21 November 2021

Russian Women's Team is European Champion

Team Ukraine won the open event.

Photo: Artem Pugachev
Photo: Artem Pugachev


The European Team Championships are completed in Slovenia. In the final 9th round, the Russian women's team, which had won the event in advance, beat Poland 2.5-1.5. Kateryna Lagno and Alina Kashlinskaya won their games, Polina Shuvalova made a draw, and Valentina Gunina lost.

The Russian women's team won all the matches to score 18 points. This is the country's seventh victory at the European Team Championships.

The Russian women's national team consisted of Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, Alina Kashlinskaya, Polina Shuvalova, and Valentina Gunina. The team captain and the head coach is Sergei Rublevsky, coaches are Evgeny Najer and Konstantin Sakaev.  

Team Georgia is second with 15 match points. Azerbaijan scored 12 points and edged out Ukraine.

In the open section, Ukraine and France got 14 match points each. Eventually, Ukrainians won gold due to the superior tiebreak. Teams Poland (3rd place) and Spain (4th place) are 1 point behind.

The leader of the French team, the 18-year-old Alireza Firouzja, scored 8 points out of 9 to become the youngest player in the history of chess to cross the 2800 ELO mark.  

Team Russia defeated England 2.5-1.5 in Round 9 to take sixth place with 12 match points. 

The Russian national team was represented by Alexander Grischuk, Andrey Esipenko, Daniil Dubov, Vladislav Artemiev, and Kirill Alekseenko. The team captain is Alexander Motylev. 

Board prizes:

Women: Aleksandra Goryachkina, Kateryna Lagno, and Valentina Gunina won the silver medals, Polina Shuvalova and Alina Kashlinakaya - gold medals.

Open: Daniil Dubov gained a silver medal and Andrey Esipenko - bronze medal.

Tournaments on Chess-Results

Official website

Our congratulations to the Russian women's team on the brilliant performance at the European Team Championship!  

Photos by Mark Livshitz