US Senior Team Wins Gold in Dresden!

Congratulations to Team USA for earning gold medals in the 50 and Up division of the World Senior Team Championships, held from July 7-15 in Dresden, Germany. The victorious squad included Grandmasters Alexander Shabalov, Joel Benjamin, Alexander Yermolinsky, Jaan Ehlvest and Sergey Kudrin. Team captain Shabalov told US Chess,

On behalf of the team I would like to thank US Chess...It was a dramatic, last minute win.

In the final round, the US team defeated Canada 3-1 to edge out England for the gold medals, with Shabalov scoring a stunner over IM David Cummings.

[pgn]

[Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2018.07.15"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Shabalov"]
[Black "Cummings"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B82"]
[PlyCount "75"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2018.07.15"]
[SourceVersionDate "2018.07.15"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 a6 7. f4 b5 8. Bd3
Bb7 9. Nb3 d6 10. Qf3 Nf6 11. O-O Be7 12. Qh3 Nb4 13. Rac1 Nxd3 14. cxd3 Qd7
15. Na5 O-O 16. f5 exf5 17. Rxf5 b4 18. Ne2 Rac8 19. Re1 Ba8 20. Bd4 d5 21. e5
Ne8 22. Nf4 Nc7 23. Nb3 Ne6 24. Rh5 h6 25. Be3 Rc7 26. Qg3 Kh7 27. Nd4 Nxf4 28.
Qxf4 Bc5 29. Rxh6+ gxh6 30. Qxh6+ Kg8 31. Qg5+ Kh7 32. Nf5 f6 33. Qh6+ Kg8 34.
Bxc5 Qxf5 35. Qxf8+ Kh7 36. exf6 d4 37. Re7+ Rxe7 38. Qxe7+ 1-0[/pgn]

Yermolinsky, in chronicling the trip for Chessbase, annotated games from several key matches, and also gave insight into the team spirit and the joy of returning to elite team competition.

It had been 20+ years since my generation of American players represented our country in Olympiads and World Team Championships, and those experiences are among my most cherished memories as a chess player.

Look for further updates and details to this article and a feature in an upcoming issue of Chess Life Magazine.