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| | Ando's TWC Comments | 2008-04-28 19:14:09 | In this blog article, I present my analyses about the games and the tournament situation of Team World Championship 2008. I will keep appending more analyses to this article each day, so please come back and visit this page again every day. :)
THE 1ST ROUND
Ukraine - Estonia, Czech - Japan, Russia-II - Russia-I, China - Sweden, Finland rests.
Before the round
The most exciting matches of the first round are of course Russia-I vs Russia-II and China vs Sweden, especially the first one. As the Russia-I is one of the main candidates to the World Champion title, their main competitors Estonia and China were surely watching with big interest, how many points can Russia-II take away from Russia-I.
For those 3 big teams (Estonia, China and Russia-I), the teams like Japan, Sweden and Russia-2 are not difficult opponents in the matter of winning the match, but the big question is, how much do those big teams give away points to the "2nd wave teams".
As the big teams might share the points quite equally among each other, the decisive factor of winning the tournament depends on how well does it go against the "2nd wave". So, this round brings the first answer to that question.
Naturally, the 3 big teams cannot afford losing any single point against "the 3rd wave" - Finland, Czech and Ukraine. I am sure such losses may happen, but they will not be expected and planned.
Standings after the 1st round:
Estonia 4p (0)
Russia-I 3.5p (0.5)
China 3.5p (0.5)
Japan 3.5p (3.5)
Russia-II 0.5p (3.5)
Czech 0.5p (3.5)
Sweden 0.5p (3.5)
Finland 0p (0)
Ukraine 0p (4)
After the round
The first round ended according to predictions. In fact, Russia-I and China performed very well, because the scores 4 and 3.5 are considered very good against "2nd wave teams", while 3 and 2.5 are acceptable results, and 2 or less are failure. Russia-I and China got 3.5 points each after the first round - very impressive.
| THE 2ND ROUND
Finland - Ukraine, Czech - Estonia, Russia-II - Japan, China - Russia-I, Sweden rests.
After the round
The most important match of the second round was China vs Russia-I. It is not convenient for strong teams to meet in such an early stage of the tournament, especially if there are no play-off games later. A bad result for either side could put the losing side into a difficult situation, as the leading team could then control the tournament situation and avoid unnecessary risks later.
Another reason of the inconvenience of an early big match is that the Asian teams just arrived to Finland not long ago, and it might take several days to get over the jet lag. The match itself was so nervous, you can see it on the choice of variants, the way of playing, and the tragic ending in one of the games (Wu Di vs Serdyukov) where the Russian player was totally blinded about a 4x3 threat, and played elsewhere... I can only imagine how sad the whole team must have felt about it, and most of all, Egor himself. It was a sure draw situation until then.
There were also other signs of choices based on nervousness rather than on rational thinking. Sushkov chose the gambling variant in i11 opening against Cao. I think most people were very surprised to see that, including myself. As you know, Sushkov played the same variant also 2 years ago, in TWC 2006. So it was really unbelievable that he tried this gamble variant again, knowing that the opponents have had 2 years to prepare against it. At the same time, it was expected that Cao had done his homework well and prove the black win easily. Based on the game record, it is very hard to say whether Cao improvised or it was his intention to use such development towards right side. However, the final attack of the game was very nice!
The fact is, a team that is aiming for top 3 places, cannot afford not doing the homework about the variants that are expected to be played by the main competitors!
The variant was also analysed in Online Renju Class after the TWC 2006. Here is the variant that Sushkov chose against Cao: | |
Also, the nervousness was clearly seen in the other two games too. The game Chen vs Savrasova, several moves lacked confidence. For example white's 18th move was too cautious and wasted white's resources. Chen, having equalized the position, perhaps lost the concentration a bit, and played somewhat careless moves 37, 39 and 41 - these are the kind of moves we do in blitz games when we do not have time to think. They are very passive and seem to lack some fighting spirit. I think move 35 was the key moment for black to take the initiative in this game. Black should have played something more active instead of 35-i3. Being active with 35th move has two good benefits - it gives black some chances to win the game, and at the same time, even if does not win, can at least control the situation on board easily and fill the white's strong points using own tempo. I think, the most self-hurting move was 37. I think, the fair outcome of the game should have been a draw. | | The game between Chingin and Wu Hao was so overly cautious - both player did not try anything to alter the draw path, and they seemed to be mentally prepared for a draw game from the beginning. Maybe both teams considered this safe draw as a good strategy for the team - in case of some tragic events on other tables at the same time, there will be at least "some points" secured by this draw. I think the viewers who were looking for an exciting battle, felt a bit disappointed about that game. But of course the main priority of each team is their own tournament strategy, not the entertainment for observers.
At the same time, Estonian team won with the 4:0 score again. Some people might think that Estonia is leading in the tournament. Actually they do not. They have just taken the obvious "must get 4 wins" score against the 3rd wave teams. I think China's victory over Russia-I with 2.5:1.5 has a bit more weight than Estonia's 8:0 victory over the 3rd wave teams.
So the situation in the tournament remains very exciting. The Sweden team appears somewhat at the bottom of the tournament table, but it does not mean anything - Sweden just met a big team in the 1st round and rested on the 2nd round, so the current score is logical. I am expecting the Sweden team start climbing up soon. However, they might not do it so fast yet because they have to face the strong Russia-I in the next round. Such a heavy start for the team of Sweden!
I am also surprised a bit by the fighting spirit of Finland players - being so busy with organizing the tournament, they still had energy to fight well in their match against Ukraine. Where do they get their energy from? :)
Standings after the 2nd round:
Estonia - 8p (0)
China - 6p (2)
Japan - 5p (3)
Russia-I - 5p (3)
Finland - 3p (1)
Russia-II - 3p (5)
Ukraine - 1p (7)
Sweden - 0.5p (3.5)
Czech - 0.5p (7.5)
| THE 3RD ROUND
Finland - Czech, Russia-II - Estonia, China - Japan, Sweden - Russia-I, Ukraine rests.
Before the round
Finally, Estonia is meeting an important opponent in the next match, the score of which will matter very much for the future battles for the 1st place. The fair score by my evaluation is 3:1 to Estonia. If Estonia will get more than that, it would be wonderful, if less than that, it is a bit disappointment. The Estonian team has a good discipline, and they are carefully analysing their opponents' habits and preferences before the matches.
What about China vs Japan? It is not easy to predict. Japan has performed very nicely during the first 2 rounds and has shown a calm attitude. Also, Japanese team knows that nobody expects them to get top 3 place this time, so they can play without pressure. It might be their best advantage. Chinese team has to take the initiative in the match, to avoid draw-like situations, in order to get about 3:1 win. The safe strategy (like Wu Hao vs Chingin) is not reasonable here.
What about the Swedish team's strategy? To go for win or play passively? The desire to make up the first round damage might drive them into an aggressive battle, but if they can remain calm, then they can take an advantage of the fact that "Russia has to try (risk) something to get the win, because they are the expected winner of this match". So, instead of taking big risks, Sweden could wisely wait and see, how does Russia plan to break the draw in the match. Typically to Russia-I, they might use some trap variants, hoping that Swedes have not prepared well for those. In the past, Russia has been very successful in choosing the right gambling variants against right teams. Lets see if Swedes have done a good homework and are anticipating some of the traps this time.
We will see...
Lack of information
The 3rd round is in progress. Unfortunately, there is a lack of information from the organizers. The renju fans until now still do not know when do the games begin every day, as it has not been published yet. Therefore, the renju fans do not know when to gather behind the computers to watch the games. Also, there has not been any reports about the results after the 1st day anywhere, not even in twc.renju.fi. Most renju websites in the world are trying so hard to get missing parts of information by callling or sending messages to the people in the tournament place, but without success. Until now, the game result between Russia-II vs Japan from yesterday is still not published. There are so many people in the world watching the game now, but the live show is somewhat chaos. We see some games been published quite fast, some of them many hours later. In some games, a first few moves were published, followed by a 1-3 hours pause. Some game records were published twice. The players thinking times from Russian players' protocols are still wrong (they write lazily the remaining time instead of spent time, and referee accepted such protocols for some reason, pity). It has no information value to the readers of those game diagrams, because they do not know the time limit of tournament, so they cannot self calculate the thinking time. Furthermore, the spoil the statistics of tens thousands of games of the past, where thinking time field in protocol always contained "time spent" and not "time remained". I hope the organizers can stop this bad habit of some players. We even do not know who the referee is. We do not know the actual order of all the players in each team. Also, we do not know how to contact the organizers with some instant messaging systems when some information or correction is needed. Sending msn or writing to blog likely gets the response only at night, when all the games are over. One simple way would be if the organizers or game publishers joined the TWC Chatroom, the people with all the questions are gathering there.
The game Sushkov vs Karlsson: The first 25 moves were published at the same time. Then followed by a 4-5 hour pause! All the watchers in renju countries must be wondering, why. (right now, when I am writing this comment, the situation is still the same.) The Oll vs Salnikov is doubled. Finally, the game result of the 4th game of Russia-II vs Japan from yesterday appeared. We can now make conclusions about the standings of the first two days.
Standings after the 3rd round:
Estonia - 11p (1)
China - 9p (3)
Russia-I - 8p (4)
Japan - 6p (6)
Finland - 5p (3)
Russia-II - 4p (8)
Czech - 2.5p (9.5)
Sweden - 1.5p (6.5)
Ukraine - 1p (7)
After the round
This round was quite exciting. In the match China vs Japan we saw the gambling variants in 3 games (a variant known to be sure win for one side), and all the 3 games were lost by the gambling player. It is a sign of good skills and also good homework. The top teams (Estonia and China) won their matches against the 2nd wave with 3:1 as I predicted earlier. Russia made the same result (3:1) against Sweden, too. Finland is doing very well until now.
| THE 4TH ROUND
Finland - Russia-II, Ukraine - Czech, China - Estonia, Sweden - Japan, Russia-I rests.
During the round
Over half of the games of the 4th round are already over. The big match of the leaders, Estonia vs China, is giving the Estonian team a 2:1 lead at the moment. Ants won the game, by improving the variant for the white side, fixing the weakness of the 18th move that I mentioned in Savrasova's game against Chen.
Stefan, the leader of Swedish team, is bringing the team "back into business" by two important wins in a row - against Sushkov and Iio.
Good news is - Olga Skuridina is publishing the photos of the tournament now. It gives such a nice feeling to online observers. :)
Standings after the 4th round:
Estonia - 13.5p (2.5)
China - 10.5p (5.5)
Japan - 9p (7)
Russia-I - 8p (4)
Russia-II - 7p (9)
Finland - 6p (6)
Czech - 5p (11)
Sweden - 2.5p (9.5)
Ukraine - 2.5p (9.5)
| THE 5TH ROUND
Finland - China, Ukraine - Russia-II, Sweden - Estonia, Russia-I - Japan, Czech rests.
Before the round
China is going to meet Finland, with high hopes on getting at least 3.5 points against tiring Finland (the continuous efforts on organizing the tournament at the same time must already take effect). At the same time, it is not clear how well will Estonia and Russia-I stand against Sweden and Japan, so Chinese team may have big hopes for this round, hoping that the competitors give away precious points here.
Standings after the 5th round:
Estonia - 17p (3)
China - 14.5p (5.5)
Russia-I - 11.5p (4.5)
Russia-II - 11p (9)
Japan - 9.5p (10.5)
Finland - 6p (10)
Czech - 5p (11)
Sweden - 3p (13)
Ukraine - 2.5p (13.5)
After the round
This round was a power play of big teams - once 4 points and twice 3.5 (against 2nd wave teams). With the results of this round even the most cautious observers could now admit that the 3 big teams are so much stronger than the rest of the teams and there is nothing that can stop these 3 teams from taking the 3 highest places.
| THE 6TH ROUND
Finland - Sweden, Ukraine - China, Czech - Russia-II, Russia-I - Estonia, Japan rests.
Before the round
The most exciting match of the whole tournament, Russia-I vs Estonia, is coming up now, as it is the last meeting of the top 3 teams, and has the biggest impact on the order of top 3 places.
What will be the strategy of top 3 teams? To be safe and hold the position, or take risks to get the big advantage from the 6th round? I think the remaining matches score estimation can give us some hints about the strategic planning. Lets assume roughly, the result between same level is 2:2, 1 level difference is 3:1 and 2 levels difference 4:0.
The final results would then be:
China: 14.5 + 4 + 4 + 3 + resting = 25.5p
Estonia: 17 + 2 + 3 + resting + 4 = 26p
Russia: 11.5 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 25.5p
From this estimation, we can see that the score is very very tight at the end. Now how will the top 3 teams handle this situation, as the 6th round has the biggest impact? China has a big pressure and responsibility to win 4:0, to keep the fair chances for the 1st place. For China, it is very important that the Russia-I - Estonia match will be either 2:2 or 2.5:1.5. The scores 3:1 or more for one side will make Chinese chances for the 1st place very small.
Estonia and Russia, both knowing that 1:3 loss would be very big damage for the team, will likely play carefully. I don't expect gambling style from that round, especially because Estonian players usually do not gamble in important games, and Russian players do not dare to gamble against Estonia because the Estonian players know the answers to their tricks.
However, Russia and Estonia have one more small advantage over Chinese team - they will have the chance to decide the strategy before the last round while China is resting. Which means, these 2 teams have more flexibility in their choice of play style and variants.
I am cheering for the Estonian team, and wish so much that Estonian team would become World Champion! It would feel so wonderful even tough I am not a member of the team this time - I would be so happy for 5 fellow renju players from Estonia. :) I will hope for 2.5:1.5 victory for Estonia in this coming match with Russia.
Standings after the 6th round:
Estonia - 19p (5)
China - 18.5p (5.5)
Russia-I - 13.5p (6.5)
Russia-II - 13p (11)
Japan - 9.5p (10.5)
Finland - 7p (13)
Czech - 7p (13)
Sweden - 6p (14)
Ukraine - 2.5p (17.5)
After the round
The 6th round was just as exciting as expected! And it had such a dramatic ending. Just when the match was about the end with the score 2.5:1.5 to Estonia, as the game between Ants and Alexandr was already almost sure draw, then some tragic things happened. A series of unsuccessful moves, made in 30-second-per-move time trouble, especially moves 74 and 80, lead to the loss. What a pity! I hope Ants will cheer up and forget this tragic loss by the next morning. The ending is very similar to the game Serdyukov vs Wu - a sudden loss in sure draw position. So, the final score of the match between Estonia and Russia-I was 2:2. I think it was a good news for China who won the match by 4:0, because now their both competitors are in close range.
If you look at the points given away so far, then Estonia has 5 lost points, China 5.5 and Russia 6.5. Russia-II is by 4.5 lost-points away from top 3 teams - it is a huge gap. Actually, 4:0 and 2:2 scores in this round were quite fair, I think. It follows the rough estimation that I introduced before the round.
One more thing to notice: Now that within the top 3 teams Estonia has 1.5 match points, China 1 match point and Russia-I 0.5 match point, it practically means, if two or more teams share the same final score, then those points will have a decisive value. That is why it was extremely important not to lose a match in 6th round, not even by a smallest margin. So, in given situation, if Russia or China want to get the first place, they have to get more points than Estonia - sharing the same amount of points is not enough.
Here, let me repeat once more the rough estimation, having the 6th round results appended:
China: 18.5 + 4 + 3 + resting = 25.5p
Estonia: 19 + 3 + resting + 4 = 26p
Russia: 13.5 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 25.5p
| THE 7TH ROUND
Finland - Russia-I, Ukraine - Sweden, Czech - China, Japan - Estonia, Russia-II rests.
Before the round
The leading teams must also be quite tired by now. They are not only competing with each other, but having more burden from weaker teams who may try all kinds of trick variants because those teams have already nothing to lose. Also, since it has been already a tough tournament for several days, maybe the leading teams do not have the energy to study much at night in order to prepare for the next rounds. It is possible that the leading teams give away points more than in "optimal planning". We will see...
During the round
As the live show started, the observers could see the signs of tiredness among the players of the top teams. Here is the example from Purk vs Sato game: | | | This 4th move was not a surprise - Japanese team had used this move in their match against China earlier in the same tournament. With serious hopes on winning the TWC, the Estonian players who were preliminary white, or who were preliminary black with an intention to play d8, they should have spent 5 minutes of their time last night, to review the theory of this particular variant, because it was expected to be played. But perhaps Andry was too tired, and had no energy to review anything before the 7th round. It is hard to tell because we are not there now to see the actual situation. Below, I show the two most common 5th moves in existing opening theory: | | | While Estonian team is suffering with this situation, Russia-I and China have also difficulties in their games. I guess it will really be interesting to see how this round ends.
Standings after the 7th round:
China - 22.5p (5.5)
Estonia - 20.5p (7.5)
Russia-I - 16.5p (7.5)
Russia-II - 13p (11)
Japan - 12p (12)
Sweden - 9p (15)
Finland - 8p (16)
Czech - 7p (17)
Ukraine - 3.5p (20.5)
After the round
I had to leave the computer for 4 hours during the 7th round. When I came back, I faced two shocking things - the server was down, so the live show had been interrupted, perhaps for 3 hours or so. The server was then recovered quickly, but then I saw the result:
Japan vs Estonia, 2.5 : 1.5
I was so shocked. For a moment I thought, it is maybe a mistake, or I am reading something wrong. But as I looked at the game records, I realized it was the reality. From the planned 3 : 1 win, we got 1.5 : 2.5 loss. I still do not know what exactly happened, I will try to analyse those games more deeply later.
But the situation now is: China is having a big chance to get the 1st place! They only need to 2.5 points from the last 4 games to win the tournament. It is their big opportunity now. Lets see how confident they are to use this great chance. If China gets 2 points or less, then tomorrow's games will decide the winner.
The Estonian team can now take a rest, and calm down. There are still all possibilities open. Besides, comparing with Russia-I, Estonia is still in better situation. Good luck to our team!!
| THE 8TH ROUND
Finland - Japan, Ukraine - Russia-I, Czech - Sweden, Russia-II - China, Estonia rests.
During the round
I am now watching the live show of the 8th round. I believe the players of the Estonian team are in the tournament hall and watching the games now, too. I really hope they can cheer up and do their best tomorrow. Everything is possible still.
Russia already got their 4 easy points and can relax now and watch how their competitor China is doing in their 4 ongoing games.
.......... (some hours later)
Another shocking news:
Russia-II vs China, 2.5 : 1.5
I was watching how the games went on from the renjunet live show. China's team needed 2.5 points from this match to ensure the World Champion title. This fact must have given Chinese players so big pressure - they tried so hard to get those 2.5 points, so all the 4 games were so aggressive. Filinov played one of his best games ever - it is all because of his long experience as a renju player.
Now, everything is possible and tomorrow's games will decide the winner. It is one of the most exciting TWCs ever in the history. Tomorrow, Russia, China and Estonia have the chances to get the 1st place. Good luck to Estonia!!
Standings after the 8th round:
China - 24p (8)
Estonia - 20.5p (7.5)
Russia-I - 20.5p (7.5)
Russia-II - 15.5p (12.5)
Japan - 14.5p (13.5)
Sweden - 11p (17)
Finland - 9.5p (18.5)
Czech - 9p (19)
Ukraine - 3.5p (24.5)
| THE 9TH ROUND
Finland - Estonia, Ukraine - Japan, Czech - Russia-I, Russia-II - Sweden, China rests.
Before the round
The last round will begin after 2 hours. I have been thinking about the final situation a lot. What happens if two more teams get the same points at the end? Then the tie-break conditions will decide the places.
Tie-break rules:
1. Number of game points
2. Team match points
3. Buchholz coefficient (calculated on game points)
4. Berger coefficient (calculated on game points)
5. Personal match between teams
6. Result of 1st table
7. Result of 2nd table
8. Result of 3rd table
In case of equal points, the 2nd tie-break condition is: the team match points. It means, every win in a match (no matter if it is by 4:0, 3.5:0.5, 3:1 or 2.5:1.5) gives the match score 1, the draw (2:2) gives 0.5.
Estonia and Russia have both lost 1 match and had 1 draw. So they lost 1.5 match points. China has lost 2 matches, and had no draws. It means, they lost 2 match points. It means, in case of equal points, China will be behind the competitors, based on such criterion. So, Chinese must hope that Russia and Estonia will not win by bigger score than 3:1.
Even though both Russia and Estonia are having the opponents whom they should win by 4:0 in a "good day", but now, considering the long tournament they have had already, the players must be so exhausted, therefore lots of things may happen.
The 8th round was very exciting. I believe the last round will be even more exciting. We will see very aggressive games in both Russia's and Estonia's matches, because playing safely is just dropping the team to the 3rd place, which is the worst result because the 3rd place was secured long time ago already and the only goal is to get higher places.
We will see lots of fighting, and some games might go over 120 moves, in the last hope of trying to squeeze the win out of it. I imagine it will be so nervous condition for Chinese, because they cannot change the tournament situation already - their games are all over and they can just watch. Most players know that sometimes watching an important game of other people whom your own result depends on, is even more nervous than playing own game.
During the round
Already 1 hour and 15 minutes has passed since the beginning of the round. No games have ended yet. According to Olga, Chinese players are not in the tournament hall right now. Olga and Peter are providing the live show of 8 important games from the tournament place - 4 games of Estonia vs Finland and 4 games of Russia vs Czech. Peter is collecting the information about the moves from all the boards, and Olga is inserting them into live show system. it is very tough job for both of them.
It is not going to be an easy round, however, some situations already can be evaluated. Ikonen vs Oll, it looks like white is going to win the variant of i5 opening without difficulties.
Here is my quick evaluation at 1 hour and 22 minutes from the start of the round. It is very very rough and superficial estimation. 10:0 means win, 5:5 means very balanced, and there are other numbers are between them, showing the degree of advantage.
At 1 hour, 22 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 3:7
Sushkov - Laube 8:2
Ikonen - Oll 0:10
Zowadova - Serdyukov 5:5
Purk - Haikonen 5:5
Kadulin - Rybka 5:5
Soosõrv - Pellikka 7:3
Savrasova - Neuman 9:1
At 1:28, Oll officially won the game against Ikonen, the Standings were updated.
At 1:44 - no changes on live show boards.
At 2 hours, 01 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 2:8
Sushkov - Laube 8:2
Zowadova - Serdyukov 5:5
Purk - Haikonen 5:5
Kadulin - Rybka 5:5
Soosõrv - Pellikka 10:0
Savrasova - Neuman 9:1
At 2:05 - Ants won his game. Well done, Aivo and Ants!!! We are proud of you!!
At 2 hours, 20 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 2:8
Sushkov - Laube 8:2
Zowadova - Serdyukov 4:6
Purk - Haikonen 7:3
Kadulin - Rybka 4:6
Savrasova - Neuman 9:1
At 2:47 - Savrasova won her game. The situation is getting very critical for both teams.
At 3 hours, 00 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 2:8
Sushkov - Laube 10:0
Zowadova - Serdyukov 0:10
Purk - Haikonen 9:1
Kadulin - Rybka 5:5
At 3:03 - Serdyukov won. Now both Russia-I and Estonia have 2 wins, while the rest of the games still not over.
At 3 hours, 09 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 3:7
Sushkov - Laube 10:0
Purk - Haikonen 9:1
Kadulin - Rybka 4:6
The situation does not look very good for Chinese team now. But we have already seen several times how the situation can change rapidly in time-trouble. Peter reported: Kadulin has 1 minute thinking time on clock left. Now, he still keeps getting 30 seconds with each move, but likely he spends the same amount on thinking of each move too, so the time remains critical for him.
At 3:18
The situation in Sushkov's game confuses me. I do not know what exactly is happening. I had counted an easy way of black win earlier, but Sushkov chose another plan from 15th move. Can black win now at all? Let me think about it for a while....
At 3:20 - Kadulin vs Rybka - draw.
From the live show position, white had a small advantage already and very safe postion. Maybe Rybka could have fought further, but maybe he was tired. Russia has now 2.5 points from 3 games. There is 1 game still going on (Sushkov vs Laube). The two Estonian players' games are also still being played.
At 3 hours, 28 minutes
Saarenpää - Taimla 4:6
Sushkov - Laube ?:? (confused) (22 stones on board)
Purk - Haikonen 10:0
There seems to be VCT for Sushkov now, I think he will find it.
At 3:37 - Sushkov won finally! Such a nerve-breaking solution from black side.
This means - China already cannot get the 1st place. The World Champion will be either Russia or Estonia.
At 3:44 - The 2 Estonian team's remaining games are still not over.
At 3:46 - Tunnet is winning!!! He is preparing the double 3x3 trap!!!
At 3:57 - There is just one game left - Purk vs Haikonen. Andry is attacking. There are 38 moves on board. It is not clear whether he will win or not. Let me evaluate it as 9:1.
At 4 hours, 03 minutes
Purk - Haikonen 9:1 (38 moves)
I believe there are players who are counting the tie-break situation case of draw.
At 4:08 - Andry won!!!!
ESTONIA IS THE WORLD CHAMPION!!!!!
I am so emotional now....It is so great! After all these years of unlucky 2nd places, Estonia finally got the long waited Team World Champion title! I feel much happier right now than for my last AT win. It is not easy to describe in words... I wish I were there now to congratulate the Estonian team personally...
My big big admiration and thanks to the Estonian Team:
Tunnet Taimla
Aivo Oll
Andry Purk
Ants Soosõrv
Johann Lents
They are the heros today, the best team in the world! Ants as a team captain did such a good job in keeping the team together as one. And the players fought so well!
My congratulations also to RUSSIA-I for the 2nd place, and CHINA for the 3rd place! They were so strong competitors. Only because of the strength and high level of these 3 teams, the Team World Championship was so exciting.
The Final Standings:
Estonia - 24.5p (7.5)
Russia-I - 24p (8)
China - 24p (8)
-------------------------
Japan - 17.5p (14.5)
Russia-II - 17.5p (14.5)
Sweden - 13p (19)
Czech - 9.5p (22.5)
Finland - 9.5p (22.5)
Ukraine - 4.5p (27.5)
I can now go and take a rest, happily.. :) I welcome you to share your thoughts and feelings in comments. :) | | |
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