in the final standing, which would get them a spot in the FIDE World Cup.
The tournament was officially opened after the President of the Serbian Chess Federation, Dragan Lazic and the President of the European Chess Union, Zurab Azmaiparashvili made the first move on board 1 in a game between Vuk Damjanovic and Gabriel Sargissian.
During the tournament, there were many interesting games, which were commented on by Miodrag Perunovic. One surprising result happened in round 3 where Milos Stankovic defeated the French representative Maxime Lagarde only in 26 moves.
The 10th move was Nf6, allowing white the typical attack on b5. The game went: 11. Bxb5! axb5 12. Ndxb5 Qb8 13. Bf4 14. Nxd6 Bxd6 15. Rxd6 Qxd6 16. Bxe5 with an attack and advantage for white.
In the middle of the tournament, for 4 rounds, Ukrainian Anton Korobov took the sole lead after defeating many strong opponents, such as Ponomariov Ruslan or Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis.
So what happened to Korobov’s lead? The answer is Alexey Sarana and round 9. Alexey Sarana, in a dynamic position that quickly transposed to the pawn-up endgame, defeated Anton Korobov with 2 rounds to go. Sarana was suddenly the leader of the tournament, with Korobov right behind him.
In the tournament, there were 4 female players with 5 points after round 9 – Irina Bulmaga, Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, Aleksandra Goryachkina and, surprisingly, her much younger sister Oksana, born in 2010. Oksana’s rating is 1759 and finished the tournament with +170 rating points.
The drama continued after round 10. Romanian Kirill Shevchenko joined Sarana at the top. Shevchenko outplayed Benjamin Gledura in a better position from the opening. Alexey Sarana held the draw with black pieces on the first board against Andrey Esipenko.
The last round was a direct fight for first place between Sarana and Shevchenko. In one hour, the game ended in a draw. Both were waiting for other players to finish their games and hoped the tiebreak would be on their side. Meanwhile, Daniel Dardha shut down Korobov’s hopes and also scored 8,5 points. He joined Sarana and Shevchenko at the top.
The final standing and the tiebreak decided Alexey Sarana as the winner of the European Chess Championship 2023. Kirill Shevchenko came second, while Daniel Dardha won the bronze medal.
A special prize fund was also prepared for the best-ranked female players. The top 6 female players were: Jolanta Zawadzka and Irina Bulmaga with 6,5 points, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, Adela Velikic and Eline Roebers, all with 6 points.
Stay tuned for a special interview from the European Championship!
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