The powerhouse team of ŠK Bosna Sarajevo led by Michael Adams of England has won the 2002 Bosnia-Herzegovina Team Championships. This event that took place in Neum from June 2 to 8, had 100 players all in all including 23 Grand Masters and 21 International Masters. Other prominent members of the champion team are Alexei Shirov of Spain, Ivan Sokolov, who is the only real native of Bosnia in the team but he had defected to the Netherlands, Sergei Movsesian of Czech, Zdenko Kožul of Croatia, and youngest GM in the world today, Teimour Radjabov.
The young Radjabov was not able to join the team however, since he was competing at the FIDE World Grand Prix in Moscow. Just a wild card entry at that knock-out system Grand Prix, he was supposed to fly immediately to Neum once he gets eliminated there. Surprisingly though, the talented youngster was never eliminated and had actually marched on up to the finals where he met former World Champion and world no. 1 Garry Kasparov!
Adams and Shirov, two notable absentees in that elite Grand Prix, opted to carry the flag for Bosna Sarajevo which tallied a total of 42 out of 54 points. The team finished three points ahead of the runner-up team of ŠK Kiseljak bannered by Predrag Nikolić, Smbat Lputian and Mikhail Kobalia, and ten points ahead of third placer ŠK Napredak Sarajevo who had Ognjen Cvitan and Zoltán Varga.
Each match pitted six players from each team pitted against the other. Bosna Sarajevo started very strongly blanking ŠK Krajiški Banja Luka in the opening round, 6-0 and then beating the daylights out of ŠK Napredak Bugojno in the second round, 5½-½.
Bosna Sarajevo's only loss was against second placer Kiseljak, 2½-3½. Actually, Kiseljak won all their matches but the tournament is settled on board point, not match points and Bosna were heavier scorers. British champion Michael Adams played five games and scored 4½ while Shirov played only 2 games but he won both.
The top three team, Bosna, Kiseljak and Napredak Sarajevo will all head to Halkidiki in Greece in September to represent Bosnia-Herzegovina at the European Club Cup. Certainly, Radjabov will join his Bosna teamates there.
