Our national women’s chess team of Bulgaria won the decisive match for the title of the European Team Championship in Budva against Georgia with 2.5:1.5. With this, our girls guaranteed the distinction and pulled in the ranking with 8 points, reports Sportal.bg.
Our team triumphed after defeating the reigning world champions from Georgia. Thus, the national team finished the tournament in Budva (Montenegro) without defeat.
The success is historic – the first for our country at a championship on the Old Continent.
The first of the four games ended between the second from the World Cup in Baku – Nurgyul Salimova and Nino Batsiashvili. The Bulgarian holds a draw with the black pieces for both scores 0.5 to 0.5.
Later, the most experienced of the line-up, former world champion Antoineta Stefanova, scored a key success over Bella Hotenashvili on the first board to give us a 1-point lead. Thus, Bulgaria came close to winning the European gold.
Subsequently, however, Beloslava Krasteva gave way to Salome Melia and everything depended on Gergana Peycheva, who competed with Lela Javakhishfili. Gergana performed excellently and won.
Our team was without Victoria Radeva, who performed excellently in Budva. The 22-year-old national missed the final round after a heroic draw against Azeri Khanima Balayaeva, despite running a high fever and vomiting twice during the match.
Tags: chess players won gold European Team Championship Budva Society
