European Club Cup is analogous to the football Champions League
October 28, 2008
“PVK Kiev” Chess Club, seeded 5th in the Open Section before the competition, won a bronze medal on the best tiebreak among four teams with 11 match points. Ukrainian portal “Sport Online” dubbed this historic success as a main sports news of the day. Bellow are the statements of team’s officials.
Pavel Kuftyrev, president of “PVK Kiev” Chess Club:
- European Club Cup is analogous to the football Champions League. And this tournament justified its status. World’s strongest Grandmasters gathered in Kallithea to play for their teams and the fight was very tense. We are therefore very pleased that our club has reached a honorable third place! We have started participating only two years ago… But we are battling on equal terms with the European biggest teams!
GM Vladimir Baklan, captain of “PVK Kiev” Chess Club:
- We have arrived to the last round with huge determination to play for a win. But we didn’t forget the most important factor in such tournaments – do not lose! Egal 3-3 against TPS Saransk, in general, was a natural result. In the end, we won a bronze medal, which is actually fantastic achievement.
GM Sergey Karjakin, first board for PVK Kiev
Full article on Sport Online (Russian)