In the last round Gustafsson Jan and Sargissian Gabriel played until the end to draw their game. When all other games had finished their position was a draw. But Sargissian Gabriel couldn’t agree to a draw. If he drew, Armenia maybe was losing the bronze medal and surely the silver medal.  So he fought until the end. I don’t know if he made some mistakes in the endgame that made him to draw but finally was a little bit upset because of this and didn’t want to stand next to Jan Gustafsson when medals for boards were awarded. The official didn’t understand that so he tried to take them closer and it was a little bit funny that Jan Gustafsson that is really tall had no problem but Gabriel Sargissian got more upset about this…

In women section, european cup took it Russian team. Nadezhda Kosintseva, Tatiana Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalia Pogonina and Yuri Dokhian as captain. On the photo is one of the rare times that the former trainer of Kasparov Yuri Dokhian is smiling. 

Teimour Radjabov on the first board of Azerbaijan in European Team Chess club maybe didn’t made a great tournament but he gave a great victory to his team by winning Peter Svidler and this way the finally took silver medal.

When you support a team in any game you are anxious about win. It is the same feeling in chess as in other sport, when your team wins you feel relief for the win. I am member of E.E.S.Korydallou. In the Greek championship we played against strong team OS Triandrias. The score is 6-5 and we have still a game that is not so clear who is winning

And I captured the moment that we see the opponent of Maria Ikonomopoulou gave her hand to resign. In smiles you can see the relief of my teammates.

Who said that chess is not fun and a team sport?

At Mediterranean championship in Turkey we had 2 medals. It wasn’t only Yannis’ gold medal but also Marina Makropoulou won Bronze medal. Congratulation Marina and hope that you will continue to be at the top greek chess players for many years more!
^{photo is from Euroteams 2007}

One thing that I teach all my students is the handshake. I think is fundamental for a game like chess. If you don’t give your hand to your opponent is like you don’t respect him. I see some players that when they lose, they don’t give their hand. It is like they believe that they lost unfairly. And this like to offend their opponent. What you would do if your opponent didn’t not give you his hand?

_{This photo is one more blurry one that I liked it because shows the movement in their hands}

Have you ever had a chess nightmare?

_{This effect I had it moving up and down,right and left my camera with 6 sec exposure.}

At Greek Championship for boys under 20 years old play many boys that they are still in school. Some of them they show that they like it so much and are posing at photos with a big smile. After this photo the young George Papadopoulos won and made his second win on third round.

^{photo metadata focal length 18mm,manual mode exposure 1/15,aperture f/4, ISO 100 and flash at auto mode}

I asked yesterday the t-shirt of Ivan Cheparinov. He agreed to bring it today at the beginning of the round. I was very happy when at the start was looking for me and he gave me the t-shirt. It is really nice! I will make it tapestry on my club probably.