Photos by Harry van der Krogt
The first round of the Pandanet European Team Championship finals began this Friday, and saw the Ukrainian team achieve an early win with a 3-1 victory in their match against the Polish team. Stanisław Frejlak 1p secured his team’s only win against Andrii Kravets 1p, despite using a lot of time in the opening and running his clock down to 30 seconds by the middlegame. Artem Kachanovskyi 2p averted disaster in his game, finally beating Mateusz Surma 2p by a point and a half.
.When the dust settled on all the boards after the second round, Ukraine emerged with a convincing 4-0 victory over the Czech team, while France managed the same feat against Poland. The third round match between the Ukrainian and French teams on Saturday will therefore decide the overall Championship winner; Ukraine needs only to draw, while France must win the match to hold onto this title for a fourth consecutive year.
The third and final round will start tomorrow at 10:30. The top boards will be broadcast on Pandanet, streamed on the European Go Federation YouTube channel and commentated by professional players on Twitch.
Here follows a short interview with the top board player from the Ukrainian team, Artem Kachanovskyi 2p:
How has the tournament gone so far for the Ukrainian team?
Very well, we were able to win both of our matches. We had lots of close games, both of mine were decided by small margins, but you could say we were lucky in the end. We’re very glad to have made such a strong start to the finals, we’ll be able to go into the final round on Saturday in an optimistic mood.
How was your first-round match against Mateusz Surma 2p?
By the middlegame, I knew that the game was going very well for me. But perhaps I relaxed a little; he started fighting back and cut into my lead. I was relieved to win finally by 1.5 points.
How was your match against Lukáš Podpěra 7d in the second round?
Well, I fell behind in the opening stage of the game somehow, but later the position became more complicated again. I think I was able to read out the situation more carefully, I turned the game around and finished with a slim 3.5-point lead.
At the moment Ukraine is the leading team with wins in both round, followed by France with a win and a draw. How do you rate your chances at claiming the Championship?
We’re going into the final round in a good position, we only need to draw our match against France to win the title. With France missing its top-board player, Dai Junfu 8d, I would say our chances are maybe 70%.
You’ll face Tanguy le Calvé 1p on the top board, how do you approach your games with him?
Tanguy is always a difficult opponent, he plays a very territorial game. I have to make sure to play carefully, since it’s not possible to try and force an opponent to take influence when they refuse to. So, in the end, it becomes about which player is better able to understand the flow of the game. The last time we faced each other was in the final of the Grand Slam last December, I was impressed with his play in that tournament.
The third and final round will start tomorrow at 10:30. The top boards will be broadcast on Pandanet, streamed on the European Go Federation YouTube channel and commentated by professional players on Twitch.