4th Small Nations Chess Team Tournament: Saint Peter Port 2015

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Information

[ Basic data | Tournament review | Best board results | Interesting games ]


Basic data

4th Small Nations Chess Team Tournament
(see all-time tournament summary)
Dates: 18th - 25th April 2015
City: Saint Peter Port, Guernsey
Venue: Les Cotils
Tournament Director: Mr. Fred Hamperl (GCI)
Chief Arbiter: IA David Sedgwick (ENG)
Teams participating: 10
Players participating: 49 (incl. 3 GMs, 3 IMs, 7 FMs and 13 CMs)
Games played: 180
Competition format: Four board round robin.
Final order decided by: 1. Match points; 2. Game points
Time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one.
Website: Guernsey Chess Federation
Other websites: Report from ECU Website
Daily reports from Andorra [CAT]
Report #4 from chessdom.com
Downloadable game file: 15smallnat.zip


Tournament review

The 4th European Small Nations Team Chess Championship 2015 was held from 18-25 April, 2015 at Les Cotils, Guernsey. After 9 exciting rounds, the team of Luxembourg became the new European Small Nations Chess Champion! Having led the week-long tournament at Les Cotils in Guernsey from start to finish, they sealed their triumph with a 3-1 victory over the host nation in Saturday’s final round.

The players from the Grand Duchy – IM Fred Berend, IM Michael Wiedenkeller, Philippe Linster, Pierre Gengler and their Captain, FM Hubert Mossong – have been in dominant form all week, beating eight of their nine competitors for the title and conceding just one solitary tied match to the outgoing champions, the Faroe Islands. The team of Monaco finished second, while Faroe Islands came third.

Luxembourg players were crowned as European Small Nations Champions 2015 and received coveted silver versions of traditional Guernsey milk cans as commemorative trophies.

Specially produced Guernsey Chess Federation paperweights were awarded to the strongest performer on each board throughout the week. These went to (beginning with Board 1) IM Fred Berend (Luxembourg), IM Michael Wiedenkeller (Luxembourg), Martin Poulsen (Faroe Islands), Jean-Francois Nelis (Monaco) and Karl Johan Ribbegren (Monaco).

Mr. Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu, ECU Deputy President, and Mr. Finnbjorn Vang, ECU Vice President greeted the participants on behalf of the ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, and their continuing strong support for the European Small Nations was warmly appreciated.

On Friday, 24th April the Small Nations Meeting was held. Representatives of all 10 nations attended the meeting, as well as Mr. Willy Iclicky, Honorary President of Zone 1.10. Mr. Paris Klerides, President of Zone 1.10 opened the meeting and gave a brief report on the activities since Tromsø 2014. A very big thank you was sent to the sponsors and organizers and a special thank you to the ECU for keeping its promises and supporting the tournament. The most important issue on the agenda was the approval of the new statutes.

Mr. Olivier Jeitz reported on preparations for the upcoming Small Nations Individual Championship in 2016. At the meeting, the European Chess Union was represented by Mr. Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu and Mr. Finnbjorn Vang.

/ Taken from ECU Website /



Best board results

bd name flag code pts gms %
1. IM Berend, Fred Luxembourg LUX 8 81.3
2. IM Wiedenkeller, Michael Luxembourg LUX 7 8 87.5
3. Poulsen, Martin Faroe Islands FAI 9 83.3
4. Nelis, Jean-François Monaco MNC 5 6 83.3
=1 res. Ribbegren, Karl Johan Monaco MNC 5 7 71.4
=1 res. Fernández López, Joan Andorra AND 5 7 71.4


Interesting games


Best game prize.
Nielsen, Høgni (FAI) - Kobler, Mario (LIE) 1 - 0

Special prize for 'ning two excellent endings by marching his King to a8 and by overcoming an opponent doing the same'
Linster, Philippe (LUX) - Darmanin, Jake (MLT) 1 - 0
Kahn, Tito (JCI) - Linster, Philippe (LUX) 0 - 1