Today, Friday 25 October at 8.00, the 7th and last round of the 34th Chess Championship of the NATO member states will be played.
After the two rounds played today (5th and 6th) it is very likely that tomorrow’s podium will be completely occupied by players from the Greek team. Triple tie in 1st place, with 5.5 points in 6 matches: Petros Rachmanidis, Dimitris Alexakis and Alexandros Papasimakopoulos, while Robert Stein, Anastasios Pavlidis and Mateucz Tustanowski follow with 5 points in 6 matches.
At the group level, Greece needs half an extra point to secure 1st place while all possibilities are open for the next two places on the podium. After the 6th round, Poland is in 2nd place with 18 points and Germany is in 3rd place with 17 points.
For the record, Greece’s 1st participation in a NATO Championship was in 2017 in Budapest, Hungary with IM Anastasios Pavlidis winning the individual bronze and Greece placing 4th (Anastasios Pavlidis, Thomas Michos, Katerina Pavlidou and Andreas Nicomanis).
In 2018 in Texas, USA, Anastasios Pavlidis wins the gold and Greece the bronze (Anastasios Pavlidis, Katerina Pavlidou, Konstantinos Mouroutis and Andreas Nikomanis).
In 2019 in Berlin, the team came 3rd at team level (Anastassios Pavlidis, Alexandros Papasimakopoulos, Katerina Pavlidou and Andreas Nikomanis).
The next event was held in 2021 in Belgium (due to the covid epidemic in 2020) and Greece returned with a silver medal (Alexandros Papasimakopoulos, Anastasios Pavlidis, Andreas Nikomanis and Katerina Pavlidou).
In Tartu, Estonia in 2022, Greece scored its best performance so far by doing the double, at team (Alexandros Papasimakopoulos, Anastasios Pavlidis, Katerina Pavlidou and Andreas Nikomanis) and individual level. Alexandros Papasimakopoulos won the gold and Anastasios Pavlidis the silver medal.
In Portorož, Slovenia in 2023, the team (Anastasios Pavlidis, Ioannis Tetepoulidis, Konstantinos Mouroutis and Katerina Pavlidou) was ranked second and Anastasios Pavlidis was in second place in the final ranking.
With some patience, and in less than 12 hours we will see if the performance of 2022 will be surpassed!
All the results of the matches can be found by clicking here -> Results/ Standings NATO CC
Its games are streamed through the Lichess.org platform and you can watch the 2nd round by clicking here -> Lichess Online Games – R2 & the 3rd round by clicking here -> Lichess Online Games – R3
The 34th NATO Chess Championship is organized by the secretariat of the ASAED (Supreme Council for Sports of the Armed Forces) and the International Military Chess Committee of NATO (IMCC) with co-organizers the Chess Club of Rhodes “IPPOTIS”, the South Aegean Region, the Municipality of Rhodes and the Hellenic Chess Federation (ESO).
Special thanks for their continuous support to the South Aegean Region, the Regional Governor Mr. HATZIMARKOS GIORGOS & the Deputy Regional Governor for Sports Mr. DELAPORTAS AKIS, the RODOS PALACE Hotel 5* and Mr. KAMPOURAKIS ANTONIS, XENAKIS mobility, Dodecanese Beekeeping, J@D Rent a Car, At Holidays, the Accounting Office “Papadimitriou & Associates”, Elektrodomi S.A.