European Senior Team Championships Rd 9

Rudy concludes his series of reports:

The team played its strongest players in the final round. John’s game finished first. His opponent surprised him by going down a complex line in the Schliemann, where John had plenty of home analysis. However White's piece sacrifice then yielded a draw by repetition. Rudy’s opponent as White played a passive line, setting a King’s Indian against a King’s Indian, but Black actually had more freedom of movement, as only one White piece got into the Black territorial space on g5. The White pieces bunched together around the king and, when an inadvertent advance lost a key pawn, White had had enough. The Finland 2 team only had four players, and the need to play every game had clearly taken its toll. Richard got exactly the kind of niggling edge he had prepared for against his opponent’s Grunfeld. However, seeing the team was ahead, he offered a draw, which was taken. Iolo got interesting play, avoiding the Stonewall Dutch his opponent had used to good effect in the previous round. It transposed to a King’s Indian Attack against a French setup, but after various clearances on the queenside, a draw was enough to clinch the match. Score 2½-1½, and Wales end above their initial ranking of 22nd out of 35 with a 50% match result, level with England 1 on match points (though game points put us a few places below.)

Russia 1
Germany 2
Scotland 11
England1 16
Wales 18
England 2 20
England 3 28